The church-history of Brittany from the beginning of Christianity to the Norman conquest under Roman governours, Brittish kings, the English-Saxon heptarchy, the English-Saxon (and Danish) monarchy ... : from all which is evidently demonstrated that the present Roman Catholick religion hath from the beginning, without interruption or change been professed in this our island, &c. / by R.F., S. Cressy of the Holy Order of S. Benedict.

* 1.1IV. CHAP.

1. A particular description of the Supersti∣tion of ancient Brittains.

2.3.4. Of their Preists, or Druids. 5.6. Of their Bards.

7.8. &c. Of their Idols, Belinus, Dia∣na, Belatucadrus, &c.

11. Claudius the Emperour worship'd as a God. 12.13. &c. Their inhumain Rites: forbidden by the Romans: 16. But not extirpated till Christianity came in.

1. HItherto we have given a brief of the State of Brittany from the time of its first discovery and conquest by Iulius Cae∣sar to the end of Nero the sixth Roman Empe∣rour and last of the family of the Caesars. In which compasse of time occurs some, though not much matter to furnish our History. But before we mention any parti∣culars of it, it will be expedient to declare what was the Religion of the ancient Brit∣tains, to the end that the horrour of that spiritual darknes which clowded this Island may give a greater luster to the celestiall light which through Gods infinit mercy be∣gan to shine here.

2. For this purpose consulting former Writers, we find that among the Ancient Brit∣tains, & Gaules likewise, there were two sorts of people of greatest authority, whose em∣ployment regarded their Religion: Those were 1. the Druids, and 2. the Bards: the for∣mer were, as it were their Preists: the other their Prophets.

* 1.23. The Druids were so called, if we beleive Pliny, from the Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which sig∣nifies an Oake: because, as Lucan and Caesar affirme, their dwelling was in Groves, and there they perform'd their Superstitious ceremonies: a practise of Idolatry ancient∣ly condemn'd in the Iewes, and taught them by their neighbouring Heathens. But the signall Oake which the Druids made choice of for their veneration, was such a one on which Misletoe did grow: by which privy token, as they conceived, God mark'd it out, as of soveraign vertue for his service. Vnder this tree on the sixth day of the Moone (wheron they began their yeare) they in∣vocated their Idols, and offred two white Bulls, filleted on the horns, with many o∣ther ceremonies. To this Greek Etymology of the name of Druids subscribe many learned Authours, as Beckmanus, Fungerus, Casau••on, Camden▪ &c.

4. Notwithstanding the Advice of Strabo deserves well to be embraced, who rejects the searching of Greek derivations, of appel∣lations in use among Barbarous Nations. And indeed it is strange that so learned a Writer as Cambden, should herein follow Plinies conceit, since himself acknowledges that an Ancient Writer Alfricus testifies that among the Saxons the word Dry (from whence doubles the Druids were named) signifies a Magician: The Druids being to the Brittains the same that the Magi were to the Persians,* 1.3 the Chaldeans to the Assyrians the Gymnosophists to the Indians, &c. as Dioge∣nes Lae¦rtius observes. No man certainly will doubt but that the name of Druids pro∣ceeds from the same fountain from whence the Discipline came,* 1.4 and that, according to the testimony of Caesar and Tacitus, was in∣vented in Brittany, and from thence deri∣ved to other Nations: insomuch as Pliny conceives that even the Persians themselves might seem to have learnt their Magick from the Brittains. The name of Druids therfore comes not from the Grecians but the Brit∣tains, among whom never was mention made of any Grecian Colony: whereas both the forementioned Writers attest that Caledo∣nia, which is now called Scotland, was an∣ciently planted by the Germans, and that the Belga removed out of the Northern parts of France into this Island.

5. Next the Druids,* 1.5 the Bards were in high esteem: who were the Prophets, Poets and Historians to the Britttains: For, saith Am∣mian••us, Marcellinus, their office was to compose in ••eroick verses the famous exploits of their An∣cestours, which they sung to the people to the de∣lightfull Musick of their Harpes. And this con∣firms the saying of Fes••us, that the word Bardus in the G••llick or Britti••h tongue sig∣nifies a Singer: as to this day the Welsh call such an one a Bard. Now the word Bard, a learned Modern Ph••lologer derives from the Ancient Teutonick terme Bardo or Wardo,* 1.6 sig∣nifying to see or observe: so that they may seem to be called in the same not on that the Prophets among the Iewes were called Seers (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.) Another late Writer con∣ceives the term Bard to come from the Ger∣man Waerde, signifying still with us a Word and a Song, as the Greek term 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 doeth: so that a Bard is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a Song-maker. This was the cheif employment of the Bards: though besides this their taske was likewise to conserve in memory the Genealogies and Descents of families.

6. A great influence they had on the minds of the Brittains to encourage them to contemne death by making the argu∣ment of their Songs to be the Immortality of the soule by transanimation, conceiving that the soules of dying men pass'd afterward into other Bodies; being either prefer'd to better, or condemn'd to worse, according to their former good or ill behaviour. So that the esteemed most happy Death, was to dye valiantly for their Countrey and Su∣perstition. These two Orders therfore of Druids and Bards were (as it were) the An∣cient Clergy of our Idolatrous Britains, the In∣venters and Propagators of that which they called Religion: the Dogme's and Rites where∣of they never committed to Writing, by which policy it became more venerable, be∣cause more Mysterious, to the Vulgar.

* 1.77. It is certainly a great mistake in some learned Writers, who affirme that the Druids did instruct the Ancient Brittains in the knowledge and worship of one one∣ly God:* 1.8 wheras Gildas the most ancient of our Brittish Historiographers, relates that they had (Portenta Diabolica penè numero Aegyptiaca vincentia) Idols of a monstrous Diabolicall figure and those in so great a number that they almost exceeded the multitude even of the Aegyptian Deities: whose Pictures remained to his dayes drawn with deformed faces within and without the walls of their decayed Cit∣ties.

8. The principall among the Brittish Gods, at least those which remain upon record, were 1. Belinus, by whom they meant Apollo o•• the Sun: 2. Diana, that is, the Moone. And 3. Camulus, the God of warre, answering to Mars: An inscription to whose honour we mention'd before. From him Camalodu∣num (or Maldon) received its name. 4. The name of Belinus seems derived from Baal or Bel, the Deity soveraignly worship∣ped in Assyria and other Countreyes of the East, and which signifies the Supreme Lord. Out of a speciall veneration to this Deity as anciently the Eastern Princes took their names, as Belshazzar or Balthazar, Ierubbaal, Meribbaal, and in other Countreyes Asdrubal, Hannibal, &c. so in Brittany likewise Belenus or Belinus; which we find a part of the names of King Cassibelin and Cynobelin.

9. And as for Diana, a particular proof of the great devotion born to her by our An∣cestors appears by a Monument neare S. Pauls in London,* 1.9 call'd in old Records Dia∣na's Chamber, where in the dayes of King Ed∣ward the first, thousands of the heads of Oxen were digged up, which men skill'd in Antiquity well understood to be proper Sacrifices to Diana, whose great Temple was built thereabout.

10. Besides these we find other Deities, perhaps of an inferiour degree, adored by the Brittains. Thus an ancient Inscription mētions a certain unknown God called Be∣latucadru••, worshipped in the Northern parts about Yorkshire and Cumberland. The name seems to import this to be some Off-spring or of affinity to Belinus. Moreover there is found another Goddesse call'd Andate whose speciall vertue and employment no man knows. Some learned Writers are of opinion that this is the same with Adraste the God∣desse of Revenge,* 1.10 in vaine invoked by Bou∣dicea in her last battel against the Romans, as Dio relates. It is further probable that the Gallick Deities, Hesus figured in the shape of a Dog (like Anubis,) Taranis the God of Thunder, answering to Iupiter, and Teu∣tates, the Guide of travellers and inventer of Arts, like Mercury, were adored like∣wise in Brittany, it being the fountain of I∣dolatrous Theology.

11. After the conquest made by Claudius, the Emperour, of the Southern parts of this Island, Caractacus (by some Writers concei∣v'd to be the same with Ar••iragus) in gra∣titude for his release from captivity and re∣stitution to his throne, introduced a new fashion'd Religion into his Kingdome, consecrating an Altar to the Emperours worship,* 1.11 with this Inscription, The Altar of eternall Domination, which he placed in a Temple at Camulodunum, erected to this Mortall Deity, whose Religious service was every Month solemnly performed by Preists called Augus••ales,* 1.12 or Imperiall Priests, peculiarly appointed thereto. And indeed it cannot be denied but that Caractacus had far greater obligations to this his visible Deity then to any of his Ancient false Gods. However, this vainly pretended Propheticall Inscription proved unsuccesfull, for in his next Successours dayes both the Temple and Religion were demolish'd by Queen Boudicea when she ruin'd the Colony where it stood.

12. As touching the speciall Rites of the Ancient Brittish Superstition,* 1.13 we find in Cae∣sar that their Priests or Druids had the sole authority in ordring both the Publick and private Sacrifices: yea moreover that they determined all both publick and private Controversies. If any dispute hapned about possessions of Lands, if any facinorous Act, as murder or the like, had been committed, the Druids appointed the punishment, as likewise rewards in case of any honourable exploit. And their Decrees in all cases were so indispensably obliging, that if any pri∣vate person or community refused to sub∣mit to them, the highest penalty could be inflicted was Excommunication, or forbid∣ding their presence at the Sacrifices. Which Censure, upon whomsoever it was denoun∣ced, rendred them in the esteem of all men, as impious and detestable wicked persons, whose conversation and presence all would avoyd, as thinking them contagious.

13. Mention was made before of their superstitious veneration of Mistletoe grow∣ing on Oakes, which they esteem to be a

speciall gift of God.* 1.14 The rite of gathering which is thus discribed by Pliny.* 1.15 Having af∣ter diligent search found where the Misleto growes, they prepare Sacrifices and Banquets, and two white Bulls they bring under the Tree, whose horns they there first bind with fillets of linnen. Then the Druid or Priest cloathed with a pure white garment mounts the Oake, and with a golden Sickle reaps the Misleto, which is recei∣ved into a white vestment. And this being done they offer their Sacrifices, with Songs, as Ovid saith, and Prayers that God would make his Gift prosperous to them: For they ascribe great vertue to it, imagining that by drinking it ••leep'd in water their barren cattle become fruitfull, and that it is a remedy against all poysons.

14. But these Rites argue only vanity and folly: others they had which were barba∣rous and execrable. For as Tacitus relates, they made their Altars flow with the blood of Captives taken in the war,* 1.16 yea for want of Cap∣tives they spar'd not their own brethren: and consulted their Gods by searching into the en∣trails of men. Which custome of theirs is thus described by Diodorus Siculus, When the Druids,* 1.17 saith he, doe consult about matters of great importance, they observe a wonderfull cu∣stome, and for the horriblenes of it incredible, which is this: Having mortally wounded a man with a sword, they divine future events by the manner of his fall, by the tearing of his mem∣bers, and the flowing of his blood. This skill they attain'd by long observation.

15. These more then inhumane Diabo∣licall practises, which ought to have rendred the Brittains an object of hatred to all man∣kind, found neverthelesse not only excuse, but approbation from other Nations. In∣somuch as our Barbarous Countrey-men were considered as persons of exemplary Devotion to their Gods, yea as Masters and Doctours of sublime Mysteries, skilfull in a hid∣den Theology: so that their neighbours the Gaules, Celtes, &c. repaired to Brittany as the Academy wherein a Religion was taught that had the vertue to save men by murder, and honour God by destroying the perfe∣ctest of his creatures. Yea even the Romans themselves, though otherwise trayn'd up in a morall civility beyond other Nations, yet out of a pestilent curiosity ingrafted in our corrupt nature, became many of them Disciples of the Brittish Druids, and practi∣sers of these execrable Superstitions. Inso∣much as the Emperour Claudius was forced by rigorous Edicts to forbid the whole Re∣ligion of these Druids. Augustus had for∣merly interdicted the exercise of it to his own Cittizens: But Claudius extirpated it not out of Italy only, but the whole Nation of the Gaules. However his Lawes extended not their force into Brittany, for we find, as hath heretofore been related, these Druids with their horrid Superstitions in their Ar∣my in Anglesey (the peculiar schoole of that Religion) when they fought against, and were subdued by Ostorius Scapula during the raign of Nero,* 1.18 who succeed Claudius.

16. But what the Roman Emperours with all their authority could not, Almighty God by degrees effected, sending a new celestiall Light to dissipate the more then Egyptian darknes wherein our Countrey had been involved. What speciall servants and Mini∣sters in those primitive times God employed to work so happy and wonderfull a change, it is now seasonable to declare, with as much perspicuity as the subject will beare. For considering how in those holy times men did busy themselves far more with leading devout lives, and exercising an A∣postolicall charity to save their own and other mens soules, then with writing Books, or rai∣sing Monuments to acquaint posterity with the history of their actions: And moreover those few Writings and Monuments which were then extant, afterward by strange revo∣lutions of times, and almost totall extirpa∣tion of the Brittains by Heathenish Saxons, &c. were lost and defaced, some few relicks of them remaining only in the memories of the Natives, and by a Traditionary suc∣cession delivered and recorded by Writers of the following Ages: These things con∣sidered, it is not to be expected that we should give an exact Narration of matters so obscurely and imperfectly transmitted to us. However since most of the Testimo∣nies to be produced are drawn from Au∣thours not contemptible, many of them ha∣ving no interest at all which might move them to be inventers of fables, and without any gain to themselves, yea with danger to their own soules to become seducers of po∣sterity, the following History, even of the most ancient, and therefore least clearly de∣livered affaires touching the Primitive Chri∣stianity of our Island, may reasonably exact beleife in the Readers minds: especially considering that those Modern Writers a∣mong us, since the late change of Religion, who voluntarily deride and contradict what shall be here delivered, doe not so much as pretend to any Monuments ancient∣ly exhibiting a contrary Narration, but re∣solutly conclude that to be certainly false, which cannot approve it selfe to be in all points and circumstances evidently true. But their disbeleife can be no preju∣dice to any one who judges by reason, and who will proportion the degree of his as∣sent to the merits of the proofes and alle∣gations: the rather because it is manifest that those deriders of our ancient Monu∣ments are thereto incited by interest and partiality, because by them they see their own Novelties discovered and exploded.

Notes

• * 1.1

  IV. CHAP.
• * 1.2

  Druids. Plin. Hist. natur. lib 16. cap. 44. Lucan. lib. 1. Caes. l. 6. de ••••ll. Gall. Isa. 1.29.
• * 1.3

  Diog. Laert. in Proem.
• * 1.4

  Caesar. Hist. Gall. lib. 6. Tacit. Ann l. 14. Plin. Hist. natur. lib. 30 c. 1.
• * 1.5

  Bards. Ammian. Marc. lib. 15
• * 1.6

  Abr. Vandermyl. in Glos.
• * 1.7

  Cambden. Godvvin.
• * 1.8

  Gildas de Ex∣cid. Britan.
• * 1.9

  Cambd. in Middlesex.
• * 1.10

  Dio. lib. 62.
• * 1.11

  Tacit. in Senec. de mor∣te Claudij.
• * 1.12

  Pontic. Vi∣runn. lib. 4.
• * 1.13

  Caesar. com∣ment. lib. 6.
• * 1.14

  A. D. 44.
• * 1.15

  Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. 16. c. 44.
• * 1.16

  Tacit.
• * 1.17

  Diod. Sic. l. 6.
• * 1.18

  A. D. 46.