DRUIDAE,
The Priest of the Ancient Gauls. Thus Caesar speaks of them l. 4. of the Wars of the Gauls.
The Druides of the first Order are Overseers of the worship of the Gods and Religion, and have the direction of both Publick and Private Affairs, and teaching of Youth. If there is any Murther or Crime committed, or Suit at Law about an Inhe∣ritance, or some other Dispute, they decide it, ordaining Punishments and Rewards; and when a Man won't stand to their Judg∣ment, they suspend him from communica∣ting in their Mysteries. And those who are so excommunicated, are accounted wick∣ed and impious, and every Body shuns their Conversation; if they are at law with other Men, they can have no Justice, and are ad∣mitted neither to Employments nor Digni∣ties, and die without Honour and Repu∣tation.
All the Druides have an High Priest, who has an absolute Power. After his Death the most worthy among them succeeds him, and if there are many Pretenders to his Office, the Election is decided by Votes, and some∣times by force of Arms. They met every Year in the Country of Chartres, which is in the middle of Gaul, in a place consecrated and appointed for that purpose, where those who are at Law, or at Variance met from all places, and stand to their Decisions.
'Tis thought that their Institution came from Brittain, and those who will have per∣fect knowledge of their Mysteries, travell'd into that Country. They never follow the War, and are free from all Taxes and Sla∣very, wherefore many get into their order, and every one puts in for a place among them for his Son or Kinsman. They must learn by heart a great number of Verses; for it is forbid to write them, either to ex∣ercise their Memory, or lest they should profane the Mysteries in publishing them; wherefore they remain sometimes twenty Years in the College. In other things they make use of writing in Greek Characters. One of the chiefest points of their Theolo∣gy is the Immortality of the Soul, as a pro∣fitable Belief, that inclines Men to Vertue by contempt of Death. They hold Metemp∣sychosis, and have many Dogma's of Theo∣logy and Philosophy, which they teach their youth.
Diodorous Siculus joins the Druides to Poets in the Authority of pronouncing like Sover••ign Judges, about Controversies of Private Men and States, and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 binding the Armies ready to engage. Lucian tells us, that they were the Authors of the Doctrine of the Immorta∣lity of the Soul, which made the Gauls un∣daunted Men, having a generous contempt of Death, which was in their opinion, but a very short passage to an Immortal Life.
The Origine of the word Druides is derived from the Greek, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, i. e. an Oak, because they commonly met in the Forrests, where they began their Sacrifices with the Misletoe of Oak, that their youth gathered the first day of January.