Irish Druids and old Irish religions / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Irish Druids and old Irish religions / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    F7'ench Druidism. Drvyde proche d’ostum, a cause de leur trop cruel sacrifice d’hommes.” He declared that after the general Edict of Claudius il ne s’en treuva plus, parmy les Gaulois.” When banished from Gaul, they retired to Britain, though Druid- esses were mentioned as being at Dijon in the time of Aurelian. Beaudeau, in 1777, published Meinoire a constilter pour les atidens Druides Gaulois, intended as a vindication of them against the strictures of Bailly in his letters to Voltaire. He had a great belief in the astronomical skill of the Druids, from their use of the thirty years cycle, the revolution period of the planet Saturn. At the Congress of Arras, in 1853, the question debated was—“ Up to what period Roman polytheism had pene- trated into Belgic Gaul ;—and up to what period continued the struggle between Polytheism and Christianity ? ” The P^rench author remarks, “The Romans did but one thing— gave the names of their gods to the divinities of the people of Fleanderland. And these divinities—what were they ? Evidently those of the country from which the people had been forced to flee.” Dezobry and Bachelets, in their Dictionnaire de Biogra- phie, &c., affirm that the Celtic word derouyd (from de or di, God, and rhoud or rhouid, speaking) signifies Interpreter of the gods, or one who speaks from the gods. According to others, the etymology should be, in the Gaelic language, dniidheacht, divination, magic ; or, better, dern, oak, and wydd, mistletoe.” Acknowledging the ancient renown of their knowledge, it is admitted to be imperfectly known to us, though Pythagoreans pretended to be the founders thereof. The French authors had the following account of the Druids’ great charm— “ They carried suspended from their neck, as a mark of dignity, a serpent’s egg—a sort of oval ball of crystal, that