"Gach smuain a-chum ùmhlachd Chrìosd" (2
Corintianaich 10:5)
STONEHENGE AND
THE ANCIENT-BRITISH
DRUIDS
by Rev. Prof. Dr. F.N. Lee
Are the oak-trees of the wisdom-loving druids of Ancient Britain
paganistic abominations? Or are they remnantal reminders of
the famous trees in the middle of the garden of Eden about which the
Lord wisely counselled Adam? See: Genesis 2:9; 3:1-5;
3:22. Compare too: Proverbs 3:13-18; 11:30f; 13:12-14;
15:2-4f; Revelation 2:7; 22:2f,14f.
Rev.
R.W. Morgan and Gladys Taylor on the origin of Druidism
Rev. R.W. Morgan, in his famous book St. Paul in Britain,1 stated that
Druidism was founded by Adam's son the Seth of the Mosaic
genealogy. Cf. Genesis 4:26f. As would then
have been expected, Druidism would then have preserved -- and indeed
did so preserve -- many evidences of the primordial revelation of the
Triune God. See: Genesis 1:1-3; 1:26; 2:7; 3:8,9,16;
4:1,26; 9:26f; 10:1-5; 11:4-9.
Gladys Taylor declared2 in her book The Hidden Centuries that the word
'druid' is probably that taken from the Celtic word dru-vid -- meaning
'tri-wit(ted)' alias 'thrice-wise' (or triunely-wise). Indeed,
according to Arnold's Ancient Celtic Vocabulary,3 the word 'druid' is
derived from dar-vid (meaning: 'very-wise').
The very first westward-moving waves of Japhethitico-Ashkenazic or
Proto-Celtic Gomerites and other Cimmerians, were probably under strong
Shemitico-Hebraic influence. Genesis 9:23-27; 10:1-5; 10:24-25;
11:9-31. They reached the British Isles probably by 1800f
B.C.
Certainly, Stonehenge and the druids of Ancient Britain do seem to date
from about that time onward. Indeed, this is also the date
traditionally attributed to the arrival in Britain of the first great
Celtic Leader -- Hu Gadarn. He is alleged to have brought
Druidism to the British Isles, with the Cymri, from the Greater
Ukraine. That is located just to the north of the Near
East.
This is also somewhat suggested by Professor Dr. Margaret
Deansley. For she too observes4 that carvings believed to
be of Mycenaean-type daggers and bronze axes, found in A.D. 1958 on the
stones of Stonehenge, would indicate immemorially-old contact with the
Mediterranean.
Origin of
Britain's druidic stone circles, knives & oak-groves
It is indisputable that the druidic priests or presbyters built stone
altars (cf. Stonehenge) and 'holy' groves of oak trees. Such may be
seen on the island of Anglesey between Ireland and Wales.
The 'stone circles' -- such as at Castlerigg and Long Meg in Cumbria --
were built from smooth stones. So too were those in
Palestine at 'Gilgal' -- which means 'circle' (of stones).
Indeed, the druids in Ancient Britain built these groves of oaks and
circles of stones in a manner very reminiscent of the early and the
later Pre-Mosaic (and Post-Mosaic) Hebrew Patriarchs. Foundationally,
compare: Genesis 8:20-22; 9:27 to10:5;18:1-8; 21:27-33; 22:1-3;
23:17-20; 28:11-22; and 35:1-8.
Specifically, compare too the word "oak(s)" -- in the 1979f Fifth
Edition of the King James II Version of the English Bible.
For thus it translates the Hebrew words ,alaah, ,eelaah, ,aloon, and
,eeloon -- at: Genesis 12:6-8; 13:3-18; 14:13-24; 18:1-8f; 21:33;
35:1-8; Deuteronomy 11:26-30f; Joshua 24:26f and Judges 6:11-19 &
9:6 (margin).
See too: Exodus 20:3-25; Joshua 4:15-24; 5:2f (flintstone knives);
7:11-26; 8:28-35; Judges 3:19f; First Samuel 15:21-33; First Kings
7:2-7; 10:17-22; Hosea 12:11 and Amos 4:4 etc. Indeed, all of the
events described in these texts have parallels in Ancient British
Druidism.
Rev.
Dr. Matthew Henry on oak-groves from Abraham to Calvary
Explained the famous Welsh Presbyterian Rev. Dr. Matthew Henry on the
above-mentioned Genesis 21:33, in his world-renowned Bible Commentary:5
"Observe, 'Abraham planted a grove'.... There, he made not
only a constant practice, but an open profession of his religion.
There, he called on the Name of the Lord the everlasting
God." Indeed, he did so -- probably in the grove he
planted, which was his oratory or house of prayer.
"Christ prayed in a garden.... Abraham kept up public
worship, to which probably his neighbours resorted [so] that they might
join with him."
Also Job was probably either a contemporary or a predecessor of the
above-mentioned patriarch Abraham. In his subsequent
introduction to the book of Job, Matthew Henry said much which we
believe is applicable also to the druids of Ancient Britain.
"We are sure," explained Henry, that the Book of Job "is very
ancient.... So many, so evident are its hoary hairs -- the
marks of its antiquity -- that we have reason to think it of equal date
with the Book of Genesis itself....
"Probably he [Job] was of the posterity of Nahor, Abraham's brother,
whose first-born was Uz (Genesis 22:21 cf. 10:23 and Job 1:1), and in
whose family, religion was for some ages kept up. [This] appears [from]
Genesis 31:53, where God is called not only 'the God of Abraham' but
also 'the God of Nahor'....
"Job lived before the age of man was shortened to seventy or eighty...;
before sacrifices were confined to one altar; before the general
apostasy of the nations from the knowledge and worship of the true God;
and while yet there was no other idolatry known than the worship of the
sun and moon...punished by the judges (cf. 31:26-28).
"He lived while God was known by the Name of 'God Almighty' more than
by the Name of 'Jehovah.' For He is called '[El] Shaddai,' the Almighty
[Triune God], above thirty times in this book. He lived
while divine knowledge was conveyed not [chiefly] by writing but by
tradition.... We are here got back to the patriarchal age....
"This noble poem presents to us in very clear and lively characters...a
monument of primitive theology. The first and great
principles of the light of nature, on which natural religion is
founded, are here...taken for granted.... Not the least
doubt [is] made of them -- but, by common consent, [they are] plainly
laid down as eternal truth....
"Were ever the Being of God, His glorious attributes and perfections,
His unsearchable wisdom, His irresistible power, His inconceivable
glory, His inflexible justice and His incontestable sovereignty --
discoursed of with more clearness, fullness, reverence and divine
eloquence than in this Book?
"The creation of the World, and the government of it, are here
admirably described not as matters of nice speculation but as laying
most powerful obligations upon us to fear and serve; to submit to; and
trust in our Creator, Owner, Lord and Ruler. Moral good and
evil, virtue and vice, were never drawn more...than in this book -- nor
the inviolable rule of God's judgment more plainly laid down that happy
are the righteous...and woe to the wicked....
"These are not questions of the schools, to keep the learned world in
action.... No. It appears by this book that
they are sacred truths of undoubted certainty, and which all the wise
and sober part of mankind have in every age subscribed and submitted
to.
"It presents us with a specimen of Gentile piety. This
great saint descended not from Abraham.... He was out[side]
of the pale of the covenant of peculiarity -- no Israelite; no
proselyte; and yet none like him for religion, nor such a favourite of
Heaven upon this Earth [Job 1:18; 2:3; 31:1f; 31:33f].
"It was a truth, therefore, before St. Peter perceived it, that in
every nation he that fears God and works righteousness is accepted of
Him. Acts 10:35. There were 'children of God
scattered abroad' (John 11:52), beside the incorporated 'children of
the Kingdom.' Matthew 8:11-12."
Note Job's faith (1:21f & 19:25) in his living
Redeemer. For He would die for His elect, including Job, on
Calvary's tree. Job 1:21f; 14:1-2f; 14:7-9; 19:6-10; 19:25-27; 24:12-20
-- cf. James 1:1 & 5:11-13 and First Peter 1:1 & 2:24.
Dr. Sir James G.
Frazer on Druidism and druidic oak-trees
At this very point, an extended passage from the work Folk-lore of the
Old Testament by the famous anthropologist Dr. Sir James G. Frazer, is
indeed helpful. Frazer is the author also of the celebrated
and very influential book The Golden Bough.
Unfortunately, Frazer the higher-critic more frequently than not
inverted the historical order. For, by his own admission,6
he had attempted to trace institutions of Ancient Israel backward to
allegedly "earlier" and "cruder" (sic) stages of thought and practice
which have their analogies in the faiths and customs of existing
"savages" both past and present. Nevertheless, Frazer did
clearly establish some kind of genealogical relationship between the
practices of the Semitic Abraham on the one hand and the
Celto-Brythonic druids and their kindred Ancient Anglo-Saxon
counterparts on the other. Indeed, he did so -- even very
specifically -- as regards sanguinary sacrifices at oak-trees.
For Sir James Frazer declared7 that the [Celtic] 'Old Prussians'
sprinkled the blood of their sacrifices on the holy oak at
Romove. Indeed, Lucan (A.D. 39 to 65) said that in the
sacred druidical grove at Marseilles, every tree was washed with human
blood (of criminals).
At an earlier period, sacred oaks or terebinths played an important
part in the popular religion. Jehovah Himself was closely associated
with them. How often God, or His Angel, is said to have
revealed Himself to one of the old patriarchs or heroes -- at an oak.
The first recorded appearance of Jehovah to Abraham took place at the
oracular oak or terebinth of Shechem. There, Abraham built
Him an altar. Genesis 12:6f.
Again, we are told that Abraham dwelt beside the oaks or terebinths of
Mamre at Hebron. There, he further built also an altar to
the Lord. Genesis 13:18.
Indeed, it was there -- beside the oaks or terebinths of Mamre -- as he
sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, that God appeared
to him in the likeness of three men. Genesis 18:1f. Thus
Frazer.
Now even in later times, continued Frazer, there was an oracular oak or
terebinth near Shechem as well as at Mamre. Whether it was
the same tree under which God appeared to Abraham, we do not
know. Its name -- 'the oak or terebinths of the augurs' --
seems to show that a set of 'druids' (if we may call them so) had their
station at the sacred tree.
We meet again and again with the mention of oaks or terebinths which,
from the context, appear to have been sacred. Jacob took the ear-rings
and buried them under the oak or terebinth at Shechem.
Genesis 35:1-8. According to Eustathius, who died circa
1194 A.D., the tree was a terebinth (or oak).
It was under the oak by the sanctuary of the Lord at Shechem, that
Joshua set up a great stone as a witness. Cf. Joshua
24:26f. It was at 'the oak of the pillar' in Shechem, that the men of
the city made Abimelech their king. Judges 9:6, margin.
Elsewhere, we read of a tree called the "king's oak" on the borders of
the tribe of Asher. Indeed, the bones of Saul and of his
sons were buried under "the oak" or terebinth at Jabesh.
First Samuel 31:13 cf. First Chronicles 10:12.
Saul, shortly before his coronation, was to meet three men going up to
sacrifice to the Lord. First Samuel 10:1-9.
This salutation of the future king by the three men at "the oak" --
reminds one of the meeting of Abraham with God in the likeness of three
men under "the oaks of Mamre." Genesis 18:1f.
The greeting of the three men at "the oak" may have had a deeper
meaning. It suggests that the Spirit in triple form was
expected to bless. Thus Sir James Frazer.
Josephus
& Eusebius & Sozomen & Frazer on Abraham's oaks
Josephus related8 that in his day, 75 A.D., many monuments of Abraham
were shown at Hebron. Six furlongs from the town, grew a very large
terebinth. We may assume that this terebinth or oak-tree
was the one under which Abraham was believed to have entertained the
angels alias God's messengers.
The Church Historian Eusebius affirmed9 that this oak-tree or terebinth
remained right down to his own time of 337f A.D., and that the spot was
still revered. A holy picture there, then represented the
three mysterious guests who partook of Abraham's hospitality under the
tree.
Such a picture in part constituted an illicit attempt visibly to
represent at least one Person of the Triune God. Indeed,
all such misrepresentations -- argued Eusebius -- amounted to "idols
which should utterly be destroyed." For the middle of the
three figures excelled the rest in honour -- explained
Frazer. Him the good Bishop Eusebius identified with "our
Lord Himself, our Saviour."
Yet these three figures not only remind one of the Triune
God. They also, Frazer further declared, curiously remind
us of the three figures worshipped at the holy oak near Romove -- the
religious centre of the Ancient Celtic Prussians. Perhaps
both at Hebron and at Romove, commented Frazer, God was for some reason
conceived in triple form.
Frazer then concluded that (the Briton) Constantine himself determined
to build a church at the sacred tree. Accordingly, he then
communicated his intention in a letter to Eusebius.
"The place which is called...'the Oak of Mamre' where...Abraham had his
home" -- explained that first Christian Emperor10 -- is one near which
"an altar stands" where "sacrifices are constantly
offered.... We have ordered that the spot shall be adorned
with the pure building of a basilica, in order that it may [again] be
made a meeting-place worthy of holy men." Thus
Constantine. Crowned Emperor in Britain's York, as a
Christian whose mother may well have raised him in Britain he probably
had a good knowledge also of pre-Christian British Druidism.
The Church Historian Sozomen (447f A.D.) has bequeathed to us a curious
and valuable description. His account11 runs thus: "I must
now relate the decree which the Emperor Constantine passed, with regard
to what is called the oak of Mamre.... It is a true tale
that, with the angels sent against the people of Sodom, the Son of God
appeared to Abraham." See too the similar account of the
(439 A.D.) Church Historian Socrates.12
The
significance of Stonehenge and its druidic tri-liths
As regards Celtic oak-trees and stone monuments, they seem to have been
connected with the druids initially. Dohrs states in his
book on Northern Ireland13 that Druidism was an association of
professional wise-men and philosophers claiming to be experts in all
the higher branches of knowledge. The Giant's Ring, about four
miles South of Belfast City Hall, is a prehistoric monument of great
antiquity. Although lacking the massive stone work of
Stonehenge in Southern England's Wiltshire, the Giant's Ring
nevertheless is somewhat similar. The remnants indicate
that it too was carefully constructed on precise mathematical and
astronomical measurements.
Very much later, a monastery named Doire -- after the oak trees of the
region -- was founded in A.D. 546 by St. Columba. He
declared: "Christ is my druid!" Doire -- pronounced 'Derry'
-- in the Celto-Gaelic language of Ireland -- means: 'the place of the
oaks.' Compare too: Genesis 21:33 & 35:4 with Joshua
24:26.
As Wright explained in his book History of the Early Inhabitants of
Britain,14 the extraordinary monument called Stonehenge -- an
Anglo-Saxon term meaning the 'hanging stones' --is situated on a gentle
knoll. It consisted originally of an outer circle of thirty
(viz. 3 x 10) upright stones, sustaining as many others placed
horizontally (on the top of and from one upright stone to the other) --
so as to form a continuous impost or unbroken 'stone circle' atop the
upright megaliths.
These upright stones were about fourteen feet high above the
ground. This again included or surrounded two elliptical
arrangements of large and small stones arranged in what archaeologists
term 'tri-liths.'
Those 'tri-liths' were groups of three stones each. They
consisted of two upright ones and an impost across their top --like a
doorway. Initially, they probably affirmed faith in the
Triune God (Elohim).
There was also a series of small upright stones -- three of which stood
[with their tops all touching together in front of each trilith -- once
again apparently pointing to the ontological Trinity. The
triliths were from sixteen to twenty-one feet in height.
In the central space, in front of the principal trilith, is a large
flat stone -- which those who look upon the whole as a primeval temple,
call the altar. The most probable conjecture as to its
meaning seems to be that which indeed makes it a temple for some kind
of worship.
Stone knives are mentioned in the Old Testament (Joshua 5:2) in a way
which shows that implements of this material may have been employed at
times for special purposes. In Wiltshire, the stone
arrow-heads are usually found together with bronze daggers.
Cf. Exodus 20:25.
The 1951 Encyclopedia Americana15 states Stonehenge is a notable
example of the ancient stone circles situated in Salisbury Plain --
located in England's Wiltshire. The structure consists of
two concentric circles of upright stones surrounded by a double
earthern wall and ditch about 370 yards in circumference.
Within the inner oval, is a slab of coarse-blue marble 16 feet long --
commonly spoken of as 'the altar stone.'
The purpose of Stonehenge is generally accepted as an extraordinary
development of the stone circles found throughout Great Britain and in
parts of France and Scandinavia. These circles were known
as 'druidical rings' -- and Stonehenge was regarded as probably the
head temple of druidical worship. By others, it has been
attributed to the Phoenicians. It has also been called a
martial court of justice.
Sir John Lubbock assigned its date as that of the Bronze
Age. He based his beliefs on the character of the contents
found in the surrounding barrows, and upon the evidences of tool-work
upon the stones of the outer circle and outer ellipse. The
Neolithic period is held to have merged into the Bronze Age round about
1500 B.C.
The
B.C. 60 Diodorus on the druids of the British Isles
The B.C. 60f Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian from
Sicily. He wrote a forty-volume 'World History' titled
Historical Library. The material dealt with there,
stretches from much more ancient times right down almost to Julius
Caesar's B.C. 58f Gallic Wars and unsuccessful invasions of Britain.
Diodorus wrote16 that the well-travelled B.C. 495 Greek Historian
"Hecataeus and certain others say that in the regions beyond the land
of the Celts [alias Gaul or the later France] -- there lies in the
Ocean an island [probably Britain though possibly Ireland or both], no
smaller than Sicily. This island...is situated in the north, and
is...productive of every crop.... There is also on the
island both a magnificent sacred precinct...and a notable temple" --
Stonehenge it would seem.
"A city is there, which is sacred.... The majority of its
inhabitants are players on the cithara [or harp]...in the temple, and
sing hymns of praise to God -- glorifying His deeds....
"They have a language peculiar to themselves, and are most friendly
disposed towards the Greeks...who have inherited this goodwill from
most ancient times.... Certain Greeks visited...and left
behind them their costly votive offerings, bearing inscriptions in
Greek letters."
Like their fellow-Celtic cousins the Cymric Britons and the Irish Gaels
-- Diodorus explained further17 -- also "the Gauls are tall of body;
with rippling muscles; white of skin; and their hair is
blond.... They invite strangers to their
feasts.... The belief of Pythagoras prevails among them,
that the souls of men are immortal....
"The clothing they wear, is striking -- shirts which have been dyed in
various colours, and breeches.... They wear striped
coats...in which are set checks, close together, and of varied
hues." See Genesis 37:3, & cf. the Scottish tartans.
"Among them" -- continued Diodorus, anent those Ancient-Celts of the
Far West -- "are also to be found lyric poets, whom they call
bards. These men sing to the accompaniment of instruments
which are like lyres, and their songs may be either of praise or of
imprecation." Cf. Psalms 136 & 137.
"Philosophers, as we may call them -- and men learned in religious
affairs -- are usually honoured among them, and are called by them
'druids'.... No one should perform a sacrifice without a
'philosopher.' For thanksofferings should be rendered to
God, they say, by the hands of men who are experienced in the nature of
the divine -- and who speak, as it were, the language of God."
The A.D. 23f
Pliny on the druids and their oaks and religion
Too, as the A.D. circa 23 to 79 Pliny observed:18 "The druids...are the
'magi' of Gaul [cf. Matthew 2:1-16].... They select groves
of oaks.... The [oak-]tree is considered by them
as...chosen by the Deity Himself....
"The druids hold nothing more valuable than the mistletoe, and the tree
on which it is growing (provided it is a hard-oak).... It
is supposedly from this custom that they get their names of 'druids' --
from the Greek word meaning 'oak'.... Anything growing on
oak-trees, they think...to be a sign that the particular tree has been
chosen by God Himself." Compare: Genesis 2:9; 3:22; 18:1f;
23:17; 35:4,8,27; etc.
"The moon...for these [Celtic] tribes constitutes the beginning of the
months and the years [cf. Exodus 12:2f; Numbers 10:10f; 28:11-14;
etc.].... 'Hailing the moon' is a native expression which
means 'healing all things' [Ezekiel 47:12 & Revelation 21:24-26
& 22:2]....
"When they have made ready their sacrifices and banquets under the
tree, they bring up two white bulls..... A priest clothed
in a white robe ascends the tree, and with a golden pruning-knife lops
off the bough.... Then they immolate the victims, praying
that God may prosper the gift to all who shall partake of
it." Thus Pliny. Cf. Genesis 8:20f & 15:9f.
Druidic
sacrifices and their killing of convicted criminals
It is sometimes argued that the druids even originally performed human
sacrifice; or that their animal sacrifices later degenerated into human
sacrifice. Let us now examine these allegations.
It is very clear that the British druids -- as dedicated judicial
officers -- did sometimes quite rightly cause capital criminals to be
put to death. It is also so that they then did this in a
gory manner.
That latter may, however, very well indeed have been done in order to
placate the righteous anger of Almighty God. Indeed, there
is some evidence that this latter was their very reason for effecting
such capital punishments. Compare: Genesis 9:6; 21:12-23;
22:18-20; Deuteronomy 17:5f; 19:11f; 20:10f; 21:1-22; Mark 14:43-48;
Luke 22:36-49; Romans 13:2-4; Revelation 13:10.
This is no evidence, however, that the druids ever offered up innocent
human victims in ritual sacrifice. As even the
unsympathetic and humanistic Historian Dr. Will Durant has conceded,19
the druids controlled and vigorously inculcated religious
belief. They conducted a colorful ritual, in sacred
groves. To appease God, they offered human sacrifice of men
condemned to death for crime."
Also Dr. Sir James Frazer observed in his book The Golden Bough20 that
human sacrifices had been practised systematically by the
Ancient-Celts. The earliest description of these
sacrifices, has been bequeathed to us by Julius Caesar in B.C. 58f.
With his own notes, Caesar appears to have incorporated the
observations of a Greek explorer -- Posidonius. The latter
travelled in Gaul about fifty years before Caesar carried the Roman
arms to the English Channel. The Greek Geographer Strabo,
and the Historian Diodorus also give descriptions of the Celtic
sacrifices.
From the above sources, explained Frazer, we thus obtain a picture of
the sacrifices offered by the Celts at the close of the second century
before our era -- B.C. circa 120f. Condemned criminals were
reserved by the Celts in order to be sacrificed. If there
were not enough local criminals to furnish victims, captives taken in
war -- after conviction as foreign criminals -- were immolated to
supply the deficiency. The victims were sacrificed by the
druids or priests.
Colossal images of wicker-work or of wood and grass were
constructed. These were filled with live men, cattle, and
other kinds of animals. Fire was then applied to the
images. Compare here the holocausts at Genesis 8:20-22;
15:9-17; Leviticus 16:3-18; Numbers 19:5f; Daniel 9:26-27; Matthew
24:2,15,28; & Luke 17:24-29.
We must suppose, observes Frazer, that the men whom the druids burnt in
wicker-work images were condemned to death on the ground that they were
witches or wizards. Such were criminals found guilty of
'capital crimes' such as murdering young children, in order to get
their vital body-parts as ingredients for magic potions
etc. Compare Deuteronomy 13:1-10 & 18:15-16f.
The
medical uses of mistletoe in Ancient-British Druidism
Among the druids of Ancient Britain, mistletoe was apparently used not
for magical (nor just for symbolical) but especially for medical
purposes. As the famous Anthropologist Dr. Sir James Frazer
pointed out in his great book The Golden Bough,21 mistletoe thus
obtained by the druids from oak-trees, was deemed a cure for
epilepsy. Also carried about by women, it assisted them to
conceive. Again, it healed ulcers most effectually -- if
only the sufferer chewed a piece of the plant and laid another piece on
the sore.
Ancient Britain's druids were to some extent agreed as to the valuable
properties possessed by mistletoe, which grows on oaks.
They deemed it an effectual remedy for a number of ailments. Indeed,
the druids believed that a potion prepared from mistletoe would
fertilise even cattle that were barren. Compare Genesis
30:2,14f; Ezekiel 47:12; Revelation 22:2.
We may compare the similar beliefs of the modern Aino of Northern
Japan. We read that they, like many nations of northern or
Japhethitic origin, hold the mistletoe in peculiar veneration. They
look upon it as a medicine, good in almost every disease.
It is sometimes taken in food, and at others separately as a decoction.
The Americana and the Britannica on Stonehenge &
Druidism
The 1951 Encyclopedia Americana
states22 that druids were members of
the Celtic priesthood of Ancient Britain. At the B.C. 55f
period of Julius Caesar's unsuccessful Roman invasions of Britain,
Druidism existed chiefly in the island of Anglesey; in Wales; and in
Ireland.
Scattered throughout these regions -- at Stonehenge and Avebury in
England, and at numerous other localities -- are stupendous stone
structures. These are known as cromlechs. They
were ascribed, by the older archaeologists, to the druidical cult.
Welsh tradition relates that the druids entered Gaul from the Orient,
together with the Cymri. The druids of Gaul and Britain were the
religious guides of the people, and the chief guardians and expounders
of the Law. They taught the immortality of the soul.
They attained their greatest influence in Britain, shortly before the
Roman invasion during the last century B.C. They were
believed, also after the successful Pagan Roman Invasion of South
Britian during the first century A.D., to have incited the patriotic
revolt of the Britons against Roman rule. Upon conversion
of the Britons to Christianity, Druidism became only a venerable memory
and tradition.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica
declares23 in its article on 'Stonehenge'
that neither Roman Historian nor Saxon Chronicler ever mentioned
Stonehenge. Perhaps the earliest reference to it, is in the
writings of Henry of Huntingdon (died 1154). He cited
Stonehenge as the second of the four wonders of England.
Inigo Jones, in his treatise on Stonehenge written at the command of
James the First but published in 1655, puts forward the suggestion that
Stonehenge was built by the druids. It was John Aubrey
(1626-1697) who first claimed Stonehenge as a druidical temple.
This theory was elaborated by William Stukeley in 1742. The
date of erection of the present Stonehenge, of most of the stone
circles, and of the long barrows can be ascribed to the Aeneolithic or
'Late New Stone Age' period. One may here therefore suggest
an Early-Bronze Age date, circa B.C. 1500f.
Norton-Taylor
on the druidic religion of the Early Western Celts
D. Norton-Taylor, in his book The Celts, explains24 that the Pagan
Roman Lucan said the Celtic God received offerings when trees in groves
were sprinkled with human blood. This, however --
Norton-Taylor rightly adds -- may well refer to suitable punishment for
capital criminals to appease the wrath of God. The two
ideas are certainly not contradictory but altogether reconcilable -- as
seen in the Christian doctrine of the propitiation of God's wrath
through the blood of Jesus.
The Celtic Deity was construed as a Triune Godhead. Cf.
First Corinthians 11:1-3 & 12:3-6. Somewhat analogously, also the
druidic trinity was construed as a three-faced God.
Norton-Taylor remarks25 of the druidic Celts that "the head summed up
their religious feelings in much the same way that the cross summarizes
Christianity. The Celts considered the head [to be] the
home of the soul -- the essence of being, with connotations of
immortality.... There are Janus heads, facing fore and aft
-- and even a kind of Celtic Trinity, a head with three faces" (or
pros-oopa). That three-headed God may have paralleled the
concept of the Christian Trinity -- one Sacred Being with three
different attributes of God as Father, God as Son, and God as Holy
Spirit."
Norton-Taylor further observes26 that Diodorus himself once described
the druids as "philosophers and theologians." In the second
century A.D., Greek Scholars in Alexandria decided that the druids --
because they believed the soul was immortal -- were actually great
moral philosophers.
The Alexandrians deemed them to be religious men whose chief concerns
were the study of nature and the contemplative enjoyment of a close
relationship with God. One sixteenth century English poet,
Michael Drayton, rhapsodized over the druids as "sacred bards like whom
great Nature's depths no man yet ever knew."
As jurists, druids -- throughout the Celtic World -- probably
administered a legal code similar to the one set forth in the old Irish
law-tracts and epic tales. The social order reflected
there, is a system contrived as much by God as by men -- and supervised
as closely by otherworldly powers as by ancient judges here on Earth.
Certainly one of the most important of the divinely ordained precepts,
is truthfulness -- an idea that pervades the ancient Irish
texts. "Three things that are best for a prince during his
reign -- are truth, mercy and silence. Those that are worst
for a king's honour, are straying from the truth and adding to the
false." With this, compare too the Welsh Triads.
Norton-Taylor goes on to remark27 that Celtic science was based on
religion, and the druids were its chief practitioners. As
scientists, the druids were mainly concerned with
Astronomy. They invented a remarkably sophisticated
calendar.
Celts reckoned time by nights. Fifteen nights made up what
they called the bright half of the month. Their first
century B.C. bronze 'Coligny Calendar' -- re-discovered in A.D. 1897
--divides the year into months and seasons coinciding with the Celtic
seasonal festivals.
The Celts apparently adjusted their lunar year to the solar year -- by
inserting an intercalary 30-day month alternatively at 2.5-year and
3-year intervals. The Celtic year was divided into four
seasons, each of which was ushered in by a festival period.
Cf. Genesis 1:14f & 7:11f and Leviticus chapter 23.
Each month was further subdivided into four 'weeks' -- each of which
seems to have been demarcated from its preceding week and its successor
week, by a holy day terminating the previous and introducing the
following week. There was thus a concatenation of weekly
and monthly feasts. Cf. Colossians 2:16f.
Reader's
Digest History on the structures in Wiltshire & Dorset
The Reader's Digest
organization has produced a book with the title:
History of Man -- The Last Two
Million Years. It has a
thoroughly-false evolutionistic point of departure.
Nevertheless, that book still offers not unmeritorious explanations of
man-made structures in Ancient Britain. It states28 that in
Britain, a remarkable series of earthworks were constructed between the
years 2000 and 1600 B.C. Silbury Hill in Wiltshire is the biggest
artificial mound in Europe. It was built with great insight
into problems of social engineering.
Soon after, four great banked enclosures were built in Wiltshire and
Dorset -- the largest of a series of so-called 'large' monuments
peculiar to Britain. Each of the four was at least 1300
feet in diameter, and inside was a huge circular timber building,
probably a temple. One of these monuments, at Avebury,
contained a large stone circle -- so large that a village now stands
inside it.
The most astonishing building achievement of all took place at
Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain. The second form consisted of a double
circle of eighty or more uprights (the so-called
'bluestones'). These originated from more than two hundred
miles away, in South Wales.
In addition to this, great sarsen stones from the surface of the nearby
Marlborough Downs were loaded onto sleds and dragged to the site over
rollers of logs. The industry devoted in separate places to
the building of Stonehenge, spread over several hundred years.
Stonehenge, it is now believed, was much more than just a
temple. The technical skills required to bring the stones
to the site, cut them into shape and then to erect them according to a
carefully pre-arranged pattern -- make Stonehenge an engineering
masterpiece.
The main phase of the building alone must have taken a force of 1000
men some ten years to complete. The mathematical accuracy
of the headstone's positioning combined with other alignment
--indicating the exact position of midwinter sunset, and two extreme
positions of the midsummer moonrise during its cycle of 18.5 years --
has led some scientists to suggest that Stonehenge and other stone
monuments were designed as elaborate observatories.
From them, priests in the Bronze Age might have been able to build up
an accurate calendar of the seasons -- for use in agriculture. Layout
would have been impossible as little as thirty miles further north or
south. As late as the first century A.D., the Celts --
under their priests the druids -- were still using Stonehenge.
Hadingham on the multi-functional purposes of Stonehenge
In an important recent article, E. Hadingham has asked the question:
Was Stonehenge Built as an Observatory? After copious
investigation, to the question in the title of his publication he
himself at length gives the following answer29
Stonehenge was built in a time when English moors were fertile, and
inhabited by prosperous farmers. Its builders were capable
of complicated astronomical reckoning and sophisticated
construction. Such astronomical reckoning would greatly
assist farmers in their agricultural decisions regarding the planting
and care of their crops -- as well as help traders and travellers
better to plan their activities.
The outer ring of the great temple, built of sarsen stones about 1900
B.C., was to make Stonehenge the most impressive megalithic monument in
Europe. The bluestones used in building Stonehenge II, were
apparently carried from the Prescelly Mountains in South Wales on
sledges and rafts. More than half of the 380-kilometre
journey would have meant hazardous crossings on the open sea.
There are over 900 other stone circles found throughout Britain and
Ireland. Sites like Callanish in the Outer Hebrides may
also have been simple observatories for astronomer-priests.
There is clear evidence that stone circles served more than one
function, and that some sites were rebuilt.
Perhaps the most dramatic evidence comes from recent excavations of the
great monuments in Southern England built of wood, not
stone. One of these sites, known as Durrington Walls, is
only about three kilometres from Stonehenge.
There, archeologists revealed the remains of two huge circular wooden
buildings. The builders must have been skilled
carpenters. Such imposing buildings could have accommodated
several hundred people.
The great wooden rotunda of Durrington Walls was built more than 4000
years ago. It was 40 metres in diameter and contained 260
tonnes of wood -- which must have required felling at least 1.6
hectares of woodland.
Stonehenge was designed as an observatory, and the openings in the
arches were used to make intricate astronomical sightings.
Standing on Salisbury Plain today, it is indeed hard to visualise
thriving centres of farming and population. Yet Stonehenge
itself, and earlier huge collective monuments not far away such as
Durrington Walls and Avebury, show conclusively that these great
communities once existed.
Nearby graves contained bronze daggers and personal ornaments made of
sheet gold. The discovery of a few particularly wealthy
burials, seem to indicate that some type of hierarchy or aristocracy
existed in Stonehenge times.
Some of the precious objects, such as faience beads and amber discs
bound in gold, pointed to trade with the Aegean and indirectly with
Egypt. Moreover, the stone gateways of Mycenae were
constructed with the same skilful use of mortise-and-tenon joints
exactly as at Stonehenge. Compare the ongoing influence in Britain of
the later Brut(us) of Troy, after his circa B.C. 1185 migration to
Devon (less than a hundred miles from Stonehenge).
Stonehenge in its earliest form seems to have been built partly as a
monument combining important astronomical sight-lines to the sun and
moon in a highly ingenious way . Cf. Leviticus chapter
23.
Citing the records of the B.C. 495 Hecataeus and other ancients who
apparently visited Britain, the B.C. 60 Historian Diodorus Siculus
referred to a "spherical Temple" presided over by a hereditary
priesthood. From whatever perspective, however, Stonehenge
was certainly an observatory and a temple.
Rev.
Commander L.G.A. Roberts on the nature of druidic religion
Declares Rev. L.G.A. Roberts in his book The Early British Church
Originally Hebrew Not Papal,30 the earliest condition of Britain
warrants a cheerful view. Believing in a God invisible and
eternal, we know that He hears those in every land who pray to Him.
Mindful of Acts 10:2f, who can tell how many 'devout fearers' of His
Name there may have been -- among the first inhabitants of
Britain? The patriarchs themselves hardly had more than was
possessed by those who first set out towards Britain's distant
shores. Cf. Genesis 9:27 to 10:5 and 11:9-31f.
The rites of public worship, were publically observed. Together with
worship, two ideas are necessarily associated here -- that of a Supreme
Being, and that of a life to come. No idol or graven image
has ever been dug up in the soil of Britain. Isaiah
24:13-16 & 42:8.
The arch-druid was clothed in a stole of virgin-white, over a closer
robe of the same, fastened by a girdle on which appeared the crystal --
cased in gold. Round his neck, was the breast-plate of
judgment. On his head, he had a tiara of gold.
Britain was nearly as brightly illuminated as Judah itself.
When the light left Palestine at the overthrow of the two kingdoms of
Israel and Judah -- it was to pass into the British
Islands. Thus Rev. Roberts. He next describes a
typical liturgical service of the ancient druids at
Stonehenge. He does so, in the following terms.
The festival comes round. The procession is
marshalled. At its head walks the high priest, a venerable
and imposing figure, in his long flowing robes of white.
His train is also swelled by other priests also clothed in
white. They follow, leading the animal destined for
sacrifice.
It is a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat. It has been found
"without blemish." The height of the hilltop is
gained. Priests and victim and worshippers sweep in at the
open portal of the stone circle. They gather round the
massive block in the centre, on which 'no tool or iron has been lifted
up' (cf. Exodus 20:25). There the sacrifice is to be
immolated.
The priest, in his robe of snowy whiteness, takes his stand at the
altar. He lays his hand solemnly on the head of the animal
which he is about to offer in sacrifice. In his prayer, he
makes a confession of sin -- his own, and that of all who claim a part
in the sacrifice. These transgressions he lays on the
victim.
The animal is now given to the Deity. Bound with cords, it
is laid on the altar. Its blood is poured on the
earth. Its flesh is given to the fire. Its life
is offered to God. Such is the worship of the
druid. It consisted of three great acts. First,
the laying of his offence upon the victim. Second, the offering up of
the life of that victim. Third, the expiation.
In the work Crania Britannica, we are also told of the unearthing of a
cist or barrow at Stonehenge. Inside was the remains of a
druid perfectly clad in his sacred garments, with a breast-plate on his
breast.
This was the facsimile of those worn by the high priest of the
Hebrews. The British Isles were inhabited by the Hebrew
race at a very early date. Probably, in the first place,
this occurred as far back as 1700 B.C. Stonehenge is said to have been
built in the year 1680 B.C.
There the Ancient Britons, hailing from Greece and Palestine, were
serving God by the Urim. Isaiah 24:13-16. The druidical
service was a replica of the Hebrew. The sacrifices were
propitiatory, and the druidic high priest was clothed precisely as was
Aaron.
The heifer was led to the altar called the 'Stone of the
Covenant.' The existence of such terms in Cornwall as Jews'
houses, Jews' tin, and Jews' leavings -- all prove the connection of
that people with the Cornish mines.
Thus Rev. Roberts. It is quite possible he had (in good
faith) exaggerated the extent to which the Ancient Britons were
influenced directly by the Heber-ews -- whether before, or whether
after, the time of Abraham. Roberts's statement: "The
British Isles were inhabited by the Hebrew race at a very early date"
-- may not be historically accurate.
After all, Holy Scripture does not teach that the Japhethitic Gomerians
would cease to be such, and become Hebrews also racially -- but rather
that Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem, even before there were
any Heber-ews! Genesis 9:27 & 10:1-5 cf.
10:24f. Yet the similarities between the Cymric druids and
the Mosaic priests -- probably because both descended from the same
patriarchal ancestor Noah, and especially because both still dwelt in
the tents of Shem and/or in the tents of those Japhethites who did so
-- is undeniable.
Rev.
R.W. Morgan on patriarchal origin of Early-British Druidism
Rev. R.W. Morgan, in his book St Paul in Britain, gives us much
instructive information. He wrote31 that Druidism was
founded by Gwyddon Ganhebon, supposed to be the Seth of the Mosaic
genealogy. Cf. Genesis 4:26f.
From Asia, Druidism was brought into Britain by Hu Gadarn.
He was a contemporary of the patriarch Abraham. Cf. Genesis
9:27f; 10:1-5; 10:21-25; 11:1-9; 11:16-27f; 14:13,18f.
Five centuries before the Christian era, Britain's common laws were
codified by Dunwal Moelmud. Since that period, they have
remained the native laws of the island -- as distinguished from the
Roman, the Canon, and other Codes of foreign introduction.
In other words -- the laws of the B.C. 510f British King Dunwall
Moelmud grew forth from the even-earlier roots of Britain's Common Law.
Rev. Morgan went on to explain that these British or druidic laws have
always justly been regarded as the foundation and bulwark of British
liberties. See Sir John Fortescue's De Laudibus Legum
Angliae (alias 'On the Praisings of the Laws of England'); and Lord
Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke's Preface to the third volume of his
Pleadings (on the origin of the Common Law of England). The
Civil Code and the sciences were taught by the druids -- orally, or in
writing, and supplied fairly to every citizen. But the
druidic system of divinity was never committed to writing -- nor
imparted, except to the initiated.
Rev.
R.W. Morgan on primordial roots of Early-British Druidism
British Druidism taught that the universe had been created.
The creative Divine Essence is a Person -- and is also pure
light. Cf. First John 1:5.
He was called Duw.
This word Duw means: 'the One without
any darkness.' Compare the Celtic Dia -- meaning
'God.' This is the
Name of the Triune God (Elohim) as given
at Genesis 1:1-3 in the Celtic Bible.
This Dia necessarily presents a triple A-spect alias three 'Faces' --
also in relation to the past, present and future. Compare
the Greek word for 'Persons': Prosoopa. Each Person has His
Own distinct work. The Father and Creator of the universe reminds us of
the past; the Saviour or Conserver reminds of the present; and the
Renovator or Re-creator reminds of the future.
All of this is beautifully reflected in the opening words of the Irish
Bible. That states: "San
tosach do chruthaidh Dia neamh 7
talamh...7 do chomuigh Spiorad De a aghaidh na nuisgedh. Agus a dubhait
Dia: 'Biodh solus ann!'"
This means: "In the beginning, the
Triune God created the Heavens and
the Earth.... And the Spirit of the Triune God moved upon
the surface of the water. And the Triune God said: 'Let
there be light!'" Genesis 1:1-3.
In the Bible, the Triune God Elohim is here already discerned to
embrace also the Light and the Spirit (before their movements during
creation). In Druidism, the three 'Faces' of God (compare
the Greek Prosoopa) were known as Eli and Yesu and Taran.
Consequently, concluded Rev. Morgan, when Christianity preached Jesus
as God to the druidic Celts -- it preached the most familiar Name of
their own Deity. Indeed, in Ancient Brythonic, the Name
'Jesus' never assumed its later latinized form. Instead, it
has remained the druidic Yesu -- compare the Greco-Celtic Ieesou(s).
Rev.
R.W. Morgan on the testimony about Early-British Druidism
Rev. Morgan remarked that the Ancient Briton has never changed the Name
of the God he and his forefathers worshipped. Nor had he
ever worshipped any but one God.
Procopius of Caesarea, the sixth-century Byzantine Historian, gave a
similar testimony. He remarked:32 "Hesus...unus tantummodo
Deus; unum Deum Dominum Universi, druides solum agnoscunt."
Translation: "Jesus...is one, to the same extent as God is; one Lord
God of the Universe, alone, do the druids acknowledge."
Rev. Morgan explained33 that to Druidism, responsibility began with the
byd bychan or the man-state. Mankind is the fallen
gwynfydolion. Except by laying down life for life, there
could be no expiation or atonement for certain kinds of guilt.
In his book The Gallic Wars, while writing about his thwarted invasion
of Britain during 55f B.C., Julius Caesar's words on this point are
remarkable. He stated:34 "The druids teach that by no other
way than the ransoming of man's life by the life of man, is
reconciliation with the divine justice of the immortal God possible."
As regards this point, Rev. Morgan then concluded that the doctrine of
vicarious atonement could not be expressed in clearer
terms. Stonehenge, the Gilgal of Britain, is today the
wreck of four thousand years' exposure to the elements. Its
first founder was Hu Gadarn, B.C. circa 1800. So, for
almost four millennia, it has kept on testifying that without the
shedding of blood there is no remission. Hebrews 9:22.
Rev.
Morgan on international influence of Early-British Druidism
Westward of Italy, Rev. Morgan further continued35 -- embracing Spain,
Gaul, portions of Germany and Scandinavia -- the druidic religion
extended. To this, we ourselves must add also
Ireland. Druidism's headquarters and great seats of
learning, however -- added Morgan -- were fixed in Britain.
The ramifications of Druidism penetrated, indeed, into Greece and Asia
Minor -- including 'Gaul-asia' alias Galatia. Nor did Plato
hesitate to affirm that all the streams of Greek philosophy were to be
traced to the fountains of the West.
The pre-historic poets of Greece anterior to the mythological creations
of Homer and Hesiod were, as their names imply, Japhethitic
druids. Such included Musaeus, Orpheus, and Linus --
specializing in knowledge, in the harp, and in robing.
A more celebrated druid, Pythagoras, founded a school the effects of
which were never wholly obliterated. Thus the immortality
of human souls and the true theories of the heavenly bodies and their
revolutions were observed among the druids right down to the Christian
Era.
There were in Britain, south of the Clyde and Forth Rivers, forty
druidic universities. They were located in the chief seats
of the forty tribes -- the originals of most of the capital cities of
the modern counties which preserve for the most part the ancient tribal
limits.
The students at these universities numbered at times sixty thousand
souls. Among these were included the young nobility of
Britain and Gaul. It required twenty years to master the
full circle alias the en-kukloo-paideia of druidic
knowledge. Nor, when one considers the great range of
acquirements which the system included, can one wonder at the length of
such probation.
Rev.
R.W. Morgan on the teaching of the druids in Early Britain
Rev. Morgan elucidated that at such druidic universities of the Ancient
Brythons the full encyclopaedia of the sciences was
offered. Natural philosophy, astronomy, arithmetic,
geometry, jurisprudence, medicine, poetry, oratory and theology were
all proposed and taught.
The first two were taught with severe exactitude. The
system of Astronomy there inculcated, never varied -- being the same as
that taught by Pythagoras and now known as the Copernican or
Newtonian. Of the attainments by the druids in all of the
sciences -- especially in the Science of Astronomy -- classic critics
of eminence (such as Cicero and Caesar, Pliny and Tacitus, Diodorus
Siculus and Strabo) all speak in high terms.
In the druidic order there centred -- and from it there indeed radiated
-- the whole civil and ecclesiastical knowledge of the
realm. They were its statesmen, legislators, priests,
physicians, lawyers, and teachers -- the depositories of all human
knowledge.
Those depositories of the realm included its religious conventions and
its politcal parliaments. They also embraced: its courts of law; its
colleges of physicians and surgeons; its magistrates; and its clergy.
The difficulty of admission into the druidic order was on a par with
its privileges. Every candidate was obliged to find twelve
heads of families as sureties for moral conduct and adequate
maintenance. Nor could he be ordained, until he had passed
three examinations for three successive years before his tribe's
Druidism College.
In Britain, the primordial druidic laws -- unaffected hitherto by
foreign innovations -- referred the power to the
people-in-congress. Indeed, every such congress was opened
with the words trech gwlad n' arglwydd -- "the country is above the
king." Thus, not Rex lex -- but Lex rex!
Rev. Morgan on
the intense religiosity of Early-British Druidism
Rev. Morgan next explained that the sacred animal of Druidism was the
white bull. The great festivals of Druidism were three: the
vernal, on the first of May; the autumnal; and the mid-winter, when the
mistletoe was gathered by the archdruids. The mistletoe,
with its three white berries, was the symbol of the druidic
Trinity. Its growth in the oak, was a type predicting the
incarnation of the Deity.
The canonical clothing of the druids consisted of white linen
robes. No metal but gold was used in any part of the
dress. The canonicals of the archdruids were extremely
gorgeous, not very dissimilar from those of the high priest of the
Hebrews.
"The druids," wrote Caesar in B.C. 54, "make the immortality of the
soul the basis of all their teaching. They hold it to be
the principal incentive and reason for a virtuous life."
Gallic Wars, book 6.
The druidic 'triads' are a heritage that should be valued, opined Rev.
Morgan. The famous Welsh Triads, according to Professor Dr.
Max Mueller, are the oldest literature in the oldest living language in
Europe. Some bear the mark of a very remote antiquity,
anterior to all the recorded conquests of the Cymrian
people. The spiritual character of druidical teaching is
illustrated in many of the Triads. Among the more
important, we may note especially the following:
"The three foundations of Druidism: Peace, Love, Justice.
The three things God alone can do: endure the eternities of infinity;
participate in all being without changing; renew everything without
annihilating it.
"There are three primeval unities, and more than one of each cannot
exist: one God, one truth, and one point of liberty....
"There are three men that all ought to look on with affection: he that
looks upon the face of the earth with affection; he that is delighted
with rational works of art; and he that looks lovingly upon little
infants.
"There are three duties of every man: worship God; be just to all men;
die for your country!"
Isabel Elder on
the dominance of Druidism in Early Britain
In her book Celt, Druid and Culdee
Isabel Elder observed36 that
Druidism was the centre and source from which radiated the whole system
of organised civil and ecclesiastical knowledge and practice of the
country. The members of the order were its statesmen,
legislators, priests, physicians, lawyers, teachers and
poets. The name "druid" is derived from drus, an
oak. The oak was held by the druids to symbolize the
Almighty Father, self-existent and eternal.
Hu Gadarn around B.C. 1800 established, among other regulations, also
that a Gor Sedd or 'Great Assembly' of druids and bards must be held in
full view and hearing of all the people. Gauls sent their
youth to Britain to be educated there -- and also there to attend the
Gor Sedd.
Druidic degrees were conferred by the colleges in Britain respectively
after three, six, and nine years' training. The highest
degree, that of Pen Cerdd or Athro (Doctor of Learning), was conferred
after nine years. All degrees were given by the king -- or,
in his presence or by his licence, before a deputy -- at the end of
every three years.
Druidic physicians were skilled in the treatment of the
sick. Their recipe for health was cheerfulness, temperance
and exercise. When Nuadha, an early King of Ireland, lost
his hand -- Creidne an artificer put a silver hand upon
him. The fingers of that hand were capable of
motion. Indeed, the Irish had an organized body of
surgeons.
Stonehenge, the observatory and great solar clock of ancient times, was
pre-eminently an astronomical circle. Heliograph and beacon
were both used by Britain's ancient astronomers in signalling the time
and the seasons -- the result of observations for the daily direction
of the agriculturist and of the trader. British architects
trained in druidic colleges were in great demand on the Continent.
In Britain, Druidism had retained in great degree its original
purity. This was so, for many reasons -- the
inaccessibility of the island; its freedom from foreign invasion; its
character of sanctity; and its possession by the Gomerites.
Genesis 10:2-5. In the time of St. Paul, it had been -- for
a period of two thousand years -- the established religion of Britain.
The attachment of the people to the rule of Druidism confirms the
impression left by a dispassionate examination of the remains of its
theology which have descended to us in the Ancient British
tongue. It was a highly moral, elevating, and beneficent
religion. This also explains the desperate and
well-sustained defence the Druidists made on behalf of their country
against the whole force of the Roman Empire in the very meridian of its
power.
Isabel
Elder on the antagonism of Roman Paganism toward Druidism
Isabel Elder also went on to defend her above assessment.
She pointed out that one druidic triad familiar to the Greeks and
Romans, was: "There are three duties of every man -- worship God; be
just to all men; die for your country!" It was this last
duty which caused Druidism to be marked for destruction by the Roman
Empire -- which aspired to universal dominion.
For in the early days of the Roman Empire from about B.C. 58 onward,
the druidic colleges in Britain (as the only Free State in Europe) at
that period -- continued to educate and send forth their alumni to all
parts of the European Continent. From Pagan Rome's warped
perspective, Druidism (and especially in Britain where it was
headquartered) was regarded as being Anti-Roman.
Consequently, British Druidism just had to be stopped. It
was, however, very firmly established among the Celts -- and solidly
headquartered in Britain.
Rome's first and unsuccessful invasion of Britain, by the pagan Julius
Caesar, occurred in 55f B.C. Even then, he reported on
Britain's Druidism in less than appreciative terms.
Not till 43 A.D., explained Isabel Elder, did the Second Roman (or
Claudian) Invasion of Britain take place. It took Claudius
Caesar's Romans ten years of incessant warfare to establish a firm
footing in the south of the island. Nor was it till about
60 A.D., or seven years after the fall of Caractacus (the British
Prince Caradoc), that the Roman State ventured to give its legions
orders to carry out the leading object of the invasions -- the
destruction by force of arms of the druidic Cori or Seminaries in
Britain.
Strabo (around B.C. 20f) observed that the care of worshipping the
Supreme Being was then great among the Britons. Also Pliny
and Pomponius Mela reflected upon its strength -- not just in Britain,
but even among other Celts elsewhere too.
In the Christian era, the Briton St. Patrick used the shamrock to
instruct the druidic people of Ireland in the doctrine of the
Trinity. For in earlier days, the druids had used
oak-sprigs (and clusters of mistletoe berries) for the same
purpose. Indeed, the mistletoe grafted into oak trees was
another form of representation to them of their divine Yesu grafted
into man's human nature -- to Whose coming they then looked forward
with as great an expectancy as did the Jews in Palestine to the
Messiah.
'Magi' -- the Latin equivalent
for 'druids' -- was a concept
used by
the writers of Early Ireland -- and frequently also by the Ancient
Welsh. The druids were, in Celtic hagiology, constantly
termed magi. Indeed, the Irish Bible uses the very word
'draoithe' (alias 'druids') for 'wise-men' -- at Matthew 2:1-7. Thus:
Feuch! Tangadar
draoithe...go hJerushalem, ag radh 'Ga hait
iona bhfuil an Righ ud na nJuduigheidh? Ata ar na
bhreith? Oir do chunncamairne a realt Sann aird shoir, agus
tangamar Da onorughadh!' .... Agus an shin do ghoir
Joruaith, na draoithe osh isheil chuige, 7 do fhiasruigh she diobh go
roigheur cia a naimsheai ionar shoillshigheidh an reult.
This was so rendered, from the Greek:
Idou! Magoi...paregenonto
eis Ierosoluma, legontes. Pou
estin ho techtheis Basileus toon Ioudaioon? Eidomen gar Autou ton
astera..., kai eelthomen proskuneesai Autooi!.... Tote Heerooiidees
lathrai kalesas tous magous eekriboosen par' autoon ton chronon tou
phainomenou asteros. This means:
"Behold! There came
wise-men...to Jerusalem., saying 'Where
is He Who has been born King of the Jews? For
we have seen His star...and have come to worship Him!' ...
Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise-men, enquired from
them diligently what time the star had appeared."
This would again remind us of the druids' excellent grasp of natural
theology -- making journeys precisely to worship their celestial
King. It further reminds us of their great grasp also of
the natural sciences, such as astronomy.
Isabel Elder further recorded that in A.D. 61, Suetonius Paulinus --
the Roman legate in the area of Britain then invaded and occupied by
the Romans -- proceeded to carry out instructions received from Rome to
extirpate Druidism in Britain. Rome's own Pagan Historian Tacitus,
patently unsympathetic toward the gallant defenders of Britain,
graphically described37 the Roman massacre of the druidic priests which
then took place.
Druidism and Christianity had no greater enemy than Imperial Pagan
Rome. There is no record of any Christian Missionary to
Britain having suffered martyrdom under Druidism. Among the
druids, there were numerous confessors of Christianity.
Indeed -- it is to St. Swithin, the first Chancellor-Bishop, that the
Church owes the revival and restoration by statute of the druidic law
of tithes.
Rev. Dr. J.A.
McCulloch on Druidism (in Hastings's
Encyclopaedia)
More critically, Rev. J.A. McCulloch in the Hastings's Encyclopaedia of
Religion and Ethics declared38 that our knowledge of the druids
rests
mainly upon what Caesar and Pliny and other writers in shorter notices
have handed down -- and upon occasional references in the Irish texts.
In his Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar said:39 "The system is thought to
have been devised in Britain."
D'Arbois de Jubainville, in his work on the druids,40 holds (as too do
others) that Druidism originated in Britain. The druids
were the priests of the Goidels who, when conquered by the Celts from
Gaul, in turn imposed their priesthood upon their
conquerors.
Valroger, in his book on the Celts,41 further derives British Druidism
from the Phoenicians. Very interestingly, the latter were
the immediate neighbours of the Ancient Israelites.
The Scholar Gomme -- in his book Ethnology
in Folk-lore,42 and again in
his book Village Community43
-- explained Dr. McCulloch -- discussed
many of the druidic beliefs and practices. Such include: the redemption
of one life by another; the customs of the druids in settling property
succession, boundaries and controversies; and the adjudication of
crimes.
McCulloch further maintained44 that the arguments used by Reinach45 in
his Plastic Arts in Gaul and Druidism, suggest a higher religious
outlook. The Celts, he said, had no images.
This argues that they forbad images.
Classical evidence tends to show that the druids were a great inclusive
priesthood -- with priestly, prophetic, medical, legal and poetical
functions. The druids were a native priesthood common to
both branches of the Celtic people (viz. the C-Celts in Ireland as well
as the P-Celts in Britain). They had grown up side by side,
together with the growth of the native religion.
Rev. Dr. J.A.
McCulloch on classical sources about the druids
McCulloch then stated46 that the earliest reference to the druids by
name is found in a passage of Diogenes Laertius.47 He cited
Sotion and Pseudo-Aristotle (circa second century B.C.) as saying:
"There are among the Celtae and Galatae those who are called
druids." Caesar, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Timagenes,
Lucan, Pomponius Mela -- and many other later writers -- speak of the
philosophic science of the druids, their schools of learning, and their
political power.
The druids were teachers -- unlike the Greek and Roman
priests. E.g., the druids taught the doctrine of
immortality. They were highly organized, and their
knowledge was claimed to have been divinely conveyed. Of
the druids, the Romans Julius Caesar48 and Pomponius Mela49 said: "They
profess to know the motions of the heavens and the stars."
Strabo50 and Mela51 told of their knowledge of "the magnitude and form
of the Earth and the World."
Dr. McCulloch observed52 that philosophic teachings may have penetrated
to some of the druids via the Massilian colonies in
Marseilles. The druids taught a future existence in the
body.
The druidic doctrine of immortality was not necessarily one of
metempsychosis (alias transmigration of the soul from one body to
another). Apparent resemblances here have been exaggerated
by some -- and made far too much of, by Anti-Druidists.
Thus, there is the exaggerated statement by Timagenes -- that the
druids "conformed to the doctrines and rules of the discipline
instituted by Pythagoras." Then there is also the
exaggerated statement of Ammianus -- that the druids lived in
communities.53
Yet in actual fact, the druids -- just like the Jews and the Christians
-- believed not in the metempsychosis but in the unannihilable
immortality and the unchanging personality of the soul. They also
believed in its instrumental power to resurrect the same body it had
indwelt. Matthew 10:28 cf. Luke 20:27f.
Furthermore, while at least some of the druids indeed lived in
communities -- others of them seem to have lived each on his
own. Indeed, whenever druids did live in communities, such
were not celibate but religious clusters of like-minded families --
just like those of the Hebrew Essenes54 and the later Celtic Culdee
Christians. For neither Celtic druids nor their Celtic
Culdee successors ever lived in celibate monasteries like Romish or
Buddhist monks and nuns.
Rev. Dr.
McCulloch on the knowledge and activities of the druids
Dr. McCulloch further explained55 that the druids sought after
knowledge. It was of an empirical kind. The
Irish texts show that the insular druids were also teachers, imparting
"the science of Druidism" (or Druidecht) to as many as one hundred
pupils at a time.
Julius Caesar wrote56 that the subjects of druidic knowledge were: the
doctrine of immortality; "many things regarding the stars and their
motions; the extent of the Universe and the Earth; the nature of
things; and the power and might of the immortal gods" (from Caesar's
own warped and polytheistic perspective).
Verses never committed to writing, were also learned by the
druids. Strabo57 spoke of their teachings also in "moral
science" alias ethics.
An example of this is handed down by the A.D. 200f Diogenes
Laertius. He recorded:58 "The druids philosophize...to
worship God; to do no evil; to exercise courage." Writing,
however, was known to them -- and the Greek characters were used
therein.
There was also a native script, and the ogham system may have been
known in Gaul as well as in Britain and especially in Ireland. At least
the Irish druids do appear to have had written books.
The druids were mediators between God and men. As to
sacrifices, none was complete "without the intervention of a druid" --
thus the B.C. 60 Diodorus Siculus.59
The druids also played an important part in the native 'baptismal' and
'name-giving' rites. Other words of Pliny might well
suggest60 that the druids practised the art of healing. In
Ireland, druids had also medical skill (as as regards surgery).
As Julius Caesar remarked,61 there was one 'chief druid' (called the
ard-drui in Ireland). He who had pre-eminent dignity among
the others, succeeded to that office. But if there were
several of equal rank, the selection was made by vote. In
Ireland, the druids also intervened in the choice of a king.
The druids were a purely Celtic Priesthood. The existence
among the Galatian Celts of a council of three hundred men, who met in
a place called drunemeton, and judged crimes of murder -- may mean that
this was a 'Council of Druids.' Similarly, see too
Strabo.62
McCulloch finally discussed63 the extinction of the druidsthroughout
the expanding Pagan-Roman Empire. For there was increasing
Pagan-Roman opposition to Druidism.
Augustus prohibited Roman citizens from taking part in the religio
druidarum -- thus the A.D. 100f Pagan-Roman Historian
Suetonius.64 Pliny asserted65 that Tiberius interdicted
"the druids and that race of prophets and doctors."
Claudius completely abolished the religion of the druids throughout his
pagan Roman Empire.
Yet druids were still active after Nero's death, and took a prominent
part in the revolt against Rome. Some prophesied a world
dominion for the Celts at the time of the burning of the Capitol at
Rome in A.D. 70. Thus Rome's pagan historian Tacitus.66
Dean Page and
writers on Druidism and the Bible and Christianity
In an interesting article on Druidism and Christianity,67 one reads
that Druidism made the acceptance of Christianity a good deal easier
for the Celts than it otherwise would have been. Indeed, it should
always be remembered that it was certainly a monotheistic -- if not
also even a trinitarian -- form of worship.
It is highly probable that Druidism, which came from the East with the
earlier waves of Celtic immigration, closely followed the patriarchal
worship of the true Triune God. The Druidists' first
festival of the year was celebrated on the tenth day of the first
month; also the Israel Passover was celebrated then. Fifty
days after, the Druidists held another great festival, corresponding
with Israel's Feast of Weeks. And the Druidists' third
great Yuletide festival, found its parallel in the Israelite Feast of
Tabernacles.
Again, Dean Page -- in his book The
Ancient British Church68 -- voiced
a remarkable if unconscious recognition of the ways of God.
He wrote of Britain that in this distant corner of the Earth, a people
was being prepared for the Lord. There was no violent
divorce between the new teaching of Christianity and that of their own
Druids."
Rev.
Prof. Dr. Hugh Williams on Druidism and Christianity
Too, the noted modern Welsh Church Historian Rev. Professor Dr. Hugh
Williams -- in his Ecclesiastical
Antiquities of the Cwmry -- has
shown69 that Brythonic Bardism gradually became incorporated with
Old-Cymric Christianity. At length, by consent of country
and tribe, Druidism was replaced by Christianity. The
privileges of the druids (so strikingly analogous to those of the
Levites) were transferred to the Christian Ministers.
The transition from Druidism to Christianity in the British Isles -- by
and large -- was harmonious. That from Judaism to
Christianity in Palestine, however, was not. The reason for
this seems to be that by the first century A.D., Druidism represented a
far less degenerated version of Old Testament Religion than did
Judaism.
Britain and Wales were the headquarters of Druidism. There,
while Roman Paganism was stoutly resisted -- contemporaneous
Christianity from Palestine was warmly welcomed.
Later, even in Ireland -- in spite of some opposition to the preaching
of the Brythonic Christian Missionary Patrick (the opposition also
coming from some of the more influential druids who feared the loss of
their vested interests) -- most of the druidic priests embraced
Christianity after little or no resistance to it.
Indeed, some druids even openly welcomed Christianity -- as Druidism's
expected fulfilment and replacement. Cf. Acts
6:7. Significantly, the British Christian Patrick himself
sought to incorporate many features of Irish Druidism into Irish
Christianity. Those features then continued for many
centuries -- until the terrible triumph subsequently, in
twelfth-century Ireland, of alien and semi-pagan Romanism.
Dr.
Diana Leatham on Celtic Druidism and Celtic Christianity
As Dr. Diana Leatham rightly observed in her useful book Celtic
Sunrise: An Outline of Celtic Christianity70 --while spreading
Christianity, scarcely any of the hundreds of unarmed Missionaries lost
their lives in Ireland. Not one was killed by Celts in
Scotland.
The druids had taught the Celts "to worship God [and] to do nothing
evil" (thus Diogenes Laertius). The Celts of Ireland and
Scotland obviously considered men of God to be sacred. Consequently, on
the whole, the druids and their followers in the British Isles warmly
welcomed Early Christianity.
Fascinating too is the Iro-Scotic testimony71 of the Scottish
Chronicle...of Irish Affairs (from the Earliest Times to A.D.
1135). For there, we encounter the following prayer of
perhaps the greatest of all Celtic Christians.
Insisted Colum Cille alias St. Columba: "A Dia..., A she mo drui....Mac
De is! Translation: 'O God..., my druid...is the Son of
God!"
Celsus & Origen insisted "most learned" druids resembled Jews
Also the learned Columba knew even about the writings of
Origen. The latter had been the Church's greatest brain
around A.D. 230 -- having by then authored more than 6000 books.
That Origines Adamantius of Alexandria had insisted that even his
erudite opponent Celsus had been correct to style "the druids of the
Gauls and the Geta, 'most learned and ancient tribes.'"
This, observed Origen,72 was so regarding the "druids of the Gauls and
the Get-a" or the Gaels and the S-Get-hs alias the
S-cyt-hians. Those "druids" were rightly called "most
learned" (said Origen) "on account of the resemblance between their
traditions and those of the Jews."
1 Covenant, London, 1978 ed., p. 12. 2
The Hidden Centuries, Covenant, London, 1969, p. 62.
3 Cited in Rev. Prof. Dr. McEwen's History of the Church in Scotland,
Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1915, I, p. 3 n. 2.
4 M. Deansley: The Pre-Conquest Church in England, A. & C. Black,
London, 1963, pp. 4f.
5 Marshall Bros. Ltd., London, n.d., I, Genesis p. 79; cf. III pp. 1-2
(on Job).
6 J.G. Frazer: Folk-lore of the Old Testament, Macmillan, New York,
1963 ab. ed., p. viii. 7 Op. cit., pp. 333-36.
8 Wars, IV:9:7. 9 Life of Constantine,
III:51-53. 10 Cf. in Eusebius's Life of
Constantine, III:52-53.
11 Soz.: Eccl. Hist., II:4 compare I:1. 12
Soc.: Eccl. Hist., I:18. 13 Doubleday, 1967
(pp. 12,43,50).
14 Hall, London, 1861, pp. 58f & 70. 15
Art. Stonehenge. 16 Hist. Lib.,
II:2:47f. 17 Ib., III:5:28-31.
18 Hist. Nat., IV:16,95,102,249f. 19 Caesar and
Christ, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1944, p. 472.
20 Macmillan, New York, 1963 ab. ed., pp. 757f.
21 Ib., pp. 764f. 22 In its arts. Druid and
Druids. 23 14th ed.
24 Time-Life International, Netherlands, 1974, p.
95. 25 Ib., pp. 100 &
107. 26 Op. cit., pp.
85f. 27 Ib., pp. 90f.
28 Reader's Digest History of Man: The Last Two Million Years, Reader's
Digest Assoc., London, 1974, pp. 41f.
29 E. Hadingham: Was Stonehenge Built as an Observatory? (in The
World's Last Mysteries, Reader's Digest, Sydney, 1976, pp. 82f).
30 Covenant, London, 1931, pp. 3-8. 31 Covenant,
London, 1860, pp. 48-73. 32 Procopius: De Gothicis,
book iii.
33 Op. cit., pp. 48-73. 34 Comment., book
v. 35 Op. cit., pp.
48-73. 36 Covenant, London, 1938, pp. 46-86.
37 Vita Agric., 5 & 18. 38 See his
art. 'Druids' (in Hastings Enc. Relig. & Eth., 1909, V pp. 82f).
39 Gallic Wars, 6:13. 40 J.D'A. de Jubainville:
Les Druides, Paris, 1906, p. 23f.
41 V. Valroger: Les Celtes, Paris, 1879, p 158.
42 G.L. Gomme: Ethnology in Folk-lore, London, 1892, p. 58.
43 G.L. Gomme: Village Community, London, 1890, p.
104. 44 Druids, in Hasting's ERE V pp. 82f.
45 R. Reinach: Plastic Arts in Gaul and Druidism (in Celtic Review,
XIII:189).
6 Druids, in Hasting's ERE V pp. 82f. 47
Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers, I:1.
48 J. Caesar: Gall. Wars, 6:14. 49 Pomp. Mela:
The Place of the World, 3:19. 50 Strabo: Geog.,
4:4:4.
51 Op. cit., 3:19. 52 Druids, in Hasting's ERE
V pp. 82f.
53 Timagenes: On Ammianus Marcellinus, 15:9 (compare Diod. Sic. Hist.
Liv. 5:28).
54 Josephus's Wars, II:8:9-14 (cf. Acts 2:45f).
55 Druids, in Hasting's ERE V pp. 82f. 56 Gall.
Wars, 6:14.
57 Loc. cit. 58 Op. cit., proem
5. 59 Op. cit. V:31 (compare Julius Caesar's
Gall. Wars 6:16).
60 Hist. Nat., IV:16,95,102,249f. 61 Op. cit.,
6:13. 62 Geog., 12:5:1.
63 Druids, in Hasting's ERE V pp. 82f.
64 Suet.: Claudius, 35. 65 Op. cit.,
30:1. 66 Tac.: Hist., 4:54.
67 Art. Druidism and Christianity (in The Link, Christian Israel
Foundation, Walsall, West Midlands, Britain, May 1983, p. 239).
68 D. Page: The Ancient British Church. 69 H.
Williams: Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Cwmry.
70 Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1951, pp. 12-18. 71
Longmans, London, ed. 1866, p. 53. 72 Orig.: Con. Cels.
I:16.
Làrach-lìn
Rev Prof Dr FRANCIS NIGEL LEE
Dhachaigh
Air ais