- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 Wörtliche Transkription des Artikels in der Encyclopedia Britannica :
DRUIDISM : was the faith of the Celtic inhabitants of Gaul until the time of the Romanization of their country , and of the Celtic population of the British Isles either up to the time of the Romanization of Britain , or , in parts remote from Roman influence , up to the period of the introduction of Christianity . From the standpoint of the available sources the subject presents two distinct fields for inquiry , the first being pre-Roman and Roman Gaul , and the second pre-Christian and early Christian Ireland and Pictland . In the present state of knowledge it is difficult to assess the interrelation of druidic paganism . Gaul . - The earliest mention of druids is reported by Diogenes Laertius ( Vitae , intro ., I and 5 ) and was found in a lost work by a Greek , Sotion of Alexandria , written about 200 B . C ., a date when the greater part of Gaul had been Celtic for more than two centuries and the Greek colonies had been even longer established on the south coast . The Gallic druids which were subsequently described by Caesar were an ancient order of religious officials , for when Sotion wrote they already possessed a reputation as philosophers in the outside world . Caesar ' s account , however , is the mainspring of present information , and it is an especially valuable document as Caesar ' s confidante and friend , the Aeduan noble Divitiacus , was himself a druid . Caesar ' s description of the druids ( Comentarii de bello Gallico , vi ) emphasizes their political and judicial functions .
Although they officiated at sacrifices and taught the philosophy of their religion , they were more than priests ; thus at the annual assembly of the order near Chartres , it was not to worship nor to sacrifice that the people came from afar , but to present their disputes for lawful trial . Moreover , it was not only minor quarrels that the druids decided , for their functions included the investigation of the gravest criminal charges and even intertribal disputes .
This , together with the fact thay they acknowledged the authority of an archdruid invested with supreme power , shows that their system was conceived on a national basis and was independent of ordinary intertribal jealousy ; and if to this political advantage is added their influence over educated public opinion as the chief instructors of the young , and , finally , the formidable religious sanction behind their decrees , it is evident that before the clash with Rome the druids must very largely have controlled the civil administration of Gaul . Of druidism itself , little is said except that the druids taught the immortality of the human soul , maintaining
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