CONVERSION OF THE GOTHS, &c., TO CHRISTIANITY. 425 among many of the accordance there is between history and prophecy.

On this interesting subject, I shall lay before you the sentiments of two elegant historians of our own age and country, which are certainly entitled to the regard of every student of Ecclesiastical History. The following is a quotation from Dr. Robertson, who writes thus :

"In ages of ignorance and credulity, the ministers of religion are the objects of superstitious veneration. When the barbarians, who overran the Roman empire, first embraced the Christian faith, they found the clergy in possession of considerable power; and they naturally transferred to these new guides the profound submission and reverence which they were accustomed to yield to the priests of that religion which they had forsaken. They deemed their persons to be equally sacred with their function, and would have considered it as impious to subject them to the profane jurisdiction of the laity. The clergy were not blind to these advantages which the weakness of mankind afforded them. They established courts, in which every question relating to their own character, their function, and their property, was tried. They pleaded and obtained an almost total exemption from the authority of civil judges. Upon different pretexts, and by a multiplicity of artifices, they communicated the privilege to so many persons, and extended their jurisdiction to such a variety of cases, that the greater part of those affairs which gave rise to contest and litigation were drawn under the cognizance of the spiritual courts.”*

The other writer to whom I referred is Mr. Hallam, who, in his History of Europe during the Middle Ages, referring to the subject before us, says, "The devotion of the conquering nations, as it was still less enlightened than that of the subjects of the empire, so was it still more munificent. They left indeed the worship of Hosus and Taranis in their forests; but they retained the elementary principles of that and of all barbarous idolatry, a superstitious reverence of the priesthood, a credulity that seemed to invite imposture, and a confidence in the efficacy of gifts to expiate offences. Of this temper it is undeniable that the mi

History of Charles V. Vol. I. Sect. I.

nisters of religion, influenced probably not so much by personal covetousness as by zeal for the interests of their order, took advantage. Many of the peculiar and prominent characteristics in the faith and discipline of those ages appear to have been introduced, or sedulously promoted, for the purpose of sordid fraud. To these purposes conspired the veneration for relics-the worship of images-the idolatry of saints and martyrs-the religious inviolability of sanctuaries-the consecration of cemeteries -but, above all, the doctrine of purgatory, and masses for the relief of the dead. A creed thus contrived, operating upon the minds of barbarians, lavish though rapacious, and devout though dissolute, naturally caused a torrent of opulence to pour into the church. Donations of land were continually made to the bishops, and, in still more ample proportion, to the monastic foundations."*

I close the present Lecture with reminding you of a fact which ought not to escape attention, that, according to the view which has now been proposed to you of this subject, the kingdom of Great Britain is certainly one of the ten kingdoms into which the Roman western empire was divided at its fall—it is one of those states which gave its power to the beast; consequently the Church of England is one of the unchaste daughters of the mother of harlots, and an essential part of the Antichristian system. Such, indeed, is the unfavourable light in which I find myself compelled by scriptural authority to view it; and it is from this consideration that I have come to the determination of bestowing a greater portion of attention on the ecclesiastical history of this country than has hitherto been done by those who have taken up the general subject of church history, in which topics of peculiar interest to Britons are so completely merged in the affairs of the "mother" church, as in a great measure to have been lost sight of. It is my intention, therefore, to occupy the next two Lectures with a sketch of the state of religion, from the earliest period of our history to the year 449, at which time the Saxons obtained possession of the country and established in our borders the religion of the Church of Rome.

* Hallam's History of the Middle Ages, vol. ii. p 200.

LECTURE XXIII.

HISTORY OF DRUIDISM.

Barbarous state of the British Islands at the Invasion of Julius Casar-Some account of the Druids-Their Religious Tenets -Objects of their Worship-Religious observances, rites, and ceremonies-Times, places, &c. &c.-Extinction of the Druidical System. B. C. 55 to A. D. 449.

THE first events in the authentic history of our own country are the landing of Julius Cæsar on the eastern shores, fifty-five years before the birth of Christ, and his invasion of the country in the following year. At this time the island of Great Britain was inhabited by a multitude of tribes, of whom the Romans have preserved the names of more than forty. The number of such tribes living in a lawless independence is alone a sufficient proof of their barbarism. Their domestic life was little above promiscuous intercourse. Societies of men, generally composed of the nearest relations, had wives in common. The issue of this intercourse were held to belong to the man (if such there should be) who formed a separate and lasting connexion with the mother; and, where that appropriation did not occur, no man is described as answerable for the care of the children Perhaps no barbarous usage could mark a lower point in the scale of moral civilization than this. The countries now known as Scotland and Ireland were probably not more advanced than our own. It is nevertheless a fact that, at this time, the inhabitants of Britain were famous, even among foreign nations, for

their superior knowledge of the principle, and their great zeal for the rites of their religion. We learn this singular fact from the best authority, the writings of Julius Cæsar, who informs us that, "such of the Gauls as were desirous of being thoroughly instructed in the principles of their religion (which was the same with that of the Britons) usually took a journey into Britain for that purpose."

A mind habituated to reflection will naturally be solicitous to know something of the nature and principles of that religion for which this country was then distinguished, and I, therefore, purpose to devote the present Lecture to a brief delineation of it: in doing which I shall present you with some account of the class of priests who taught its principles and performed its sacred rites-the religious principles which they taught—the deities whom they worshipped-the various acts of worship which they paid to their gods, with the times, places, and other circumstances attending their worship-and, finally, the extinction of these priests and their religion to make way for the profession of Christianity.

I. It must be generally known, I presume, that the system of superstition which prevailed in this country, at the time Christianity was introduced, passed by the name of Druidism; and the priests who taught the principles and performed the offices of it were termed Druids.+ This class of men, for many ages, enjoyed the highest honours and the greatest privileges, not only in our own but in several other countries. Julius Cæsar, speaking of the Gauls (and it was the same in Britain), says, "There are only two orders of men who are in any high degree of honour and esteem; these are the Druids and the Nobles." To say nothing, in this place, of their prodigious influence in civil affairs, they had the supreme and sole direction of every thing relating to religion. Diodorus Siculus declares that "no sacred rite was at that time ever performed without a Druid: by them, as being

* Cæsar de Bello Gallico, lib. vi. cap. 13.

+ The name of these famous priests is derived by some writers from the Teutonic word Druthin, a servant of truth; by others from the Saxon word Dry, a magician; by others from the Greek word &pus, an oak; and by others from the Celtic, or British, word Derw, which also signifies an oak, for which the Druids had a most superstitious veneration.

RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE BRITISH DRUIDS. 429

the favourites of the gods, and the depositaries of their counsels, the people offered all their sacrifices, thanksgivings, and prayers; and were perfectly submissive and obedient to their commands. Nay, so great was the veneration in which they were held, that, when two hostile armies, inflamed with warlike rage, with swords drawn and spears extended, were on the point of engaging in battle, at their intervention, they sheathed their swords and became calm and peaceful."* The persons of the Druids were held sacred and inviolable; they were exempted from all taxes and military services; in short, they enjoyed so many immunities and distinctions that princes were ambitious of being admitted into their society.†

Among the Druids there appears to have existed a species of hierarchy-for they were not all of equal rank and dignity. Cæsar assures us that some of them were more eminent than others, and that the whole order was subject to one supreme head or Archdruid-a kind of high-priest, who was elected from among the most distinguished of the Druids, by a plurality of votes. This high station was attended with so much power and riches, with such an accumulation of honours and privileges of various kinds, that it was an object of great ambition, and the election of one to fill it sometimes occasioned a civil war in the country.

The Druids were divided into three classes, who applied to different branches of learning, and each class had its respective office and religious duties to perform-they were denominated the Bards, the Vates, and the Druids, which last name was indeed generic, and common to the whole order, though sometimes appropriated to a particular class. The Bards were the poets of the age, and confined themselves to the writing and setting to music of odes, songs, or poems, heroic, historical, and genealogical; and they were common to Germany, Gaul, and Britain. Strictly speaking, they did not belong to the sacerdotal order, nor had they any immediate concern with the offices of religion. They composed hymns to the honour of their deities, which they sang at their sacrifices and other religious solemnities; also he

*Diod. Sicul. 1. v. $31. Strabo, l. iv.

+ Cæsar de Bel. Gal. 1. vi. c. 13. Cicero de Divinatione, 1. i. Mela, 1. iii. ch. ii.