Sortes Sanctorum
Sortes Sanctorum
The term Sortes Sanctorum has a long history of being misunderstood and misapplied. It was once believed to be identical with the practice of sortes biblicae, whereby one would seek guidance by opening the Bible at random and consulting the verses therein.[2] The mistaken identification seems to have originated with Edward Gibbon in the third volume of his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published in 1781.[3]
The title Sortes Sanctorum is a reference to Colossians 1:12.[2]
Notes
References
- ^ AnneMarie Luijendijk and William E. Klingshirn, "The Literature of Lot Divination", in AnneMarie Luijendijk and William E. Klingshirn (eds.), Sortilege and Its Practitioners in Late Antiquity: My Lots Are in Thy Hands (Brill, 2018), pp. 42–44.
- ^ a b c William E. Klingshirn (2002), "Defining the Sortes Sanctorum: Gibbon, Du Cange, and Early Christian Lot Divination" Journal of Early Christian Studies 10.1, pp. 77–130.
- ^ Edward Gibbon (1781). The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 3. p. 184 n. 51.