RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Sorcery and Soothsaying Soteriology
Les Plantes magiques et la sorcellerie, Moulins, 1899; J. N. Sepp, Orient und Occident: Kapitel uber der Nachseite der Natur Zauberwerk und Hexenwesen in alter und neuer Zeit, Berlin, 1903; E. Crawley, The Tree of Life, pp. 50, 79, 253-254, London, 1905; L. R. Farnell, Evolution of Religion, London, 1905; H. A. Junod, The Theory of Witchcraft amongst South African Natives, Cape Town, 1907; A. Abt, Die Apologie des Apulejus von Madaura und die antike Zauberei, Giessen, 1908; A. Bertholet, Religionsgeschichtliches Lesebuch, pp. 150 sqq., Tubingen, 1908; W. Caland, Altindische Zauberei. Darstellung der altindischen Wunschopfer, Amsterdam, 1908; K. Frank, Babylonische Beschworungsreliefs, Leipsic, 1908; J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 2d ed., Cambridge, 1908 (contains much on avertive procedure); T. Schermann, Griechische Zauberpapyri und das Gemeindeund Dankgebet im I. Klemensbriefe, Leipsic, 1909; I. King, The Development of Religion. A Study in Anthropology and Social Psychology, New York, 1910.
SORTES APOSTOLORUM or SANCTORUM
(Lat., " Lots of the apostles " or " saints ") : A means of foretelling the future by opening the Bible at random, the passage on which the eye first lights being taken as an admonition of the deity in regard to the problem prompting such means of divination. The term is probably derived from the Vulgate of Acts i. 26 and Col. i. 12, and the usage is widespread, pagan Rome thus consulting Vergil, Islam the Koran, and China the sayings of Confucius. While rejecting divination with pagan writings, the Christians employed the Bible for this purpose (cf. Augustine's account of his conversion, Confessiones, VIII., xii. 29-30, Eng. transl. in NPNF, 1 ser., i. 127-128), despite the disapproval of Church Fathers (cf . Augustine, Epist., lv. 37, Eng. transl. in NPNF, 1 ser., i. 315; Jerome on Jonah i.). It became especially prevalent in the days of Gregory of Tours (Hist. Francorum, iv. 16, v. 14, 49), although it was forbidden by the synods of Vannes (465), Agde (506), Orleans (511), and Auxerre (between 570 and 590), as well as by Gregory the Great (Epist., ix. 204, xi. 33). The Carolingian legislation against the sortes apostolorum (cf. MGH, Leg., sectio iii., part 1, p. 64) was reenforced, partly on the basis of Lev. xix. 26, by the prohibitions of the Church, yet the system had official sanction in determining the character of bishops elect (cf . e.g., William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum Anglorum, i. 214, 219, etc.). Greek monks made a similar use of " The Sayings of the Fathers " while the humanists returned to Vergil.
There were a number of minor ways of consulting the sortes apostolorum, and in the later Middle Ages lot-books circulated throughout Christendom. In more recent times Pietism especially affected divination by the Bible; and it is still practised in many places. (Cf. also Divination, III.; Lots, Hebrew Use of.) (E. von Dobschutz.)
Bibliography : Besides the literature under Divination, consult. H. Winnefeld, Sortes Sangallenses, Bonn, 1887; P. Cassel, Weihnachten; Ursprunge, Brauche, und Aberglauben, Berlin, 1862; F. Rocquain, Les Sorts des saints ou des apdtres, pp. 457 sqq., Paris, 1880; R. Heim, Incantamenta magica Grceca-Latina, Leipsic, 1893; J. R. Harris, in American Journal of Philology, ix. 58; idem, in Journal of Theological Studies, ii. 1, pp. 7-8; idem, The Annotators of Codex Bezos, pp. 45 sqq., London, 1901.
SOTER, so'ter: Pope c. 166-174. According to Hegesippus (in Eusebius, Hist, eccl., IV., xxii.) and Irenseus (Hcer., III., iii. 3) Soter was successor of Anicetus, but the papal lists make him follow Pius. Eusebius (Hist, eccl., IV., xix.) makes his episco-
pate reach from the ninth to the seventeenth year of Marcus Aurelius; the " Liberian Catalogue " gives him a pontificate of nine years, three months, and two days; Lipsius assigns as his dates 166 (167)- 174 (175). A fragment of a letter from the Corinthian Dionysius (in Eusebius, Hist, eccl., IV., xxiii.) makes Soter revive an old custom and send a hortatory letter to the Corinthians which Harnack identifies with the so-called II Clement. A late tradition makes Soter one of the earliest writing opponents of Montanism. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: Liber pontificalis, ed. Mommsen in MGH, Gest. pont. Rom., i (1898), 16; Jaffe, Regesta, i. 9; R. A. Lipsius, Chroriologie der riimischen Bischofe, p. 86, Kiel, 1869; J. Langen, Geschichte der romischen Kirche, i. 152 sqq.; T. Zahn, in Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, v. 51 sqq., Leipsic, 1892; Harnack, Litteratur, i. 589, ii. 1, pp. 440 sqq.; idem, in TU, xiii (1895), 48-49; Bower, Popes, i. 14; Platina, Popes, i. 31- 32; DCB, iv. 721-722.