''Sortes Sanctorum'' (

incipit The incipit () of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin and means "it beg ...

''Post solem surgunt stellae'') is a

late antique Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English has ...

text that was used for

divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...

by means of

dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...

. The oldest version of the text may have been pagan, but the earliest surviving example—a 4th- or 5th-century

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

fragment on papyrus—is Christian. The original version had 216 answers available depending on three ordered throws of a single die. It was later revised down to 56 answers for a single throw of three dice. This version was translated into

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

by the time of the

council of Vannes A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

(465), which condemned its use. The Latin version was subsequently revised to render it more acceptable to ecclesiastical authorities. This Latin version survives in numerous manuscripts from the early 9th century through the 16th, as well as in

Old Occitan Old Occitan ( oc, occitan ancian, label=Occitan language, Modern Occitan, ca, occità antic), also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the eighth through the fourteen ...

and

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

translations.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. Beginning in the 13th century, the text was sometimes known as the ''

Sortes Apostolorum ''Lots of the Apostles'' () is the name of several texts used in Christian divination, based on the '' Acts of the Apostles'' 1:26, which describes how the Apostles cast lots to select a replacement for Judas Iscariot. The earliest reference to ...

'', a title it shares with at least two other texts.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. 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 ''Sortes biblicae'' ('biblical lots') is a method of divination where by the Bible is opened randomly and the first words which one sees are interpreted as predictive. The practice was common in late antiquity and had pagan precedents in the ''Sort ...

'', whereby one would seek guidance by opening the Bible at random and consulting the verses therein. The mistaken identification seems to have originated with

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, is k ...

in the third volume of his ''

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. It traces Western civilization (as well as the Islamic and Mongolian conquests) from the height of the Roman Empire to th ...

'', published in 1781.Edward Gibbon (1781). ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 3''. p. 184 n. 51. The title ''Sortes Sanctorum'' is a reference to ''

Colossians The Epistle to the Colossians is the twelfth book of the New Testament. It was written, according to the text, by Paul the Apostle and Timothy, and addressed to the church in Colossae, a small Phrygian city near Laodicea and approximately fr ...

'' 1:12.

Notes

References

{{Divination Christian mysticism Bibliomancy Christian Bible