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 DRUIDISM

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DRUIDISM

Mela is the first author wlio says that their instruction was secret and carried on in caves and forests. It is commonly Tbeheved that the druids were the stubborn champions of Gaulish libertv and that they took a direct part in the governmem. of the nation, but this is an hypothesis which, however probable, is not sup- ported, for the early period at least, by any text or by the statement of any ancient author. " The principal point of their doctrine", says Caesar, "is that the soul does not die and that after death it passes from one body into another." But, as is well known, the belief in the immortahty of the soul was not peculiar to the teachings of the philoso- phers of Gaul. Just what was the nature of that sec- ond life in which they be- lieved is not quite clear. Some of the Greek authors, struck by the analogy of this doctrine with that of Pythagoras, believed that the druids had borrowed it from the Greek philos- opher or from one of his disciples. The practice of human sacrifice, which has often been imputed to the druids, is now known to have been a survival of a pre-druidic custom, although some members of the druidic corporation not only took part in, but pre- sided at, these ceremonies. Nor has it been proved that the druids had gods of their own or had intro-

Dhcid Stone,

Although the only positive information we possess on the druids is to the effect that their institution existed in Gaul and Britain between the years 53 B.C. and A.D. 77, there is evidence to show that it must have existed from a much earlier time and lasted longer than the limits fixed by these dates. It seems reasonable to suppose that the influence of the druids was already at its decline when Caesar made his cam- paigns inGaul, and that to them was due the civiliza- tion of Gaul in the fifth and fourth centuries B. c. We may aflirm that references to the druids and signs of the existence of their in- stitution, in the germ at least, are found which would date them as early as the third century B. c. With the Roman conquest of Gaul the druids lost all their jurisdiction, druid- ism suffered a great decay, and there is no reason to be- lieve that it survived long after a. d. 77, the date of the last mention of the druids as still in existence. The open- ing of the schools of Marseilles, Bordeaux, and Lyons put an end t o their usefulness as teachers of moral philos- ophy ; and if some of them remained scattered here and there in Gaul, most of them were obliged to emigrate to Britain. The Emperors Tiberius and Claudius abol- ished certain practices in the cult of the druids, their organization, and their assemblies, but their disap-

SuGO, Ireland

Stonehenge, Sausbury Plain, Wiltshire, England

duced any new divinity or rites into Gaul, with the exception perhaps of the Dispater, who, according to Caesar, was regarded by the druids as the head of the nation, and who may have owned his origin to their belief. The druids, in addition to teaching, which was their most important occupation, seem to have been content to preside over the traditional religious ceremonies and to have acted as intermediaries be- tween the gods, siich as they found them, and men. It is certain that they had a philosophy, but it is very unlikely that their doctrines had penetrated into the great mass of the population.

pearance was gradual and due as much to the romani- zation of the land as to any political measure or act of violence or persecution on the part of Rome. Yet there can be no doubt that Rome feared the druids as teachers of the Gallo-Roman youth antl judges of trials. In ( iaul in the third century of the Christian Era there is mention of women who predicted the fu- ture and were known as druidesses, but they were merely sorcerers, and we are not to conclude from the name they bore that druidism was still in existence at that late date. According to Caesar, it was a tradition in Gaul in his time that the druids were of British ori-