DRUIDISM
163
DRUIDISM
Mela is the first author who 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-
