Note 42 — V.—CHARMS, SPELLS, AMULETS AND DIVINATIONS.
Reading edition
Gibbon (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) says: “This mode of divination by accepting as an omen the first sacred words which in particular circumstances should be presented to the eye or ear was derived from the Pagans, and the Psalter or Bible was substituted for the poems of Homer or Virgil. From the fourth to the fourteenth century these sortes sanctorum, as they are styled, were repeatedly condemned by the decrees of councils, and repeatedly practised by Kings, Bishops and Saints.” ↑