Part 28

Four neuks in this house for holy angels, A post in the midst, that Christ Jesus, Lucas, Marcus, Mathew, Joannes, God be unto this house, and all that belong us.

Whenever she required an answer from the devil, on any occasion, he always appeared to her in the shape of a dog. And when she wished him to depart, she conjured him in the following manner, namely: “I charge thee to depart on the law thou livest on:” this it is said was the language with which she dismissed him, after consulting with him on old Lady Edmiston’s sickness. The manner in which she raised the devil was with these words: “Elia come and speak to me;” when he never failed to appear to her in the shape of a dog, as usual. Her sailing with her Kemmers and fellow witches in a boat is related as a very remarkable story, where the devil caused them all to drink good wine and beer without money; and of her neither seeing the sailors nor they her; and of the storm which the devil raised, whereby the ship perished; also her baptizing, and using other ceremonies upon a cat, in the company of other witches, to prevent Queen Anne from coming to Scotland.

That which is most remarkable in John Fein, is the devil appearing to him, not in black, but white raiment, although he proposed as hellish a covenant to him as any in the black costume. His skimming along the surface of the sea with his companions—his foretelling the leak in the Queen’s ship—his raising a storm by throwing a cat into the sea, during the King’s voyage to Denmark—his raising a mist on the King’s return, by getting Satan to cast a thing like a foot-ball into the sea, which caused such a smoke, as to endanger his Majesty being driven on the coast of England—his opening locks by means of sorcery, by merely blowing into a woman’s hand while she sat by the fire—his embarking in a boat with other witches, sailing over the sea, getting on board of a ship, drinking wine and ale there, and afterwards sinking the vessel with all on board—his kissing Satan’s —e again, at another conventicle— his being carried into the air, in chasing a cat, for the purpose of raising a storm, according to Satan’s prescription. He pretended also to tell any man how long he would live, provided he told him the day of his birth.

SORCERY.

The crime of witchcraft, or divination, by the assistance of evil spirits.

Sorcery is held by some to be properly what the ancients called Sortilegium, or divination by means of Sortes or lots.

Lord Coke (3 Instit. fol. 44,) describes a Sorcerer, qui utitur sortibus, et incantationibus dæmonium. Sorcery, by Stat. 1o.Jac. is felony. In another book it is said to be a branch of heresy; and by Stat. 12, Carolus II. it is excepted out of the general pardons.

Sorcery is pretended to have been a very common thing formerly; the credulity, at least, of those ages made it pass for such; people frequently suffered for it. In a more enlightened and less believing age, sorcery has fled before the penetrating rays of science, like every other species of human superstition and complicated diablerie. For, indeed, it is a very probable opinion, that the several glaring instances of sorcery we meet, in our old law books and historians, if well inquired into, would be found at bottom, to have more human art and desperate malignity and vindictive cunning about them, than of demoniacal and preternatural agency. Were it not for a wellregulated police acting under wise regulations for the safety and harmony of society, sorcerers and evil spirits would be equally as prevalent and destructive at the present day, as they were some two or three hundred years ago.

SORTES.—SORTILEGIUM.

The ancients had a method of deciding dubious cases, where there appeared no ground for a preference, by Sortes or lots, as in casting of dice, drawing tickets, and various other ways, many of which are still adopted.

The ancient sortes or lots, were instituted by God himself; and in the Old Testament we meet with many standing and perpetual laws, and a number of particular commands, prescribing and regulating the use of them. Thus Scripture informs us that the lot fell on St. Matthias, when a successor to Judas in the apostolate was to be chosen. Our Saviour’s garment itself was cast lots for. Sortiti sunt Christo vestem.

The SORTES Prænestinæ were famous among the Greeks. The method of these was to put a great number of letters, or even whole words, into an urn; to shake them together, and throw them out; and whatever should chance to be made out in the arrangement of the letters, &c. composed the answer of this oracle.

In what repute soever this mode of divination formerly might have been, M. Dacier observes, that, in Cicero’s time, its credit was but low; so much so, that none but the most credulous part of the populace had recourse to it. Instead of this another kind of sortes was introduced into Greece and Italy; which was, to take some celebrated poet, as for instance Homer, Euripides, Virgil, &c., to open the book, and whatever first presented itself to the eye on opening, it thus was taken for the ordinance of heaven. This made what was called the Sortes Homericæ and Sortes Virgilianæ, which succeeded the use of the Sortes Prænestinæ.

This superstition passed hence into Christianity; and the Christians took their sortes out of the Old and New Testament. The first passage that presented itself on opening a book of Scripture, was esteemed the answer of God himself. If the first passage that was opened did not happen to be any thing to the purpose for which the sortes were consulted, another book was opened, and so on until something was met with that might, one way or the other, be taken for an answer. This was called Sortes Sanctorum.

St. Augustine does not disapprove of this method of learning futurity, provided it be not used for worldly purposes; and, in fact, he owns having practised it himself.

Gregory of Tours adds, that the custom was to lay the Bible on the altar, and to pray the Lord that he would discover by it what was to come to pass. Indeed, instances of the use of the Sanctum Sanctorum are very frequent in history. Mr. Fleury tells us that Heraclius, in his war against Cossoes, to learn where he should take up his winter quarters, purified his army for three days, and then opened the Gospels, and discovered thereby that the place appointed for them was in Albania.

Gilbert of Nogent informs us, that, in his time, viz. about the beginning of the twelfth century, the custom was, at the consecration of bishops, to consult the Sortes Sanctorum, to learn the success, fate, and other particulars of their episcopate. This practice is founded on a supposition that God presides over the Sortes, and this is strengthened by Prov. chap. xvi. verse 33, where it is said, “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.”

In fact, many divines have held, and even now many of them still hold, that the lot is conducted in a particular manner by Providence; that it is an extraordinary manner, in which God declares his will by a kind of immediate revelation. The Sortes Sanctorum, however, were condemned by the council of Agda, in 506, at the time they were beginning to take footing in France.

This practice crept in among the Christians, of casually opening the sacred books for directions in important circumstances; to know the consequences of events; and what they had to fear from their rulers.

This consultation of the divine will from the Scriptures, was of two kinds:—The first consisted, as I have said, in casually opening those writings, but not before the guidance of heaven had been implored with prayer, fasting, and other acts of religion. The second was much more simple: the first words of the Scripture, which were singing or reading, at the very instant when the person, who came to know the disposition of heaven, entered the church, being considered either an advice, or a prognostic.

St. Austin, in his epistle to Januarius, justly condemns the practice; but St. Gregory of Tours, by the following instance, which he relates as having happened to himself, shows that he entertained a better opinion of it:—“Leudastus, Earl of Tours,” says he, “who was for ruining me with Queen Fredegonde, coming to Tours, big with evil designs against me, I withdrew to my oratory under a deep concern, where I took the Psalms, to try if, at opening them, I should light upon some consoling verse. My heart revived within me, when I cast my eyes on this of the 77th Psalm, ‘He caused them to go on with confidence, whilst the sea swallowed up their enemies.’ Accordingly, the Count spoke not a word to my prejudice; and leaving Tours that very day, the boat in which he was, sunk in a storm, but his skill in swimming saved him.”

The following is also from the same author. “Chranmes having revolted against Clotaire, his brother, and being at Dijon, the ecclesiastics of the place, in order to foreknow the success of this procedure, consulted the sacred books; but instead of the Psalms, they made use of St. Paul’s Epistles, and the Prophet Isaiah. Opening the latter they read these words: ‘I will pluck up the fence of my vineyard, and it shall be destroyed, because instead of good, it has brought forth bad grapes.’ The Epistles agreeing with the prophecy, it was concluded to be a sure presage of the tragical end of Cranmes.”

St. Consortia, in her youth, was passionately courted by a young man of a very powerful family, though she had formed a design of taking the veil. Knowing that a refusal would expose her parents to many inconveniences, and perhaps to danger, she desired a week’s time to determine her choice. At the expiration of this time, which she had employed in devout exercises, her lover, accompanied by the most distinguished matrons of the city, came to know her answer. “I can neither accept of you nor refuse you,” said she, “every thing is in the hand of God: but if you will agree to it, let us go to the church, and have a mass said; afterwards, let us lay the holy gospel on the altar, and say a joint prayer; then we will open the book, to be certainly informed of the divine will in this affair.” This proposal could not with propriety be refused; and the first verse which met the eyes of both, was the following: “Whosoever loveth father or mother better than me, is not worthy of me.” Upon this, Consortia said, “You see God claims me as his own;” and the lover acquiesced.

But about the eighth century, this practice began to lose ground, as soon or late, reason and authority will get the better of that which is founded on neither. It was proscribed by several popes and councils, and in terms which rank it among Pagan superstitions. However, some traces of this custom are found for several ages after, both in the Greek and the Latin church. Upon the consecration of a bishop, after laying the bible upon his head, a ceremony still subsisted, that the first verse which offered itself, was accounted an omen of his future behaviour, and of the good or evil which was reserved for him in the course of his episcopacy. Thus, a Bishop of Rochester, at his consecration by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, had a very happy presage in these words: “Bring hither the best robe, and put it on him.” But the answer of the Scripture, at the consecration of St. Lietbert, Bishop of Cambray, was still more grateful: “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” The death of Albert, Bishop of Liege, is said to have been intimated to him by these words, which the Archbishop, who consecrated him, found at the opening of the New Testament, “And the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought; and he went and beheaded him in the prison.” Upon this the primate tenderly embracing the new bishop, said to him with tears, “My son, having given yourself up to the service of God, carry yourself righteously and devoutly, and prepare yourself for the trial of martyrdom.” The Bishop was afterwards murdered by the treacherous connivance of the Emperor Henry VI.

These prognostics were alleged upon the most important occasions. De Garlande, Bishop of Orleans, became so odious to his clergy, that they sent a complaint against him to Pope Alexander III. concluding in this manner: “Let your apostolical hands put on strength to strip naked the iniquity of this man; that the curse prognosticated on the day of his consecration, may overtake him; for the gospels being opened, according to custom, the first words were, And the young man, leaving his linen cloth, fled from them naked.”

William of Malmsbury relates, that Hugh de Montaigne, Bishop of Auxerre, was obliged to go to Rome, to answer different charges brought against the purity of his morals, by some of his chapter; but they who held with the bishop, as an irrefragable proof of his spotless chastity, insisted that the prognostic on the day of his consecration was, “Hail, Mary, full of grace.”

I proceed to the second manner of this consultation, which was to go into a church with the intention of receiving, as a declaration of the will of Heaven, any words of the Scripture which might chance to be sung or read, at the moment of the person’s entrance. Thus, it is said, St. Anthony, to put an end to his irresolution about retirement, went to a church, where immediately hearing the deacon pronounce these words, “Go sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor, then come and follow me;” he applied them to himself, as a direct injunction from God, and withdrew to that solitude for which he is so celebrated among the Catholics.

The following passage from Gregory of Tours, is too remarkable to be omitted. He relates that Clovis, the first Christian king of France, marching against Alaric, King of the Visgoths, and being near the city of Tours, where the body of St. Martin was deposited, he sent some of his nobles, with presents to be offered at the saint’s tomb, to see if they could not bring him a promising augury, while he himself uttered this prayer “Lord, if thou wouldest have me punish this impious people, the savage enemy of thy holy name, give me some signal token, by which I may be assured that such is thy will.” Accordingly, his messengers had no sooner set foot within the cathedral, than they heard the priest chaunt forth this verse of the eighteenth Psalm, “Thou hast girded me with strength for war, thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.” Transported at these words, after laying the presents at the tomb of the saint, they hastened to the King with this favourable prognostic; Clovis joyfully accepted it, and engaging Alaric, gained a complete victory.