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.”