562 
should lizht upon some consoling verse. 
My heart revived within me, when [ 
cast my eyes on this of the 77th Psa. ¢ He 
caused them to go on with confidence, 
whilst the sea swallowed up their ene- 
mies.’ Accordingly, the Count spoke 
not a word to my prejudice; and leaving 
Tours that very day, the boat in which 
he was, sunk ma storm, but his skill m 
swimining 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, 
im 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: ‘1 will pluck up the fence 
of my vineyard, and 1t shall be destroyed, 
because instead of good, it has brought 
forth bad grapes.’ The Epistles agree- 
ing with the prophecy, it was concluded 
to be a, sure presage of the tragical end 
of Chranmes.” . 
St. Consortia, in her youth, was passi- 
enately courted by a young man of a 
very powerful family, though she had 
formed a cesign of taking the veil. 
Knowing that a refusal would @xpose her 
parents to many inconyeniencies, 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, ler 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 ; after~arids, let us lay the holy 
gospel on the altar, and say a joint pray- 
er; then we will open the book, to be 
certainly informed of the divine will in 
this affair.” This proposal eould not 
with propriety be retused; and the first 
verse which met the eyes of both, was the 
folowing: ‘ 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 prac- 
tice began to lose ground, assvon 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 
> 
Dissertation on the Sortes Sanctorum. 
meus of the person’s entrance. Thus, 
[Jan. f, 
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 ac- 
counted an omen of bis future behaviour, 
and of the good or evil which was re- 
served for hm in the course of his 
episcopacy. Phus, a Bishop of Roches- 
ter, at his consecration by Lanfranc, 
Archbishop of Canterbury, had a very 
happy presage in these words: ¢ Brin« 
hither the best robe, and put it on him.” 
But the answer of the scripture, at the 
consccration of St. Lietbert, Bishop of 
Cambray, was still more grateful ; “ This 
ts my beloved son, in whom Lan welt 
pleased’—Yhe death of Albert, Biskop 
of Liege, is said to have been intimated 
to him by these words, which the Archbi- 
shop, who consecrated him, fouzid 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 alleved upon 
the most important occasions. De 
Garlande, Bishop of Orleans, became so 
odious to his clergy, that they sent 2 
complaint agaist him to Pope Alexan- 
der ILf, concluding in this manner: 
“Let your apostolical hands put on 
strength to strip naked the miquity of this 
man; that the curse prognosticated on 
the day of his consecration, may over- 
take Luin: for the gospels being opened, 
according 16 custom, the first words were ; 
Ind the young mun, leaving his linen cloth, 
jled fromthen naked.” 
William ‘of Malmsbary 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 bis 
chapter; but they who held with the 
bishop, as an irrefragable proof of hig 
spotless ‘chastity, insisted that the prog- 
nostic on the day of his consecration 
was, Hail, Mary, full of grace. 
T preceed to the second manner ef this 
consultation, which was to go into a 
church with the jntention of receiving, 3% 
a declaration of the will of Heaven, any 
words of the scripture which niight 
chance to be sung or read, at the mo- 
y it 
is. 
