Record | The Cult of Saints

A church council held at Orléans (western Gaul) in 511 forbids the use of the Sortes sanctorum. Written in Latin at Orléans.

Evidence ID

E08509

Type of Evidence

Canonical and legal texts

Council of Orléans (511), canon 30

Si quis clericus, monachus, saecularis duinationem uel auguria crediderit obseruanda uel sortes, quas mentiuntur esse sanctorum, quibuscumque potauerint intimandas, cum his, qui iis crediderint, ab ecclesiae communione pellantur.

'If any cleric, monk, or secular person believes in divination, or in observing auguries, or that the lots which they lyingly call "of the saints" can be communicated to anyone, may they be expelled from the communion of the church, together with those who believe in them.'

Text: De Clercq 1963, 12.
Translation: David Lambert.

Rejection, Condemnation, Sceptisism

Condemnation of other activity associated with cult

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops

Source

The Council of Orléans took place on 10 July 511, convened by the Frankish king Clovis (De Clercq 1963, 3).

Discussion

The divinatory text known as the Sortes sanctorum was repeatedly condemned by Gallic church councils in the later 5th and 6th centuries: in addition to Orléans in 511 it was condemned by the Councils of Vannes, 461/491 (E08513), Agde in 506 (E08392), and Auxerre in the late 6th century (E05897), as well as by the Decretum Gelasianum, under the name Sortes apostolorum (E03338).

For further discussion, see E08513.

Bibliography

Edition:
De Clercq, C., Concilia Galliae, a. 511-a. 696 (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 148A; Turnhout, 1963).

Further reading:
Klingshirn, W., "Defining the Sortes Sanctorum: Gibbon, Du Cange, and Early Christian Lot Divination," Journal of Early Christian Studies 10:1 (2002), 77-130.

Luijendijk, A., and Klingshirn, W., "The Literature of Lot Divination," in: A. Luijendijk, W. Klingshirn, and L. Jenott (eds.), "My Lots are in Thy Hands": Sortilege and its Practitioners in Late Antiquity (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 19-59.

Record Created By

David Lambert

Date of Entry

10/11/2023

Related Saint Records

ID	Name	Name in Source	Identity
S00518	Saints, unnamed		Certain

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
David Lambert, Cult of Saints, E08509 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08509

The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world