THE APOSTLE PAUL IN BRITAIN
by R.W. Morgan (1860)
PREFACE
A FAITHFUL account of the origin of native British Christianity
as opposed to the Papal system first introduced four hundred and
fifty-six years subsequently by Augustine the monk, is here, in
readable compass, presented to the public. The history of such
origin is inseparably blended with the long-sustained resistance
of our early forefathers to the invasions of their liberties by
the greatest empire of antiquity, wielding against them the
military forces of nearly three-quarters of the globe. The events
thus recorded have left their moulding power to this day on our
constitution in Church and State. The most cursory glance at them
is sufficient to demonstrate the untenableness of the supposition
that Britain is indebted to Germany - a country which has never
itself been free-for its free institutions, or to Italy for its
Gospel faith. The leading principles of her laws and liberties
are of pure indigenous growth; and her evangelical faith was
received by her directly from Jerusalem and the East, from the
lips of the first disciples themselves of Christ. The struggles
in after ages down to our own period for the restoration and
preservation of these indigenous birthright liberties, this
primitive apostolical faith, constitute the most stirring and
ennobling portions of our annals; and we may rest assured that as
long as in their modern developments of British Protestantism,
British Patriotism, and British Loyalty, they continue to inspire
the national heart, our island will continue to retain her
position in the van-ward of the march of Order, Liberty, and
Progress.
Dec. 24, 1860
ST. PAUL IN BRITAIN
CHAPTER I
THE RELIGION OF BRITAIN AND WESTERN EUROPE.-DRUIDISM.
ITS PRINCIPLES AND INFLUENCES. - THE PREPARATION FOR
CHRISTIANITY.
WESTWARD of Italy, embracing Hispania, Gallia, the Rhenish
frontiers, portions of Germany and Scandinavia, with its
headquarters and great seats of learning fixed in Britain,
extended the Druidic religion. There can be no question that this
was the primitive religion of mankind, covering at one period in
various forms the whole surface of the ancient world.
The ramifications of Druidism penetrated, indeed, into
Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor; nor did Plato hesitate to affirm
that all the streams of Greek philosophy were to be traced, not
to Egypt, but to the fountains of the West. The pre-historic
poets of Greece anterior to the mythologic creations of Homer and
Hesiod, were, as their names imply, Druids--Musaeus, Orpheus,
Linus, (knowledge, the harp, the white-robed). Such historians
were necessarily poets, for with the Druids metre was the vehicle
of instruction. The visit of the British Druid, Abaris, was long
remembered at Athens. Greek fancy converted the magnetic needle
by which he guided his travels into an arrow of Apollo which
would transport him at wish whithersoever he pleased. A more
celebrated Druid, Pythagoras, founded a school in Italy the
effects of which, though he himself and many of his leading
scholars perished in a popular commotion, were never wholly
obliterated; the transmigration of souls, their preexistence and
immortality, the true theories of the heavenly bodies and their
revolutions, the severity of the esoteric system with its silence
and secrecy, being observed by various Italian sects down to the
Christian era. In the AEgean Sea, Samothrace and Delos were
Eastern cells of the same priesthood, the same rites being
observed as in Britain, and embassies at stated periods
exchanging visitations. 1 In earlier ages the City of Circles in
Asia Minor-Troia (Troy)- and the Minoan Labyrinth in Crete were
seats of the same widely-extended religion, and in Egypt the name
of the great mothertemple, Carnac, identifies its remote founders
with those of the mother-temple of the same name in Bretagne,
both meaning 'the high stones of worship.' In the East, however,
the principles of Druidism could only be traced in its earliest
records, whilst on the continent of Europe they bore in practice
and development the same corrupt relation to primitive Druidism
as at present the Roman Catholic religion in the same countries
does to primitive Christianity. In Britain on the contrary, it
had, for many reasons - the inaccessibility the island, its
freedom from foreign invasion, its character of sanctity, its
possession by Gomeridae--retained in great degree its on final
purity.
In the time of St. Paul it had been for a period of two
thousand years the established religion; and the attachment of
the people to its rule, with the desperate an well-sustained
defence they made in its behalf and that of their country against
the whole force of the Roman Empire in the meridian of its power,
confirm the impression left by a dispassionate examination of the
remains of its theology which have descended to us in the ancient
British tongue, namely, that it was a highly moral, elevating,
and beneficent religion, a superstructure not unworthy the prin-
......
1 Artemidorus, quoted by Strabo, the Orphic Hymns; Avienus de
Britannia.
......
ciple on which it assumed to be built, and by which it offered
itself to be judged, "The truth against the world," (Y Gwir erbyn
y Byd)
It has been observed by the historian Hume, "that no
religion has ever swayed the minds of men like the Druidic." The
determined efforts of the Roman empire to overthrow its
supremacy, and, if possible, suppress it altogether, prove that
its rulers had been made practically aware of this fact. A
Druidic triad familiar to the Greeks and Romans was, "Three
duties of every man: Worship God; be just to all men; die for
your country 2." It was this last duty, impressed by a thousand
examples and precepts, and not its religious tenets or
philosophy, which caused Druidism to be marked for destruction by
an empire which aspired to universal dominion and to merge all
nationalities in one city. The edicts of the Emperors Augustus
and Tiberius proscribed it throughout their dominions, making the
exercise of the functions of a Druidic priest, as those of the
Roman priest in the reigns of the Tudor sovereigns in England, a
treasonable offence. But nations cannot be proscribed. The
Druidic colleges in Britain, the only free state in Europe at
this period, continued to educate and send forth their alumni to
all parts of the Continent. Not till A.D.43, that is, fourteen
years only before the arrival of St. Paul in Rome, did the
second, or Claudian invasion of Britain take place. It took, ten
years of incessant warfare to establish a firm footing in the
south of the island; nor was it till seven years after the fall
of Caractacus that the Roman state ventured to give its legions
orders to carry out the leading object of
......
2 There is touching beauty in many of the Druidic triads, as in
the following:- "There are three men all should love: He that
loves the face of his mother Nature; he that loves rational works
of art, he that looks lovingly on the faces of little children."
......
the invasion -- the destruction by force of arms of the Druidic
cori, or seminaries, in Britain. The Boadicean war and the death
of 80,000 Roman citizens were the first results of this policy of
religious "dragonnades."
Summary of Druidic in Britain
Druidism was founded by Gwyddon Ganhebon, supposed to be the
Seth of the Mosaic genealogy, in Asia, in the year when the
equinox occurred in the first point of Taurus; or the
constellation of the Bull. Every year the equinoctial year is
completed about twenty minutes before the sun has made a complete
revolution from a certain star to ttc same star again. This
arises from the precession of the equinoxes, or from a slow
revolution of the pole of the equator round that of the ecliptic.
In 25,920 years the pole of the equator makes one entire
revolution round that of the ecliptic - hence the equinoctial
colure occurs before it did the preceding year. In 72 years the
precession amounts to one degree. If therefore, we have the
equinoctial or solstitial point given in the ecliptic at any
unknown period, it is easy to discover, by comparing it with the
present solstitial point, how long that period is past. When the
Druidic system was founded, the equinox, on the 1st of May,
occurred in the first point of Taurus, which first point is now,
on the 1st of May, 80 degrees from this solstitial point. It
requires 72 years to recede one degree. Eighty degrees multiplied
by 72 gives 5,760, the exact date when Druidism commenced, i.e.,
3,903 years before the Christian era, 181 years after the
creation of man, (This idea of when man was created is now
totally obliterated by science and historical facts - man has
been on the earth for at least 10,000 years - Keith Hunt) and 50
years after the birth of Seth. The astral bull of milk-white hue,
its horns crowned with golden stars, became the symbol, or
visible sacrament, of Druidism, In process of time the symbol,
as usual, superseded in the East the thing signified, and
Druidism became that tauric religion which gave the Crimea the
appellation of the Tauric Chersonese. Extending thence, this
corruption became the religion of Mithras in Persia, of Baal in
Assyria, of Brahma in India, of Astarte or the, Dea Syria in
Syria, of Apis in Egypt, and in later ages, transferred from
Egypt, of the two. "Apis" (or - calves as they are rendered in
our version of the Scriptures) of the kingdom of Israel. 3 In all
these religions the bull, or Taurus, was the sacred animal, and
the symbol was preserved free, as far as we can judge, from
idolatry by the Gomeridae of Britain. The bull was he sign and
representant of the great Druidic isle, and the name still, in
common parlance, continues to indicate a Briton of Britain as
distinguished from the rest of the world.
From Asia Druidism was brought into Britain by Hu Gadarn, or
the Mighty; its first colonizer, a contemporary of the Patriarch
Abraham, and under his successors, Plennydd, Coron, Alawn and
Rhivon, it assumed lts complete organization, becoming both the
ecclesiastical and civil constitution of the island. About five
centuries before the Christian era, its civil laws were codified
by Dunwal Moelmud the British Numa, and have since that period
remained the common, unwritten, or native laws of the island,
as, distinguished from the Roman, the canon, and other codes of
foreign introduction. These British or, Druidic laws have
been always justly regarded as the foundation and bulwark
of British liberties. 4 The examination of them does not
fall within our present purpose. The civil code and the sciences
were taught by
......
3 The symbol of Druidism in Crete was the Menw-tarw, or Menw-bull
and its chief temple the Labyrinth. Out of such simple elements
the imaginative Greek mind forged the fable of Minos, the
Minotaur, and the Pasiphae, as it did that of the rape of Europa
from the Astarte of Syria.
......
the Druids---orally or in writing indifferently---to every
citizen, but the Druidic system of divinity was never committed
to writing, nor imparted except to the initiated, and then under
obligations to secrecy of a very awful character. It is, however,
to the infraction of these obligations, when their force had been
impaired by the influences of Christianity, that we are indebted
for such knowledge as we possess of the real principles of the
primitive religion of our island.
Some of the Druid Teachings:
The universe is infinite, being the body of the being who
out of himself evolved or created it, and now pervades and rules
it, as the mind of man does his body. The essence of this being
is pure, mental light, and therefore he is called Du-w, Duw (the
one without any darkness). His real name is an ineffable mystery,
and so also is his nature. 5 To the human mind, though not in
himself, he necessarily represents a triple aspect in relation to
the past, present, and future; the creator as to the past, the
saviour or conserver as to the present, the renovator or
re-creator as to the future. In the re-creator the idea of the
destroyer was also involved. This was the Druidic trinity - the
three aspects of which were known as Beli, Taran, Esu or Yesu,
When Christianity preached Jesus as
......
4 Sir John Fortescue, "De Laudibus Legum Anglice Coke," Preface
to third vol. of Pleadings; Origin of the Common Law of England.
5 There are now three states of existence; the cycle of
'Ceugant,' where there is nothing of living or dead but God, and
God alone can traverse it; the cycle of 'Abred,' where all
natural existence originates from death - this man has traversed;
the cycie of 'Gwynfyd,' where all existence is from life to
life--this man will traverse in the 'Nevoedd' (changes of life
in heaven)....The Druids, contrary to the Mosaic account, made
the creation of man simultaneous with that of solar light. "Three
things came into being at the same moment - light, man, and moral
choice," --(Druidic Triads.)
......
God, it preached the most familiar name of its own deity to
Druidism; and in the ancient British tongue 'Jesus' has never
assumed its Greek, Latin, or Hebrew form, but remains the pure
Druidic 'Yesu' It is singular thus that the ancient Briton has
never changed the name of the God he and his forefathers
worshipped, nor has ever worshipped but one God. 6
The symbol of the ineffable name of the Deity were three
rays or glories of light. Every Druid bore these in gold on the
front of his mitre.
Other names of the deity were Deon, Dovydd, Celi, Tor,
Perydd, Sol, Rhun, Ner.
In the infinite Deity exist in some incomprehensible mode,
indivisible from himself, infinite germs, seeds, or atoms
(manred, manredit), each in itself full and perfect deity,
possessing the power of infinite creativeness. This branch of
Druidic theism is involved in profound obscurity. It appears to
have supplied Democritus with his theory of the atomic powers of
nature, and Plato with his typal forms in the mind of the Deity.
Matter was created and systematized simultaneously by the
Creator's pronouncing His own name. It cannot exist without God.
Nature is the action of God through the medium of matter. The
laws of nature are, in the strictest sense, the laws of God, and
that which is a violation of the laws of nature is necessarily a
violation of the laws of God?
The universe is in substance eternal and imperishable,
......
6 So Procopius also testifies:
"Hesus, Taranis. Belenus unus tantummodo Deus
Unum Deum Dominum universi Druides Solum agnoscunt."
De Gothicis, lib, iii.
7 The Druid regarded himself as the priest of the deity of
nature, but in addition to this hierarchic character there
appears to have been the following observances derived from
one original family, language, and religion common to his with
all the other forms of the primitive truth---libation,
sacrifices, tradition of the Deluge, of the war of the Titanidae
against Heaven, metempsychosis, adoration towards the East, the
division of the circle into 360 degrees, of the zodiac into
twelve signs, of the week into seven days. Most of these we find
in the Chaldaean faith, and it is certain the Chaldaeans were
highly civilised 2,000 years before the Christian era.
......
but in form it is subject to successive cycles of dissolution and
renovation. There is no such thing as annihilation in matter.
Every particle of matter is capable of all forms of matter, and
each form has its own laws of existence and action.
Around every separate existence, wherever it be, extends
infinity; this is 'Ceugant' (the infinite space, or allof-being,
ubiquity), which God alone can fill, sustain, or uphold.....
The faculty of the soul which constituted more especially
its
eternity, or imperishable self-identity, is "cov," or memory. The
memory of all the evils and existences it has undergone in
'abred;' forms or develops in the soul immediately it re-enters '
gwynfyd,' and not before. For the end of such memory is to
preserve such 'Gwynfydolion' from a second fall. In the 'abred'
cycles there is a suspension of 'cov,' and of the consciousness
of selfidentity.
The doctrine of transmigration was certainly Druidic
but it is equally certain that it was held by the Druids in a
sense the Greek and Italian schools of philosophy have failed to
transmit to us....
......
10 Three things decrease continually, darkness, evil, and death.
Three things increase continually, light, truth, and life. These
will finally prevail over all; then 'abred' will end. (Druidic
Triads.) The idea of the eternal progression of man and the
universe which pervades the Triads is very fine.
11 A Druidic Catechism, of which fragments only are extant.
......
From a "Coelbren Rodd" extract:
"Master. What art thou?
"Disciple. A man.
"M. How?
"D. By the will of God. What God wills must be.
"M. Why art thou not something else than man?
"D. What God wills cannot be otherwise.
"M. Where art thou?
"D. In 'byd bychan.'
"M. Whence art thou come?
"D. From 'byd mawr.'
"M. What wert thou doing in 'byd mawr'
"D. Traversing the cycle of 'abred.'
"M. Where wert thou before thou didst begin to traverse 'cylch
abred'?
"D. In 'annwn.'
"M. What wert thou in 'annwn'
"D. The least of life that could be in itself, the nearest to
the teeth of the dead. And in all forms and through all forms
that are called body and life am I come hither into 'byd bychan,'
and misery and trouble have been my condition for ages and ages
since I was delivered from 'annwn' and separated therefrom
through the hand of God and His love, endless and indestructible.
"M. Through how many 'rhith' (forms of life) art thou come,
and what has been thy 'damwain' (character of life)?
"D. Through every 'rhith' that can possess or be called
life-in-itself, and my 'damwain' has been all misery, all
hardship, all evil, all suffering, and little of good or
happiness has there been of me before I am man......"
A new form of life, or the entrance of existence, ensued
simultaneously with death.
(SO WAS THE TEACHING OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL WITH THE
DRUIDS - A FALSE TEACHING, AS MANY OTHER RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD
HAD ALSO ACCEPTED - Keith Hunt)
Man had the power by accepting every evil as his part of
'abred' (or purification for 'gwynfyd'), to turn it to good.
Hence willing suffering for our own good or that of others was
the test - virtue of humanity, or 'byd bychan.'
(THE TEACHING OF FREE WILL WAS CORRECT BY THE DRUIDS - Keith
Hunt)
Every soul guilty of crime, by voluntarily confessing it and
embracing the penalty prescribed, expiated its guilt, and if in
other respects good, re-entered 'gwynfyd.'
Except by the laying down of life there could be no expiation or
atonement for certain kinds of guilt. Caesar's words on is point
are remarkable;--
"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 gods possible." - ("Comment.,"
lib. v.)
The doctrine of vicarious atonement could not be expressed
in clearer terms.
The value of an atonement, or expiatory sacrifice, was in
proportion to the value of the life sacrificed.....
(WHAT WE ARE SEEING IS THE DRUIDS HAD SOME THINGS CORRECT AND
SOME THINGS VERY INCORRECT - Keith Hunt)
Druid Temples
The temples of the Druids were hypaethral, circular, and
obelistic, i.e., ,open above and on every side, representing in
form the dome of heaven, and composed of monoliths, or immense
single stones on which metal was not allowed to come. The
dracontic, or circular form, symboled the eternal cycle of
nature. The monolithic avenues leading to and from the temple,
usually known as the dragon's head and dragon's tail, were in
some instances seven miles long. The national religious
processions move through these on the three great festivals of
the year.
All the prehistoric temples of Palestine, Persia, Italy, and
Greece, commonly called Cyclopean or Pelasgic, were Druidic.
Stonehenge, the Gilgal of Britain, is the wreck of four thousand
years' exposure to the elements. Its first founder, was Hu
Gadarn, B.C.1800.
Druid Universities
There were in Britain, south of the Clyde and Forth, forty
Druidic universities, which were also the capitals of the forty
tribes, the originals of our modern counties, which preserve
for the most part the ancient tribal limits. Hence, for instance,
Yorkshire retains the same disproportioned magnitude to our other
counties as the territories of the Brigantes, its British tribe,
did to those of the other tribes. Of these forty seats nine have
disappeared, the remainder were as follows:-
Three seats of the three Arch-Druids of Britain. 14
Caer Troia, or Caer Lud, or Caer Llyndain (the city of the lake
of the Tain (Thames), or of the beautiful lake, "tain" meaning
fair
or beautiful, hence the Tain so called in British, Tyne still in
North Britain), London.
Caer Evroc, York.
Caer Lleon, Caerleon.
Seats of the Chief Druids of Britain:--Caer Caint, Canterbury.
Caer Wyn, Winchester.
Caer Werllan, afterwards Caer Municipium, St. Alban's, or
Verulam.
Caer Salwg, Old Sarum.
Caer Grawnt, Cambridge, or Granta.
Caer Lell, Carlisle.
Caer Meini, Manchester.
......
14 The Gildas MS. (Julius, D. xi.), Cottonian Library, calls
these the three arch-flamens and twenty-eight flamens of Britain.
Geoffrey of Monmouth appears to have found the same titles in the
Armorican version of Tyssilio's History.
......
Caer Gwrthegion, Palmcaster.
Coel, Colchester.
Caer Goangon, Worcester.
Caerlon ar Dwy, Chester.
Caer Peris, Dorchester.
Caer Don, Doncaster.
Caer Guoric, Warwick.
Caer Meivod, Meivod.
Caer Odor, Bristol.
Caer Llyr, Leicester.
Caer Urnach, Uroxeter.
Caer Lleyn, Lincoln.
Caer Gloyw, Gloucester.
Caer Cei, Chichester.
Caer Ceri, Cirencester.
Caer Dwr, Dorchester,
Caer Merddin, Caermarthen.
Caer Seiont, Caernarvon.
Caer Wysc, Exeter.
Caer Segont, Silchester.
Caer Baddon, Bath.
The lapse of two thousand years has made but slight
alteration in the names of these primitive cities of Britain. The
Romans invariably fixed upon the chief caer of a British tribe,
generally the strongest military position in its bounds, for
their "castra:" hence the castra and chester superseded the caer
or British citadel; but the British name itself survived the
Roman. Llyndain is still London, not Augusta; Werllan, Verulam,
not Municipium; Caer Col, Colchester, not Camalodunum, &c.;, &c.;
The students at these universities numbered at times sixty
thousand souls, among whom were included the young nobility of
Britain and Gaul. It required twenty years to master the circle
of Druidic knowledge; nor, when we consider the great range of
acquirements which the system included, can we wonder at the
length of such probation. Natural philosophy, astronomy,
arithmetic, geometry, jurisprudence medicine, poetry; and oratory
were all proposed , and taught, the first two with severe
exactitude. The system of astronomy inculcated had never varied,
being the same as that taught by Pythagoras, now known as the
Copernican or Newtonian. 15 The British words for 'star,'
'astronomer,' 'astronomy,' are "seren", "seronydd,"
"seronyddiaeth;" hence the usual Greek term for the Druids was
"Saronidoe," astronomers. Of the attainments of the Druids in all
the sciences, especially in this of astronomy, classic judges of
eminence, Cicero and Caesar, Pliny and Tacitus, Diodorus Siculus
and Strabo, speak in high terms. In the Druidic order indeed
centred, and from it radiated, the whole civil and ecclesiastical
knowledge of the realm: they were its statesmen, legislators,
priests, physicians lawyers, teachers, poets; the depositaries of
all human and divine knowledge; its Church and parliaments; its
courts of law; its colleges of physicians and surgeons;
its magistrates, clergy and bishops. The number of Druids was
regulated by very stringent laws in proportion to the
population. None could be a candidate, for the Order who could
not, in the May congress of the tribe, prove his descent
from nine successive generations of free fore-
......
15 "He that will be a prophet of God," writes Gildas, "must never
rest till he has traced everything to its cause and mode of
operation. He will then know what God does, for God does nothing
but what should be, in the manner it should be, at the time and
in the order it should be. By understanding these laws of God, he
will be able to see and foretell the future." (Principles of
Prediction of Gildas the Prophet, lolo MSS., p.609.) Prophecy,
then, was with the Druids nothing but the theological term for
science, and Gildas supplies a useful commentary on Caesar's
words - "The Druids discuss many things concerning the stars and
their revolutions, the magnitude of the globe and its various
divisions, the nature of the universe, the energy and power of
the immortal gods." (Caesar's Com., lib. v.)
......
fathers. No slave could of course be a Druid; becoming one, he,
forfeited his Order and privileges; and hence perhaps one of
the reasons of the protracted, stubborn, and finally successful
resistance of the Druidic island to the Roman arms; for it was
not till the reign of Adrian, A.D.120, that Britain was
incorporated, and then by treaty, not conquest, with the Roman
dominions, the Britons retaining their kings, land, laws and
rights, and stipulating return to raise and support three legions
to be officered by the Emperor for the defence of the common
empire. 16 Bycommon law every Briton was seized as his
birthright five acres (ten English) of land in the "gweli
cenedl," the 'bed' or hereditary county of his clan. If the clan
land was exhausted, recourse was had to emigration or conquest,
and for this purpose the superfluous population was draughted off
as an army, or more generally as a colony. Hence the mother-tribe
and daughter-tribes of the same name which so frequently occur in
Britain, Gaul, Germany arid Hibernia. In addition to these five
acres, the Druid received five acres more and a certain fixed
income from his tribe. The difficulty of admission into the Order
was on a par with its privileges. The head of the clan possessed
a veto on every ordination. Every candidate was obliged to find
twelve head of families as sureties for moral conduct and
adequate maintenance; nor could he be ordained until he had
passed three, examinations three successive years before the
Druidic college of the tribe.
......
16 The accepting or circulating of Roman coin in Britain was made
a capital offence by Arviragus; for such an act, according to
the Roman construction, inferred the right of levying tribute, as
we see in the Scriptures: "Whose image and superscription is
this? Caesar's. Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are
Caesar's." From the reign of Claudius to that of Hadrian no
coins, therefore, of the intervening Roman emperors have been
found in Britain. From Hadrian onward there have been found a
nearly complete series.
......
These barriers to promiscuous admission threw the Order
almost entirely into the hands of the "blaenorion" or
aristocracy, making it literally a "royal priesthood," kings,
princes, and nobles, entering largely into its composition.
Druids Power
"All power," states Caesar, speaking of Gaul, "is vested in
the two orders of the Druids and aristocracy: the people
are nothing." This however, was evidently not the case in
Britain, where the primitive Druidic laws, unaffected hitherto by
foreign innovations, referred the source of all power to the
people in congress, and every congress was opened with the words
"Trech gwald n' arglwydd" - "The country is above the king."
Nevertheless, the authority and influence of the Druids were very
great, and, on the whole, as popular as they were great. The
extreme penalty lodged in their hands, and the one most dreaded,
was that of excommunication - "poena gravissima," states Caesar -
which was, in fact, a decree of expulsion from both worlds, the
present and future. The terror it inspired is the best proof that
it was not abused and but rarely resorted to; for the most
terrific punishments, if abused, soon lose their effect and
become despised.
Druids Sacred Animals etc.
The sacred animal of Druidism was the white astral bull, the
sacred bird, crested wren; the sacred tree, the oak; the sacred
grain, wheat; the sacred plant, the mistletoe; the sacred herbs,
the trefoil, vervain, and hyssop.
Druid Sacred Feasts
The great festivals of Druidism were three: the vernal, on the
1st of of May; the autumnal; and the mid-winter, when the
mistletoe was gathered by the arch-Druids. The mistletoe with its
berries, was the symbol of the Druidic Trinity, and its growh in
the oak of the type of the incarnation of the Deity in man.
Druid Altar
The hypaethral altar in the Druidic circle was called
cromlech (stone of bowing, or adoration). Near it another
stone received in a cavity water direct from heaven (holy
water.) This holy water and the waters of the river Dee, the
Jordan of ancient Britain, were the only waters permitted to be
used in Druidic sacrifices. No Druid could wear arms of any
description. None but a Druid could officiate at a sacrifice.
Druid Dress
The canonicals of the Druid were white linen robes, no metal
but gold being used in any part of the dress. The canonicals of
the arch-Druids were extremely gorgeous, not very dissimilar from
those of the high-priest of the Hebrew religion. The Druidic
cross was wrought in gold down the length of the back of his
robe.
Druid Service
No Druidic service could be celebrated before sunrise or after
sunset.
Druid = Peace
The Druidic was essentially a priesthood of peace, neither
wearing arms nor permitting arms, to be unsheathed, in its
presence; and though patriotism, or the defence of one's country
in a just war, was a high virtue in its system, we have no
instance of Druidism persecuting or using physical force against
any other religion or set of opinions. Its whole theory, indeed,
would have stultified itself in so doing; and herein consists no
small part of its identity with Christianity. 17
The saying of Taliesin, the prince-Bard and Druid, conveys a
great historic truth, though over-strongly expressed:- "Christ,
the Word from the beginning, was from the beginning our teacher,
and we never lost His teaching. Christianity was a new thing in
Asia, but there never was a time when the Druids of Britain held
not its doctrines."
Having thus passed in review the religious status of our
......
17 "In the ancient world," observes Higgins (Celtic Researches,
p.196), "the Druids were the only priesthood of peace. Clad in
his white canonicals, the Druidic herald presented himself
between two armies, and every sword was instantly sheathed."
......
own country, in the apostolic era, we proceed to give an epitome
of the events in British history which brought the royal family
of Britain into contact with St. Paul at Rome.
..........
To be continued with "Historic Positions of Britain and the Roman
Empire at the commencement of the Christian Era"
Note:
WE SEE THAT IN THE OVERALL THE FAITH AND IDEAS OF THE DRUIDS
WOULD MAKE CHRISTIANITY MOST ACCEPTABLE, AND WOULD BE FREELY
ALLOWED TO BE PREACHED AND TAUGHT IN BRITAIN. THE DRUIDS WERE
TRUTH SEEKERS, PEACE MAKERS, AND "YESU" OR OR AS THE JEWS WOULD
SAY "YESHUA" WAS ALREADY IN THE DRUIDS THEOLOGY. THEY HAD MANY
WRONG TEACHINGS AND TRADITIONS BUT AS TRUTH SEEKERS THEY WOULD
HAVE THE ATTITUDE OF LISTENING AND PROVING THE TRUTH AS BROUGHT
TO THEM THROUGH THE HOLY SCRIPTURES BY JESUS' DISCIPLES IN THE
FIRST CENTURY. AND SO WE FIND IN BRITISH HISTORY NO FRICTION
BETWEEN THE DRUIDS AND CHRISTIANITY, MAKING IT POSSIBLE THAT IN
THE SECOND CENTURY CHRISTIANITY WOULD BE THE NATIONAL RELIGION OF
BRITAIN, AS BRITISH HISTORY SO CLEARLY ASSERTS.
Keith Hunt
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