Sortes Virgilianae

Sortes Virgilianae, a method of divination which consisted in opening by chance on a passage of Virgil, and taking the passage so found as prophetic. The ancients practised it, and in later times Charles I. and Lord Falkland found in this way a forecast of their eventual fate. Though condemned by the Christian Church, the same method of divining was applied to certain religions books, and the Bible is even now resorted to by some for the same purpose.