The Romans formerly used the divisory lot in choosing judges and assigning provinces, and also in dividing an inheritance, in military affairs, and in other business. They received that selection of judges by lot from the Athenians, where already long before, in the Areopagus, judges were chosen by lot by various letters cast into an urn. Plutarch clearly teaches that the Sicilians imitated this when he treated the omen which Dionysius took after the letter M had fallen to him. But Junius Hornanus has handed down more and better things about the casting of lots among the Gentiles, and in a better method. I shall add what jurists and theologians have judged.
[margin: Lots among Greeks, Sicilians, and Romans: Sigonius, On Judicial Procedure, book 2, chapter 12, drawing from Asconius; Lucian, Demosthenes, scholia on Aristophanes, and Sigonius, On the Athenian Republic, book 3, on Athenian lot-selection; Plutarch, Apophthegms, on Dionysius and the letter M; Junius Hornanus, Animadversions, book 2, chapter 5, on Gentile lots]
If there is doubt about who should first plead a case in court; if it is a question of dividing inheritance and goods; if an option has been left to several persons concerning the manumission of servants, the division of children, and similar matters, the laws permit the lot. Only this is forbidden: to choose a bishop, or any other dignity or ecclesiastical benefice, by lot. Therefore in other dignities, offices, actions, punishments, and other matters, the divisory lot, by which it is asked what should be assigned to each person, is not forbidden. This is clear from the first chapter under 26, question 2, which canon must be understood only of this divisory lot, as is clear from St. Augustine himself. Yet so that no sin intervenes in these matters, four conditions must be observed.
[margin: Divisory lots in law and theology: Digest, De iudiciis, law 14, on judges; Code, Quando et quibus quarta pars debetur, law 2, book 10, on division of goods; law Si de legitima and Mynsinger, observation 37, on inheritance/manumission/division matters; Code, De episcopis, law 47, and canon Si, De sortilegiis, against choosing ecclesiastical office by lot; Augustine on Psalm 30 near the end; Thomas Aquinas, II-II, question 95, article 8, Cajetan under Sors, Veracruz, and Toledo on lawful divisory lots]
First, the outcome must be expected from God, not from chance, fortune, or the stars. Therefore God must be invoked according to the words: “My lots are in your hand.” If someone expected a certain outcome from the stars or from fate, as the Stoics and astrologers take it, he would sin mortally; if from chance or fortune, not taking fortune as the Gentiles do, for then it would be mortal and idolatrous, but as Christian philosophers take it, the sin in a grave matter would be venial, and in a light matter would scarcely be sin.
Second, a simple lot must be used, without any superstition or abuse of sacred things or of Sacred Scripture. Yet this is not a mortal sin unless great irreverence is present.
Third, those who cast lots must rest on equal right. Otherwise the casting of lots would be unjust; and it would be more serious if a public good were involved, for example if worthy and unworthy people were put into the lots for public offices. For the lot could favor an unworthy person, to the harm of the commonwealth and the injury of the worthy.
Fourth, the principal intention of those putting in the lots must not be to inquire into the will of God in an extraordinary way, because such a mode is wholly uncertain. Rather, the chief intention must be that lawsuits, discords, complaints, and envies be removed. Solomon taught us this: “The lot suppresses contradictions and judges even among the powerful.” Therefore if concord could be entered otherwise, the matter should not be committed to lot; but if discord cannot otherwise be quieted, the good of peace permits the lot, with these conditions observed. Hence it has been received in military practice that when several are guilty, it is discovered by lot who should be killed and who freed. Then this must be observed, that the guilt of those casting lots be equal; otherwise the lot is unjust toward the less guilty. Thus in time of storm it is lawful, by the consent of all, to cast lots as to who should be thrown from the ship; and in time of plague one must cast lots as to which parish priests should remain in the city. For the same reason, when there is doubt to whom an alms should go, the matter can be decided by lot.
[margin: Conditions for lawful divisory lots: Psalm 30 on lots in God’s hand; Veracruz on the second book of the Physics, speculation/solution 5, and Toledo on the second book of the Physics; Augustine to Januarius, epistle 119, chapter 3; Augustine, Questions on Joshua, chapter 3, and canons 2 and 4, 26 question 2; Proverbs 18:18 on the lot suppressing disputes; Augustine, letter 180 to Honoratus, and On Christian Doctrine, book 1, chapter 28, on cases such as military punishments, storms, plague, and alms]
Moreover, lest anyone be deceived by the things read in Holy Scripture about lots, Gratian, after St. Jerome and Bede, rightly warned that these things do not pertain to our times. For in the Old Law, among other ceremonies, God had also instituted one which they would use in casting lots, and which they would place before the lot. What sort of ceremony it was is not sufficiently clear. It seems to have been a certain lifting of the mind to God with a prayer instituted for this purpose, as is gathered from Leviticus. There, concerning the casting of lots over the scapegoat, one reads: “He shall make the two he-goats stand before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of testimony, and shall cast lots over each: one for the Lord and the other for the emissary goat. The one whose lot goes out for the Lord he shall offer for sin; but the one whose lot goes out for the emissary goat he shall set alive before the Lord, that he may pour out prayers over him and send him into the wilderness.”
[margin: Gratian, after Jerome and Bede, on Old Law lot ceremonies no longer belonging to Christian times; Leviticus 16:8-10 on the two goats and the emissary goat]
St. Luke writes similarly about the lot of the apostolate. After he narrated that the Apostles set two men, Barsabbas and Matthias, before God, he adds: “And praying, they said: You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell away, to go to his own place. And they gave them lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias.” Therefore first those who were about to cast lots were set before God; then prayer was poured out; third, lots were given to each and mixed in a fold of clothing, an urn, or another vessel; and the person whose lot went out was said to have the lot fall upon him. Solomon certainly testifies that they were sometimes placed into the fold: “Lots are sent into the fold, but they are governed by the Lord.” Sometimes they were placed into a cup which they held in the fold; hence in Sacred Scripture the cup often signifies lot, as, according to some, in these words: “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup.”
[margin: Acts 1:24-26 on Barsabbas, Matthias, prayer, and the apostolic lot; Proverbs 16, last verse, on lots cast into the fold; Psalm 15:5-6 on cup and lot]
Therefore this whole business was ceremonial. With the abrogation of the ceremonies of the old law, this ceremony of casting lots also ceased. Hence venerable Bede observes that the Apostles, before they had received the Holy Spirit, used a legal ceremony in the election of St. Matthias; but after they had received the Holy Spirit they no longer used the lot, but used prayer alone to God, with fasting joined to it. Thus they are read to have chosen the seven deacons and presbyters. Since the Savior, who can neither deceive nor be deceived, promises everything to those who pray, it is foolish and absurd to leave prayer, which has the promise, and flee to the lot, to which God has not promised in the New Testament that he will be present.
[margin: Bede on Acts, chapter 1: after the Holy Spirit the Apostles used prayer and fasting rather than lots; Acts 6 and 14:22 on choosing deacons and presbyters; Matthew 7:7 and John 14:13 on Christ’s promise to those who pray]