For there is no doubt that the symbol
of a snake-footed giant supporting a triumphant cavalier, which is so
often found in Belgium, may be interpreted as illustrating the episodes
in the progress of the seasons or the stars.
of a snake-footed giant supporting a triumphant cavalier, which is so
often found in Belgium, may be interpreted as illustrating the episodes
in the progress of the seasons or the stars.
Cambridge Medieval History - v2 - Rise of the Saracens and Foundation of the Western Empire
But on the defensive when well led they were
excellent in a style which was forced upon them by the continual man-
hunts of the pirates and the mounted nomads. Of a military schooling
## p. 454 (#486) ############################################
454 Elbe Slavs at war with the German Empire
from the Avars there is no trace except that they learned plundering
from their tormentors. On the offensive they could do nothing against
the Romans, though the Romans likewise could do nothing against the
defensive of the Slavs. For example, in 593-4, when the imperial army
advanced victoriously over the Danube, it was unwilling to winter in a land
where the cold was unbearable and the barbarians were invincible on
account of their great numbers. In the defensive power of the Slavs lay
also the strength of the Avar-Slav positions on the Baltic, Elbe, and
Saale against the Franks even after the fall of the Avar Empire. Only
after two and a half centuries of continual warfare did the Germans
remain victors.
Considerably more than thirty tiny Slav tribes in the former Old
Germania from the Danube to Mecklenburg are mentioned there in four
groups1. Not one of the groups forms a State, each is only seldom and
temporarily united when war threatens, otherwise it is divided into little
clans bitterly hostile to one another. Each little clan dwells huddled
close together in hamlets and little villages amidst marsh and a dense
forest zone through which go roads only passable for pack-horses in dry
seasons of the year, provided at the entrance to the forest zone with gates
and abattis'. And if the enemy forced his way in notwithstanding, the
people fled to their numerous earthworks, civitates. The Obodritzi in
Mecklenburg alone had 53 such civitates and the same number of duces,
and were actually regarded as invincible.
After the time of Charles the Great war with these Slavs was perma-
nent. Thanks to the protection of the mountain range and their peaceful
acceptance of Christianity, the Bohemian group maintained itself and
finally combined into a powerful Bohemian kingdom. On the other
hand the remaining three groups, really some dozen of Lilliputian clans,
succumbed to the Germans who always found allies among them, some-
times among the Obodritzi, sometimes among the Lyutitzi. Thus the
Elbe Slavs (save some small remnants) were exterminated or Germanised.
1 (1) The Bohemians: Doudlebi, Chekhove (Chekhs), Luchane, Lemusi, Pshovane,
Kharvati, Zlichane, etc. (2) The Sorbs east of the Saale and Elbe: Goleshintzi,
Nishane, "Selpoli," Lubushane, Lupoglavtzi, Zharovane, Trebovane, Milchane, Susli,
Glomachi, etc. (3) The Lyutitzi or Veletove, Wiltzi: Morichane, Sprevane, Brizhane,
Stoderane, or Havelane, Kyechane, Ukrane, "Redari," Dolenchane, "Kyzini,"
Chrezpyenyane, (Jznoim, Volini, Rani, etc. from the Sorbs to the Baltic. (4) The
Obodritzi: Reregi, Vagri, Polabi, Smolintzi, [GJinyane, Varnovi, Drevane, etc. in
Mecklenburg and its vicinity.
2 The Slav apostle, Otto of Bamberg, on his journey entered "a terrible
enormous forest which divides Pomerauia and Poland. . . . This wood had not been
traversed before by any mortal, except that the Duke [of Poland] in earlier years,
before he had conquered the whole of Pomerania,. . . had cut a way for himself and his
army by felling and marking the trees. Following this marking, with great difficulty
on account of the enormous snakes and wild beasts,. . . and on account of the marshes
that impeded the vehicles and heavy wagons, we traversed the forest in six days. "
Herbord, n. Chap. 10.
## p. 455 (#487) ############################################
Defensive Power of the Slavs 455
And in their despairing and incomparably brave defence they too
might have kept off the German colossus could they have reconciled
themselves to the Cross, which was made hateful to them by the oppres-
sion of the German Government1. At the same time it must be clearly
noted that they were not aggressors but a thoroughly industrious peasant
people. The Avar dominant class which had become Slavised in the
course of time was not numerous enough for offence against the German
power and the equally invincible Danish vikings; it became much reduced
in the continuous defensive wars, and also lost its former ferocity because
it was squeezed into narrow tribal bounds, so that it had at last to give
up the wandering herdsman life. The Spanish Jew Ibrahim ibn Ia'qub
who made a journey in these parts in the year 965 says: "In general
the Slavs are intrepid and warlike and were they not at variance among
themselves, no people on earth could measure themselves against them.
The lands inhabited by them are the most fruitful and richest of all,
and they devote themselves zealously to agriculture and other kinds of
industry wherein they surpass all northern peoples. 11 According to
Herbord, Pomerania had an abundance of honey, wheat, hemp, poppy,
vegetables of all kinds, and fruit-trees. Yet the lands between the
Elbe and the Vistula are only made fertile by industrious cultivation.
The type of the Slav method of warfare is the powerful Polish leader
Boleslav Khrobry (992-1025), who created a kingdom that stretched from
the Dnieper to the Elbe, and from the Baltic to the Danube and Theiss.
He carried on bloody wars with all his neighbours, especially with the
German king Henry II. But Boleslav did not confront the German
army in open battle; his strength lay in masterly manoeuvring and in
the heroic defence of strong positions. "Never—says his unfriendly
contemporary Thietmar—have I heard of besieged men who made
exertions to defend themselves with greater endurance and more clever
circumspection. 11 The sources of Boleslav's strength we know from
Ibrahim ibn Ia'qub in the year 965: "The land of Meshko [Boleslav's
father] is rich in grain and meat and honey and fields—And he has
3000. . . warriors, a hundred of whom are a match for a thousand others.
And he gives these people clothes and horses and weapons and all that
they need. And when a child is born to one of them he at once orders
. . . a salary to be assigned to the same. . . and when he reaches full age he
1 Evidence in Schafarik, n. p. 542, Note 2. The heathen Slav looked down upon
the Christian as upon a barbarian. "We have nothing in common with you. The
laws which we inherited from our fathers we will not give up, we are content with
the religion which we have. Among the Christians there are thieves and robbers,
whose feet are cut off and eyes poked out; the Christian practises all kinds of crime
and punishments upon the Christian. Far from us be such a religion" answered
the Pomeranians to Otto of Bamberg. Among them there were no beggars, no
locks and keys; they were highly surprised at the fastened chests of the bishop.
Their table was always decked with food, and every stranger could enter and satisfy
himself. Herbord, n. Chaps. 10, 25, 40.
## p. 456 (#488) ############################################
456 The Elbe Slavs and the Vikings
procures him a wife and pays for him the marriage gift to the maiden's
father. . . . And the marriage takes place with the approbation of the king.
. . . And he is like a tender father to his subjects. " This standing army is
not native, for it is landless; it consists of foreign mercenaries, evidently
Norse vikings.
It is clear that the Polish Slavs, like the Russian, were from the
earliest times strongly influenced by the vikings and their plundering
raids and settlements. For the vikings who ravaged all the coasts of
Europe cannot have left alone the river-mouths of the Baltic. According
to Iomsvikinga-saga, in the vicinity of the Slav sea and commercial
town Volin (Slav), Winetha (Saxon), Iulin or Iumin (Danish), mentioned
by Ibrahim and the German chroniclers, the Iomsburg, a sea fort, was
built by Danish pirates [about 970], and according to Orderic Vitalis
(b. 1075) the German gods Wodan, Thor and Frigg were worshipped in
a district of the Lyutitzi at the mouth of the Oder. All three however
had also their worship in the Upsala temple among the Swedes.
This viking admixture is clearest among the Baltic Slavs—especially
those of the Island of Riigen—and gave them the appearance of a pirate
people. Helmold reports that the men of Riigen were [1168] tributary to
the Danes, but they revolted, and occupied the rich Danish islands, " and
the Danes cannot easily protect themselves from the sudden attacks of
the pirates, for there are creeks there in which the Slavs can keep well
hidden, and from which they can break out unperceived to attack and
plunder the unwary. For the Slavs are particularly strong in sudden
surprises. Hence even up to recent times this custom of robbing has
such possession of them that they are always ready for maritime enter-
prises to the entire disregard of the profits of agriculture, for their whole
hope and all their wealth depend on their ships. Indeed they do not
even trouble themselves much about house-building; rather they fashion
for themselves huts of wicker-work, as they only seek shelter at need from
storm and rain. As often as war threatens to break out, they thresh all
the grain and bury it in holes together with all gold and silver and what
precious things they possess; their women and children however they
take into their fortified places or at least into the forests, so that nothing
remains for the enemy to plunder but the huts, the loss of which they
very easily bear. They pay no regard to the attacks of the Danes,
indeed they consider it spoil to measure themselves against them. " We
see here a remarkable fusion of the viking pirates, Altaian herdsmen and
Slav peasants on the Island of Riigen. But could the most terrible of
all pirates, the Danes, who fill the gloomiest pages in British history,
here stand helpless before Slav pirates? It is more likely that Danish
vikings were here opposed by Slavised vikings. So too the Narentanian
pirates of Dalmatia, called Pagani, seem to be Norse vikings trans-
planted by the Avars, for here too we find a noble class of vitezi.
Giesebrecht excellently characterises the Baltic Slavs: "A mixed
## p. 457 (#489) ############################################
Political Impotence of the Slavs 457
race, not seldom fluctuating in sharp contradiction in their belief, law,
and customs, the Wends were already a fallen nation when they came
into contact with the Franks. Thus from them could proceed much
that was energetic as far as it could be carried out by individuals, families,
or associations, but nothing that presupposed national unity. "
More favourable conditions for a thriving development were obtained
by those Slav peoples among whom either the Altaian or the German
dominating class destroyed the other. The Russian Slavs with the
Varangians whom they absorbed finally reached a national and social
harmony, while the Bohemians and a part of the Alpine Slavs overcame
their Avar oppressors. But they found it a still harder task to build up
their rude freedom into an orderly State. This the Carinthians brilliantly
performed, remaining in true freedom without a nobility for a long time.
Even under German dominion, under far less favourable conditions, they
were an equal match for the Germans of Ditmarschen in Holstein.
As a people who for immemorial ages were deprived of justice and
politically broken the Slavs longed only for an ordered legal State. !
An early example of this is afforded with an objectivity extremely
rare among medieval chroniclers by the author of Chapters xlviii
and lxviii of the "Fredegar" Chronicle (Chronist B). In Samo's king-
dom Prankish merchants were robbed and killed and King Dagobert
demanded redress. Samo "only agreed on a reciprocal legal procedure
on this and similar disagreements which had arisen on both sides. Here-
upon Sycharius in the manner of an arrogant envoy let. . . fall threats to the
effect that Samo and his whole people had to be subject to Dagobert. "
Samo replied, "The land we inhabit and we ourselves are Dagobert's, j
yet only in case he will maintain friendship with us. " Sycharius: "It is
not possible for Christians, the servants of God, to stand in friendship
with dogs. " Samo: "If you are the servants of God, and we are God's
dogs, we are permitted to bite you when you ceaselessly act against his
will. " This led to Dagobert's crushing defeat at Wogastisburg.
The appeal to law and not to the sword is the basis of Old Slavonic f
thought and aspiration; the principal task of the Slav princes was to
secure a passable administration of justice—the Russian Slavs actually
appealed to Norse pirates. The chronicler Cosmas pictures the oldest
Bohemian princes as simple judges, and by their memorable ritual the
Carinthians hoped to secure the necessary foundation of justice, but this
was an ideal not always attainable among a people where no man was
willing to subordinate himself to another without an army capable of
breaking down resistance. And as the Slavs lacked everything in the
remotest way like this, they often became the prey of their warlike
neighbours and perished in impotent rebellions to gain the human
rights denied them. Mighty Slav States arose indeed, but without the
co-operation of the people themselves, whose endeavours were early
directed to social questions. This was a favourable soil for social
## p. 458 (#490) ############################################
458 Social Ideas
religious dreams of an evangelical way of life, and the Slav temperament
reached its greatest perfection in an offshoot of the Hussite movement
fanned into flame by the teaching of Wyclif—in the venerable Unity of
the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren. This movement was democratic,
not communistic—a wonderful theoretic union of human perfection
with spiritual purity in the midst of a society saturated with selfishness.
Their chief representative, well known in England also, was the founder
of the new pedagogy, John Amos Comenius (Komensky), the teacher of
the peoples of Europe.
## p. 459 (#491) ############################################
459
CHAPTER XV.
(A)
KELTIC HEATHENISM IN GAUL.
The purpose of this chapter is to give a short account of the religion
of the Gauls, that is to say the inhabitants of the district bounded by
the Rhine, the Pyrenees, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
We have to gather our information about this religion from in-
complete and vague documents which do not belong to Gaul strictly
speaking: that is from the historians of Greece and Rome (Posidonius,
Caesar, Strabo, Diodorus, Mela, Lucan, etc. ). There are also monuments
(bas-reliefs, bronzes, and inscriptions) dating from the time when Gaul
already formed part of the Roman Empire, and had been influenced
by Rome. Both these sources of information shew us, not the pure
and true Gallic religion, but this religion either as it was more or
less correctly interpreted by strangers, or more or less transformed by
imported beliefs.
Another difficulty arises from the fact that under the term Gallic,
the ancients included both the original inhabitants of Gaul and other
peoples of quite a different character. There were Aquitanians south of
the Garonne, related to the Iberians or Cantabrians of Spain: Ligurians
in the Alpine districts, and Germans in the Moselle and Meuse valleys.
The rest really belonged to the so-called Gauls, and concerning them
two things must be said: first that they fall into two groups, the Kelts
between the Marne and the Garonne, who were the earlier settlers, and
the Belgae, between the Marne and the Ardennes forest, more recent
comers and less civilised. Secondly the Belgae and Kelts, or Gauls as
they are sometimes called, do not represent a homogeneous people; but
the name must be taken to cover both a very ancient race (usually
known as Ligurians) and a smaller group of conquerors or immigrants,
who were the Belgae or Kelts proper. This country of Gaul was then
composed of as various elements as the Francia of the time of Clovis,
and each of these groups of peoples doubtless possessed their own gods
and rites. Therefore when the Gallic religion is referred to, it must be
understood to imply the religion practised in a definite district, and
not by a definite race.
CH. XV. (a)
## p. 460 (#492) ############################################
460 The Gods
Concerning the gods; one type of divinity exists that was probably
common to all these peoples, Ligurians, Germans, Gauls and Aquitanians.
That is the gods of the soil, or, as the Romans said, genii loci, meaning
the gods who inhabited the visible and salient features of the earth;
such as springs, brooks, lakes, rocks, mountains, forests, trees and bogs.
These gods were the most popular, ancient, numerous and varied of all.
Each possessed a distinct name, which was at the same time applied to
the natural feature, whether it were stream or mountain, over which it
presided.
Amongst these divinities, so numerous in Gaul (specially among the
non-Gallic peoples on the frontier, such as the Aquitanians, Ligurians
and Germans), those that recur most frequently and that seem to have
received the greatest share of devotion and fame were connected with
springs, streams and rivers. This I believe to be due to the important
part played by springs in the economic life of families and villages.
They give assurance of life to man and his cattle, and therefore—to
quote Pliny the Naturalist—" They create towns and engender gods. "
Some of these stream-divinities, worshipped in spots destined to be-
come the sites of fair towns, have won a still greater celebrity, as for
instance Nemausus, the god-fountain or the god of the fountain of
the great spring at Nimes, whose temple was consecrated in later
times to Diana; Divona the spring of Burdigcda (Bordeaux) sung
by the poet Ausonius, to be discovered to-day in the stream of the
Deveze; and Bibracte, the spring on Mont Beuvray, the celebrated
Bibracte that was the capital city of the Aedui when Caesar fought them.
Other Keltic towns which also owe their name and origin to stream-god-
desses are Aventicum (Avenches in the territory of the Helvetii), and
Arausio (Orange). Side by side with these must be placed the gods and
goddesses of medicinal springs, which were worshipped so devoutly in
Roman times, and doubtless also in the time of Gallic independence;
such as Luxovnis at Luxeuil, Borbo at Bourbon, and others at Greoulx,
at Luchon, at Dax, at Mont-Dore, etc. In fact it would be necessary to
name all the mineral waters of France to complete the list of gods of
this description. There were also the deities of rivers, who had their
sanctuaries later, sanctuaries rich in every kind of votive offering; of
which the most famous in Roman times was that of the Seine springs.
Such were the Dea Sequana the Seine, Icaunis the Yonne, Mairona the
Marne; while the Classical authors shew that the Rhine was looked upon
as a supreme god. Closely related to these divinities, both as regards
origin and attributes, were those of lakes and marshes; such as the god
of the sacred lake of Toulouse, to whom thousands of ingots of gold
and silver, spoils of the Roman proconsuls, were consecrated.
The gods of mountains, or rather of isolated peaks, were perhaps
rather less numerous and popular, but were also very powerful. A few
of them, by virtue of the majesty of the summit they inhabited,
## p. 461 (#493) ############################################
Worship of the Dead 461
attained (like the Rhine) to the highest rank among the gods. The
col of the Puy-de-D6me, Dumias, was accounted one of the greatest
deities in Gaul, as were also Ventoux, Vintur in Provence, Donon in
the Vosges, not to mention lesser heights. Indeed it appears that the
true Gauls were more attracted by the worship of mountains than by
that of springs.
On the other hand, the Ligurians, Aquitanians and Germans seem
to have cared more for that of forests and trees, though this statement
must not be taken to refer to anything more definite than a preference
for one rather than the other, since all the Gallic peoples were ac-
quainted with the same gods. It is usually possible to distinguish
between the gods and goddesses of the whole forest, most plentiful in
the North, such as the Dea Arduenna of the Ardennes, and the Deus
Vosegus of the Vosges, and the particular divinities which inhabited
a single tree, or a clump of trees; such as the Deus Fagus "the god
. of the beech tree,'" or the Deus Sexarbores, which is the Roman version
of the divinity inhabiting a group of six trees. Such gods might be
found most frequently in the land of the Aquitanians north of the
Pyrenees.
It remains yet to shew in what manner these nature gods were re-
presented and grouped. Sometimes they dwelt in solitude; in which
case the stream or mountain only belonged to a single divinity, either
male (e. g. Deus Nemausus) or female (e. g. Dea Sequana). This seems
to have been the case specially in regions where Keltic or Iberian in-
fluence predominated. Sometimes the mystic properties of a spring
were attributed to an indivisible group of gods, most often composed
of three, but occasionally of five divinities; called by the Romans
"Mothers" or "Matronae" or "Nymphae"" of the spring: for instance
Matres Ubelnae "the Goddess-Mothers" of the Huveaune (a Provencal
spring), but it is clear that the word Matres is only the translation
of a native word, whose use must have been very ancient. This con-
ception of the gods of springs was general between the Pyrenees and the
Rhine, but appeared in a more fully developed form in Provence, the
Ligurian districts, and the forest lands bordering on Germany.
It is impossible to attribute to one tribe more than to another
the worship of the gods sprung from human life; by which is meant
the cult of the dead. We have no trustworthy documentary evidence
testifying to this cult before the Roman period. But monuments
dedicated to the manes of the departed are as common in every part of
Gaul as in Italy and Greece, they shew practically the same formulae,
and they bear witness to the same rites and beliefs. Therefore it is safe
to attribute to the Gauls or Ligurians that worship of the dead which
was an essential element in Greek or Roman life, as Fustel de Coulanges
has shewn in La Citi Antique.
OH. XV. (a)
## p. 462 (#494) ############################################
462 Star-gods
Above these local and human deities appear the great gods. In
this respect more marked individuality is discernible amongst the
different tribes, Kelts, Aquitanians or Ligurians. They gradually gave
distinctive characteristics to their superior gods, the more so since
these deities were regarded as the protectors and representatives—not
of places or men—as were those mentioned above, but of whole nations,
states and public societies. Naturally each of these societies, leading
its individual life, attributed to its national god or tutelary deities a
special character, corresponding to the chief characteristics of its own
life. At the same time, in spite of the obvious differences which they
display, these superior gods possess certain common features, which serve
to recall the existence of the great sovereign and universal deities, older
than the grouping of nations.
All the tribes mentioned, whatever their origin may have been, have
this in common; that they all believed in the existence of a superior
divinity, representing the virtue of the earth, which produces all and
reaps all. We find this same divine principle appearing under a multi-
tude of diverse forms in later times, such as the Earth, mother of the
god of the Germans, Dinpater, father of the Gauls, Earth again, from
whom the indigenous Britons sprang, Vesta or Herecura (Juno Regina)
known to us from the Roman inscriptions in Gaul and Germany; and
Minerva of the tribes of the South. And if we find later that the
Aquitanians of Lectoure and the Kelts of the Viennoise and the Three
Gauls accepted with enthusiasm the cult of the Magna Mater brought
to them from the Palatine at Rome and Pessinus in Asia, the explana-
tion lies in the fact that they were accustomed to adore a chthonian
divinity of the same nature.
Similarly Gauls, Ligurians and Gallo-Germans worshipped the sun,
moon, fire and the stars; and in the more human figures which repre-
sented their gods in later times it is possible to see clearly traces
of these ancient and primitive beliefs. Thus among the greatest of
the Keltic gods was Taranis (or Taranus) whom Caesar reasonably
considered as the equivalent of Jupiter, since his emblems were the
thunder-bolt, the S and the wheel of the chariot of the Sun. By his
side the same people worshipped Beknus, translated Apollo by the
Romans, as being more correctly the Sun-god. They also possessed an
equivalent for Diana, perhaps in the person of Sirona; while the
appearance of stars on various Gallic monuments shews that the cult of
the lesser stars was not foreign to them. Above all, these astral or
heavenly gods kept their primordial importance among the non-Gallic
tribes, the Aquitanians and Ligurians, and among the Gauls in the
Belgic district. An examination of the symbols on coins of the period
of independence, or the inscriptions of the Roman time, discloses the
apparently incontrovertible fact, that in proportion as the Seine is left
to the south, and the Ardennes and the Rhine are approached, astral
## p. 463 (#495) ############################################
National Gods 463
symbols increase on coins, and figures connected with the heavens become
more numerous on monuments.
For there is no doubt that the symbol
of a snake-footed giant supporting a triumphant cavalier, which is so
often found in Belgium, may be interpreted as illustrating the episodes
in the progress of the seasons or the stars. Also it may be observed
that it was this same region that was most notable, in Imperial times, for
the worship of the seven days of the week.
The permanent and natural functions of these chthonian and astral
gods prolonged their existence and stereotyped their characteristics
until the time of the Roman conquest: thus it is easier to speak with
certainty of these than of the merely political deities, for their sway
was closely connected with the national life of the tribes; as was that of
Capitoline Jupiter or Jahveh of the Israelites.
The Kelts, while they formed a federation of cities bearing the same
name, owned as their political deity one that the writings of Lucan
have made known to us as Teutates, and this name itself reminds us of
his essential characteristic, which was to identify himself with his people
(as did Jahveh with the Israelites), for the root " teui" appears to mean
something approaching to "national" (patrius). It was this god that
the Romans, following the example of Caesar, identified with Mercury;
though it is probable that any other interpretation would have served
equally well: for instance Mars, Saturn or Dispater, according as the
Classical authors or the worshippers in the Imperial period may have
preferred the intellectual, warlike or creative attributes. For like all
other national gods of ancient peoples, this deity seems to have been
omnipotent. He probably led his people to battle, protected their
merchants, taught them all the arts, while he was also the creator of
mankind and the founder of the national name, as was Jehovah himself.
Besides this god, but still within the circle of their national deities,
the Kelts worshipped Esus, who probably came into existence as a
duplication or avatar of Teutates. He seems to have possessed the same
attributes, though perhaps it is possible to discern in him more definitely
and constantly the features of a warrior.
Besides these two, a feminine deity is found, more or less sprung
from the earth goddess; she is also at the same time a warlike and
intellectual deity, known by the Romans as Minerva or Victoria, perhaps
also the mysterious Andarta of certain epigraphic writings. Yet further,
there may possibly have been a fourth deity of this nature in the Gallic
pantheon, a god of war and labour, of fire and the smithy, identified by
the Romans as Vulcanus.
If only the tribes bearing the name of Gauls had lived in strict bonds
of unity under one government, as did the Carthaginians and Romans,
it is probable that the individual characters and special characteristics
of the gods might have become permanently fixed. But the Gallic
world, like the Greek, was frequently changed by scatterings and quarrels.
CH. XV. (a)
## p. 464 (#496) ############################################
464 Representation of the Gods
Thus each of the tribes worshipped, conceived of and made combinations
of the gods at its own pleasure, until Gaul may be said to have con-
tained as many pantheons as cities; though the same fundamental
principles can easily be traced in each.
In this way the Druidical federation which had its centre in the land
of the Carnutes, kept as its sovereign gods Teutates and Esus associated
with Taranis the thunder-god. Among the Vocontii of Dauphine the
great national divinity appears to have been Andarta, Victory. The
Allobroges appear to have consecrated themselves to two military
divinities resembling the Roman Mars and Hercules. Perhaps the
Arverni, who were for a long time the sovereign people among the
Kelts, had with more piety maintained the worship of a single Teutates,
to whom they raised the sanctuary that is found consecrated in Roman
times to the Latin form of this god, Mercurius Dumias.
So far we have only dealt with the Gauls, amongst whom it is possible
to discover the existence of political gods, presiding over a great
federation or a single city. This type of god is far more difficult to
study among the Aquitanians and Ligurians, because their national life
was, to a surprising degree, less concentrated, and the tribal system
preponderated. Even here, however, we occasionally discover a great
god possessing the attributes of Mars, another resembling Hercules, or a
third with feminine characteristics. The pacific and creative faculties
which caused the Keltic Teutates to resemble Mercury are less clearly
marked in the chief gods of this region.
Another cause of the indefiniteness noticeable in the characters of
all these gods is the fact that in all probability the Gauls had not
yet reached the stage known as anthropomorphism. It must not be
understood by this that they completely denied themselves any repre-
sentation of the gods; for when Julius Caesar speaks of the simulacra
of their Mercury, or Lucan mentions the simulacra of the gods of the
Kelto-Ligurian peoples dwelling near Marseilles, they were doubtless
thinking of images of the human figure. But these images, not a single
one of which has survived for us, can only have been unformed trunks,
rough-hewn pillars, a kind of sheath in wood or stone (arte carent, said
Lucan) analogous to the most ancient xoana of the Greeks, without any
of the features of a man or those fixed attributes which make it possible
to distinguish a Zeus from an Apollo.
The image of the deity was as indefinite as his nature was vague
and complex. At the same time, it appears that the religious image
was not universally accepted; and that the priests, like those of Latium
in the time of Numa, refused to give their authority to representations
of the gods.
To the eyes of worshippers the gods were represented rather by
emblems than figures, and before the time of Roman influence the
Gallic religion was as rich in symbols as it was poor in images. We
-
## p. 465 (#497) ############################################
Sacred Animals and Plants 465
may study the Gallic coins struck in the second and first centuries b. c,
which are the only authentic witness to the period of independence,
without finding a single representation of one of the native gods, either
full-length or as a bust. On the other hand, attributes, symbols and
emblems will be found in abundance, either of the objects which formed
the equipment of a god, weapons or utensils, or signs which would be
pointless except for the mysterious significance attached to them.
Thus the sign in the form of the letter S, which has given rise to
many designs on coins, and to the fabrication of many metal amulets,
appears to have been the symbol of Taranis; the same may be said of
the wheel or little wheel. The hammer, according to the most reliable
theory, was the attribute of Teutates, his changeless weapon.
Further, the gods possessed permanent companions, birds, beasts,
trees and animals, which accompanied them during their lives or made
manifest their actions. Amongst quadrupeds, the horse appears most
often on coins; while of all the birds, the raven most certainly plays
the principal part in divine matters in Gaul, as among so many peoples
of the ancient world. A chatterer, ever restless with his varied cries, he
was manifestly the interpreter of the wishes of the gods on earth, and
their permanent oracle.
We are rather better informed on the subject of sacred plants,
thanks to some of the writings of Pliny the Naturalist. It must not be
forgotten, however, that he wrote more than a century after the loss of
Gallic independence, and that the sacred plants had by then been more
or less wrested from their divine functions by their transformation into
mere magical agents. We know the most important to have been the
mistletoe; not mistletoe found in any place, but mistletoe cut from an
oak. It owed its great value to several circumstances: mistletoe is very
rare on oaks, the oak was the most sacred tree among the Kelts, and the
presence of a plant of mistletoe on an oak was therefore a proof that
a god had chosen it for his dwelling. Further to explain the potency
of mistletoe it must be remembered that its seed is spread by birds,
its leaves face the earth, not the sky, and that it displays its perfect
greenness at a time when all other vegetation seems dead in the cold
winter weather. Thus it is possible that in it the Gauls beheld a symbol
of immortality, but Pliny only speaks of it as a remedy for all ills.
Later, under the Roman domination, all these different beings and
things comprised in the Gallic religion, gods, animals, plants and
emblems, were combined and united to form groups of consecrated
images, analogous to those at that time presented by the Graeco-Roman
mythology. The sculptors of Roman Gaul continually reproduced and
repeated the new conceptions of their belief. We have therefore a type
of the thunder-god, clothed more or less like a Jupiter, armed above
all with the wheel: a god with a hammer, accompanied by a dog and
holding a goblet in his hand: a three-headed god flanked by a serpent
C MED. H. VOL. II. CH. XV. (a) 30
## p. 466 (#498) ############################################
466 Sacred Buildings
with a ram's horn: a horse-god, carried by the snake-footed giant: a
goddess seated on a beast of burden (Epona, the goddess of horses):
a horned god, and many others. But we hesitate before pronouncing
these images to be the manifestations of unmixed Keltic thought. At
the time when they appeared a century had elapsed since the Gauls had
been independent in their thoughts and beliefs; they were no longer
under the direction of their priests, and they were ceaselessly open to
contact with Greek and Roman imagery, so that they often combined
native emblems with copies of foreign symbols; they spoke no more of
Teutates, but invoked Mercury in his place. All these images possess
a real interest none the less, but it is necessary to guard against attri-
buting to them an undue importance in the history of Gallic religion.
What has been said of religious sculpture is still more true of archi-
tecture. All the temples and altars without exception, which were
consecrated to Gallic gods, date from the period of the Roman Empire:
and by that time the Roman architects and priests had invaded the
land with their stereotyped buildings and their customs, the templum
and ara. This does not imply that it is impossible to discover in these
constructions a trace of indigenous survivals. Thus a great many
temples in Gaul proper are constructed on a square plan (as for
instance that of Champlien, in Normandy), and this architectural type
is hardly to be found in the Graeco-Roman world, therefore it may
possibly recall some sacred customs of the Gauls; but a complete inquiry
on these lines has not yet been made. It is certain that in the time of
independence, the Gauls possessed sacred places; and a few, like that of
the Virgins of the Isle of Sein (in Armorica), must have been complete
buildings, with walls and roofs. But these were doubtless made of wood
(hence their complete destruction) and they were in the minority among
sanctuaries. The majority of consecrated places were simply open spaces
limited by ritual, but not by material boundaries; spaces where frag-
ments of the precious metals, destined for the gods, were accumulated.
There were also clusters of trees, spaces reserved in the great forests, or
even lakes or marshes, like those of Toulouse, which have been men-
tioned already. When a spring was considered to be holy it is probable
that offerings for the god of the place were thrown into the water; the
spring was at the same time both god and sanctuary. This theory
explains the fact that when sites are excavated the springs often yield
the largest crop of surprising discoveries.
All that has been said helps to shew why it is still more difficult
to penetrate far in the knowledge of doctrines; that is, the fashion
in which the Gauls conceived of the destinies of man, the world, and
the gods. But there remain a few indications of their beliefs in these
matters, escaped from the total ruin which has befallen their religious
poems. Further, it is always possible that the Greeks and Romans
have not given a very exact interpretation even of what they were
## p. 467 (#499) ############################################
Doctrine 467
able to learn. At the time when they were writing on Gallic religion
there was a fashion prevalent, owing its origin doubtless to Alexandria,
of painting the wisdom and philosophy of the barbarians in glowing
colours; so that quite possibly they may have endowed the Gallic
dogmas with a purity and elevation really quite foreign to them.
The Keltic doctrine most highly praised by these writers is that of
the immortality of the soul. They have not explained to us very clearly
the nature of this immortality, but it is more than probable (if we
examine the equipment of a Gaul in his tomb) that the Kelts imaged
the next life as very similar to this, with more pleasures and with greater
combats for him who died bravely on the battle-field. This type of
immortality is traceable in the beliefs of most barbaric peoples; it
has no special mark of nobility, and does not justify the frequent
practice of deducing from it any particular glory for the Kelts.
Concerning the world, their religious poems spoke of the struggle
between water, earth and fire, of the triumph of the two first-named
elements, and of the submergence of all in a future cataclysm. More-
over, the world was later to emerge as victor over destruction. This is
a sufficiently childish cosmogony, in which it is possible to trace all the
usual elements.
The religious practices of the Gauls do not seem to. offer any extra-
ordinary features, either good or bad. Caesar and others tell us that
they were the most religious of men, and performed no action without
consulting their gods; in this they resembled the Greeks and Romans of
primitive times, and if the contemporaries of Augustus were astonished at
it, it was merely because at that time it was considered by educated Romans
to be good taste to mock at the gods and to act independently of them.
The Gauls must be severely condemned for their human sacrifices,
whether of those already sentenced to death, or of innocent persons
whom they are said to have enclosed in large wicker hampers. Re-
cently certain modern scholars, too ready perhaps (like the Alexandrians
in the time of Posidonius) to admire the Gauls, have tried to deny
or excuse these horrible ceremonies. This is only labour lost. We
must accept their existence, not forgetting, however, that they were
not peculiar to the Gauls, but that the Greeks and Romans themselves
had their sacrifices of men and women. The ancients have insisted with
equal vehemence on the Keltic practice of divination, and have cited
many facts to shew their passion for the art of the diviner, whether by
means of birds, entrails of victims, decisions of augurs or dreams.
Without doubt the Gauls had essayed all these means for discovering
the future, but in this again they took the same course as the Greeks
and Romans of earlier times; and if the raven was by them accounted
the greatest of soothsaying birds, it held a similar position among the
Greeks long before.
With regard to the magical practices of the Gallic world, the
ch. xv. (a) 30—2
## p. 468 (#500) ############################################
468 Druidism
ancients have little to tell us. This may simply be due to chance, but
possibly the Kelts were really inferior, in this respect, to the Italians and
Carthaginians. Various indications (specially the relative scarcity of
magical tablets under the emperors) seem to shew that as far as magic is
concerned, they were rather imitators than masters.
Perhaps it was in their sacerdotal organisation that the Kelts (they
alone can be dealt with in this connexion) shewed most originality; though
it is necessary to add that we are only half-informed on the subject.
They called their chief priests Druids. This name (whatever its
etymology may be) seems to have conveyed a more important meaning to
them than did the words sacerdos or pontifex to the Romans. Neverthe-
less, the druids were not without some resemblance to the men who bore
one or other of these titles at Rome. They also were drawn from the
upper class of society; they were selected from the nobles, exactly as the
pontifices of primitive Rome were chosen from the patrician ranks.
The dignity of druid did not force its holder to withdraw himself from
civil and political life. Caesar has told us of an Aeduan druid in his
time, Diviciacus by name, who was, perhaps, the chief of all the Gallic
druids. He was very rich, wielding great influence both in his own
tribe and throughout Gaul, he was probably both married and the father
of a family; he was allowed to ride and to wear arms; he accompanied
Caesar on his first campaigns, and the Roman proconsul even entrusted
the command of a corps of the army to him. His obligations, as a Gaul,
do not seem to have differed from those of Caesar as a Roman, and
Caesar was pontifex maximus.
Two points remain, however, in which the druids do not resemble the
priests of Classical antiquity, but rather recall those of the East. First,
though each tribe in Gaul had its own druid or druids, all the druids
were associated in a permanent federation, like priests of the same cult.
Although they were not formally a clergy, they did form a church, like
the bishops of the Catholic Church; and this church necessitated both
a hierarchy and periodical assemblies.
At the head of the druids was a high-priest, who seems to have held
his dignity for life. Since there was an organised hierarchy, the high-
priest was succeeded by the man who held the post immediately below
his own. If the succession should be disputed by rival claimants of
equal rank, a decision was made by means of election, or sometimes by
a duel with weapons, standing probably for some kind of divine judg-
ment by the sword.
Every year all the druids of Gaul met in a solemn assembly in the
territory of the Carnutes (Chartres and Orleans); this country was
chosen because it was considered (and with considerable accuracy) to be
the centre of the whole of Gaul. This assembly had at the same
time a political, judicial and religious aspect. The druids formed them-
selves into a tribunal, and judged all cases submitted to their decision;
## p. 469 (#501) ############################################
Druidism 469
such as those involving murder, disputed inheritance and boundaries.
It is probable that this tribunal came into competition with the jurisdic-
tion of the ordinary magistrates of the cities. The druids pronounced
sentences which seem in the main to have consisted of formulae of com-
position or of excommunication. Those excluded by them from the
sacrifices were, said Caesar, treated as scoundrels, and guilty of impiety,
and no one dared approach them. It remains to be discovered to what
extent this tribunal was attended, its sentences executed and its juris-
diction respected. It may be that in the last century of independence,
these druidical assizes were but the survival of very ancient institutions,
then falling more and more into desuetude—a form without much mean-
ing. None the less, they are one of the strangest things found in Gaul,
and even in the whole of the West.
The second original feature of druidism was that the priests were
also the teachers of the Gallic youth. If it were said absolutely that
they directed the schools, the expression would be unsuitable. But they
gathered round them the young men of the Gallic families, and taught
them all that they knew or believed concerning the world, the human
soul and the gods. A few of these scholars stayed with their masters
until they had reached the age of twenty years; but it is clear that those
who were to become priests received the lion's share of attention. Such
an institution, making the priests into the educators of the young, is
surprising in ancient times, and calls to mind modern conditions. We
cannot be certain, however, that in it we have an exceptional pheno-
menon, for is it not possible that something approaching the druidical
teaching may be found in the schools founded in Rome in connexion
with the members of the colleges of Augurs and Pontifices?
In all other respects, however, the analogy between druidism and the
ancient priesthoods is complete. The druids alone possessed the power
of offering sacrifices by the act of presiding at them; they studied philo-
sophy, astronomy and physiology; they wrote (in verse) the annals of
their people, as did the pontifices of Rome and the priests of Israel.
The druids were not the only priests of the Gauls. They were the
most important, and probably they alone were considered to rank in
dignity with the nobles. But they had depending on them a good many
subordinate priests who officiated singly, and others who were combined
to form a sodality.
The single priests were those who were attached to a sanctuary as
a kind of guardian or celebrant of a temple and its god: somewhat
resembling the Roman aedituus. Among the greater number of tribes
they were known as gntuater.
The Gauls also possessed priestly confraternities, which seem to have
been largely made up of women. The ancient geographers tell us of a
few, which were all dedicated to the orgiastic cults, doubtless having a
chthonian origin. The most famous was that of the maidens of the Isle
CH. XV. (a)
## p. 470 (#502) ############################################
470 Decay of Druidism
of Sein (already mentioned) who foretold the future, and raised or tran-
quillised storms. The truth of this information has frequently been
denied of late, but all ancient religions have confraternities of this kind,
all having a similar origin, and all giving rise to, and carrying on, the
worship of the Earth-Mother.
Druidism did not disappear with Gallic independence, but it under-
went fundamental modifications, which must be mentioned here in order
to explain the way in which medieval writers have alluded to it.
The druids, as public high-priests of the Gallic tribes, lost their
old place under the Roman domination. They were suppressed, or
rather, transformed into Sacerdotes according to the Roman custom; and
in the Concilium of the Three Gauls at Lyons, composed of Sacerdotes
Romae et Augusti it is possible to trace a Roman interpretation of the
druidical assemblies in the land of the Carnutes.
The lower priests, prophets, diviners, sages, guardians of temples and
sorcerers, survived in obscurity, carrying on their traditions and sought
after by devotees and peasants who were faithful to the old popular cults.
Thus it came about that the word druid, which was formerly applied to
the sacerdotal aristocracy, was finally used to designate these rustic
priests, the last survivals of the national religion. When, therefore, the
Latin writers mention druids and druidesses in connexion with mistletoe,
remedies and witchcraft, it is probable that they allude to these priests
of the uneducated people.
The word druid is found in medieval writings applied to the native
priests of Ireland and the so-called Keltic lands. It is difficult to feel
sure that the word is there a direct survival, and that the Irish druids
really were the authentic descendants of those mentioned by Pliny and
Tacitus. In more than one place, the name and the dignity might have
been interpolated by a learned writer who had read Caesar and Strabo.
But ought this statement to be made general? and further, is it not
possible that all druids found in the West in medieval times are the
production of literary men? The present writer refrains from ex-
pressing an opinion on the subject.
One last question remains in connexion with the druids. Caesar
states in his Commentaries that their doctrine (disciplina) was evolved
(inventa) in the isle of Britain, from whence it had been taken to Gaul.
He adds "those who wish to study it deeply, usually go to the Island,
and stay there for a time. "
A completely satisfactory explanation of this passage has not yet been
given. Perhaps it was simply an invention of the Gallic druids, who
wished to invest their doctrine with the attractiveness that belongs to
a mystery, and therefore evolved this British origin for it. But per-
haps their dogmas and their myths really did spring from the large
neighbouring island. In this latter case, two hypotheses must be
considered.
## p. 471 (#503) ############################################
Literature 471
In the time of Caesar the British population was composed of two
different groups: a minority consisting of conquerors who had come from
Gaul, Belgians or Kelts; and a majority consisting of natives. To which
of these two races did the druids ascribe the paternity of their intellectual
discipline? If to the Gauls, possibly Britain produced a reforming
druid, who restored the religious doctrines of the nation to their primi-
tive purity. If to the natives, it may be that an ancient religious
community existed on the Island, with foreign rites and teaching,
that nevertheless supplied inspiration to the druids.
In either case, one thing seems certain. It is that Britain, the last,
in point of date, of the Keltic settlements in Europe, somehow preserved
more faithfully than the other countries the religious habits of the
common mother-land. It is evident from Caesar that the Britons still
respected the most ancient customs of the Gallic race, therefore it is
probable that among them religion would have retained the most
primitive forms. This may explain why the druids sent their novices
there for instruction.
The druids of Gaul, like the pontifices of Rome, were writers. Caesar
reiterates his account of their long poems; for to prevent their doctrines
from being made known to all, they composed (or had composed)
thousands of verses, which they compelled their disciples to learn by
heart. These poems dealt with the stars, the gods, the earth and
nature; probably also with the origin of the Gallic tribes and the
human soul. They were at the same time their books of Genesis and
Chronicles. Moral precepts were mixed with or added to this theoretical
teaching, the best known being that which taught that death is not to
be feared, and that another life is to be expected.
Probably these didactic poems did not exhaust the religious poetry
of the Gauls. Their sacred literature seems to have been extraordinarily
rich. We find quotations referring to songs of war and victory, also
magnificent melodies, hymns in honour of their leaders, and historical
poems, often of an epic character, in which facts and supernatural events
alternate bewilderingly. The unfortunate fact is that all this is known
to us only by the vague allusions to it to be found in the Classical authors.
In connexion with these songs and poems, the word most often used
by the ancient writers is Bardi, and this was the ordinary term for
poet among the Gauls. These Bardi must be remembered in considering
Gallic religion, for it is possible that they were half priests, half prophets,
living in dependence on the druids.
As well as references to druids and Gallic gods, we come across
bards in the celebrated Keltic poems of the Middle Ages; and the
same question arises in connexion with all these traces of Gallic
religion. Do they all come directly and continuously from the past, or
are they nothing more than clever reconstructions due to readers of
the Classics?
ch. xv. (a)
## p. 472 (#504) ############################################
472 Heathenism in Britain
(B)
KELTIC HEATHENISM IN THE BRITISH ISLES.
Just as the general condition of Britain in Roman times is far more
imperfectly known than that of Gaul, so, too, we have but scanty
data for painting a complete picture of Keltic heathendom in these
islands during the period in question, and that which immediately
succeeded it. Such evidence as we find is derived partly from inscrip-
tions, partly from the survival in legend of certain names which are
either those of known Keltic deities, or which may be presumed from
their forms to have been those of divine beings, partly from the
allusions found in legend to heathen practices, and partly from inferences
based upon a study of existing folk-lore. A consideration of this
evidence leads to the conclusion that the condition of heathenism in
Britain was very similar to that of Gaul, except that, in North Britain
and Ireland and the less Romanised parts of Southern Britain, there
had been less assimilation of the native religion to that of Rome.
In Britain, as in Gaul, the basis of Keltic religion was largely local
in character, and rivers, springs, hills and other natural features were
regarded as the abodes of gods and goddesses. The belief in fairies and
similar beings, as well as in fabulous monsters supposed to inhabit caves,
lakes and streams, which comes to view in medieval and modern Keltic
folk-lore, is doubtless a continuous survival from the period of heathenism,
and certain of the practices connected with regularly recurring festivals,
such as the lighting of bonfires, the taking of omens and the like, have
probably come down from the same time. The curious reader can find
a very full account of these and similar survivals in Sir John RhyVs
Celtic Folk-lore, Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands and
Dr Frazer's Golden Bough.
Certain of the deities of Britain may have been tribal, and there are
reasons for thinking that, in Britain as well as in Gaul, some deities
were worshipped by several Keltic tribes, so that these may be regarded
as the major deities of the Keltic pantheon. For instance, the name of
Lug, a character of Irish legend, and that of Lieu in Welsh legend, are
both cognate with the Gaulish Lugus, a god whose wide worship in the
Keltic world is attested by the number of places called after his name
Lugudunum or Lugdunum (the fortress of Lugus), and it is highly
probable that both Lug of Irish legend and Lieu of Welsh legend were
once regarded in their respective countries as divine. The Welsh place-
names Dinlleu (the fort of Lieu) and Nantlleu (the valley of Lieu) in
Carnarvonshire point in the same direction, no less than the ancient
British name of Carlisle, Luguvallium (the embankment of Lugus).
## p. 473 (#505) ############################################
The Gods 473
A name corresponding to that of the god Segomo of Gaul is found
on an Ogam inscription in Ireland—Netta-Segamonas (the Champion
of Segamo), and, later, as Nia-Sedhamain (for Seghamain). The
Gaulish god Camulos has his British counterpart in the Camalos or
Camulos after whom Colchester received its name Camalodunum or
Camulodunum. The proper name Camulorigho (in an oblique case)
found on an inscription in Anglesey, as well as Camelorigi, which occurs
on an inscription at Cheriton in Pembrokeshire, are further evidence that
the god Camulos was not unknown in Britain. This is still more pro-
bable, since the name of this deity occurs on an inscription at Barhill1,
while the wide range of his worship is suggested by the existence of his
name on inscriptions at Salona*, Rome' and Clermont.
It would be unsafe to take the fact that the name of a deity occurs
on an inscription in Britain as evidence that the deity in question was
worshipped by the natives, since the inscriptions found in Britain are
mostly those of soldiers who often paid their vows to the deities of their
own lands. At the same time, the area over which certain inscriptions
are found makes it highly probable that the deities mentioned on them
were worshipped, among other countries, in Britain itself.
excellent in a style which was forced upon them by the continual man-
hunts of the pirates and the mounted nomads. Of a military schooling
## p. 454 (#486) ############################################
454 Elbe Slavs at war with the German Empire
from the Avars there is no trace except that they learned plundering
from their tormentors. On the offensive they could do nothing against
the Romans, though the Romans likewise could do nothing against the
defensive of the Slavs. For example, in 593-4, when the imperial army
advanced victoriously over the Danube, it was unwilling to winter in a land
where the cold was unbearable and the barbarians were invincible on
account of their great numbers. In the defensive power of the Slavs lay
also the strength of the Avar-Slav positions on the Baltic, Elbe, and
Saale against the Franks even after the fall of the Avar Empire. Only
after two and a half centuries of continual warfare did the Germans
remain victors.
Considerably more than thirty tiny Slav tribes in the former Old
Germania from the Danube to Mecklenburg are mentioned there in four
groups1. Not one of the groups forms a State, each is only seldom and
temporarily united when war threatens, otherwise it is divided into little
clans bitterly hostile to one another. Each little clan dwells huddled
close together in hamlets and little villages amidst marsh and a dense
forest zone through which go roads only passable for pack-horses in dry
seasons of the year, provided at the entrance to the forest zone with gates
and abattis'. And if the enemy forced his way in notwithstanding, the
people fled to their numerous earthworks, civitates. The Obodritzi in
Mecklenburg alone had 53 such civitates and the same number of duces,
and were actually regarded as invincible.
After the time of Charles the Great war with these Slavs was perma-
nent. Thanks to the protection of the mountain range and their peaceful
acceptance of Christianity, the Bohemian group maintained itself and
finally combined into a powerful Bohemian kingdom. On the other
hand the remaining three groups, really some dozen of Lilliputian clans,
succumbed to the Germans who always found allies among them, some-
times among the Obodritzi, sometimes among the Lyutitzi. Thus the
Elbe Slavs (save some small remnants) were exterminated or Germanised.
1 (1) The Bohemians: Doudlebi, Chekhove (Chekhs), Luchane, Lemusi, Pshovane,
Kharvati, Zlichane, etc. (2) The Sorbs east of the Saale and Elbe: Goleshintzi,
Nishane, "Selpoli," Lubushane, Lupoglavtzi, Zharovane, Trebovane, Milchane, Susli,
Glomachi, etc. (3) The Lyutitzi or Veletove, Wiltzi: Morichane, Sprevane, Brizhane,
Stoderane, or Havelane, Kyechane, Ukrane, "Redari," Dolenchane, "Kyzini,"
Chrezpyenyane, (Jznoim, Volini, Rani, etc. from the Sorbs to the Baltic. (4) The
Obodritzi: Reregi, Vagri, Polabi, Smolintzi, [GJinyane, Varnovi, Drevane, etc. in
Mecklenburg and its vicinity.
2 The Slav apostle, Otto of Bamberg, on his journey entered "a terrible
enormous forest which divides Pomerauia and Poland. . . . This wood had not been
traversed before by any mortal, except that the Duke [of Poland] in earlier years,
before he had conquered the whole of Pomerania,. . . had cut a way for himself and his
army by felling and marking the trees. Following this marking, with great difficulty
on account of the enormous snakes and wild beasts,. . . and on account of the marshes
that impeded the vehicles and heavy wagons, we traversed the forest in six days. "
Herbord, n. Chap. 10.
## p. 455 (#487) ############################################
Defensive Power of the Slavs 455
And in their despairing and incomparably brave defence they too
might have kept off the German colossus could they have reconciled
themselves to the Cross, which was made hateful to them by the oppres-
sion of the German Government1. At the same time it must be clearly
noted that they were not aggressors but a thoroughly industrious peasant
people. The Avar dominant class which had become Slavised in the
course of time was not numerous enough for offence against the German
power and the equally invincible Danish vikings; it became much reduced
in the continuous defensive wars, and also lost its former ferocity because
it was squeezed into narrow tribal bounds, so that it had at last to give
up the wandering herdsman life. The Spanish Jew Ibrahim ibn Ia'qub
who made a journey in these parts in the year 965 says: "In general
the Slavs are intrepid and warlike and were they not at variance among
themselves, no people on earth could measure themselves against them.
The lands inhabited by them are the most fruitful and richest of all,
and they devote themselves zealously to agriculture and other kinds of
industry wherein they surpass all northern peoples. 11 According to
Herbord, Pomerania had an abundance of honey, wheat, hemp, poppy,
vegetables of all kinds, and fruit-trees. Yet the lands between the
Elbe and the Vistula are only made fertile by industrious cultivation.
The type of the Slav method of warfare is the powerful Polish leader
Boleslav Khrobry (992-1025), who created a kingdom that stretched from
the Dnieper to the Elbe, and from the Baltic to the Danube and Theiss.
He carried on bloody wars with all his neighbours, especially with the
German king Henry II. But Boleslav did not confront the German
army in open battle; his strength lay in masterly manoeuvring and in
the heroic defence of strong positions. "Never—says his unfriendly
contemporary Thietmar—have I heard of besieged men who made
exertions to defend themselves with greater endurance and more clever
circumspection. 11 The sources of Boleslav's strength we know from
Ibrahim ibn Ia'qub in the year 965: "The land of Meshko [Boleslav's
father] is rich in grain and meat and honey and fields—And he has
3000. . . warriors, a hundred of whom are a match for a thousand others.
And he gives these people clothes and horses and weapons and all that
they need. And when a child is born to one of them he at once orders
. . . a salary to be assigned to the same. . . and when he reaches full age he
1 Evidence in Schafarik, n. p. 542, Note 2. The heathen Slav looked down upon
the Christian as upon a barbarian. "We have nothing in common with you. The
laws which we inherited from our fathers we will not give up, we are content with
the religion which we have. Among the Christians there are thieves and robbers,
whose feet are cut off and eyes poked out; the Christian practises all kinds of crime
and punishments upon the Christian. Far from us be such a religion" answered
the Pomeranians to Otto of Bamberg. Among them there were no beggars, no
locks and keys; they were highly surprised at the fastened chests of the bishop.
Their table was always decked with food, and every stranger could enter and satisfy
himself. Herbord, n. Chaps. 10, 25, 40.
## p. 456 (#488) ############################################
456 The Elbe Slavs and the Vikings
procures him a wife and pays for him the marriage gift to the maiden's
father. . . . And the marriage takes place with the approbation of the king.
. . . And he is like a tender father to his subjects. " This standing army is
not native, for it is landless; it consists of foreign mercenaries, evidently
Norse vikings.
It is clear that the Polish Slavs, like the Russian, were from the
earliest times strongly influenced by the vikings and their plundering
raids and settlements. For the vikings who ravaged all the coasts of
Europe cannot have left alone the river-mouths of the Baltic. According
to Iomsvikinga-saga, in the vicinity of the Slav sea and commercial
town Volin (Slav), Winetha (Saxon), Iulin or Iumin (Danish), mentioned
by Ibrahim and the German chroniclers, the Iomsburg, a sea fort, was
built by Danish pirates [about 970], and according to Orderic Vitalis
(b. 1075) the German gods Wodan, Thor and Frigg were worshipped in
a district of the Lyutitzi at the mouth of the Oder. All three however
had also their worship in the Upsala temple among the Swedes.
This viking admixture is clearest among the Baltic Slavs—especially
those of the Island of Riigen—and gave them the appearance of a pirate
people. Helmold reports that the men of Riigen were [1168] tributary to
the Danes, but they revolted, and occupied the rich Danish islands, " and
the Danes cannot easily protect themselves from the sudden attacks of
the pirates, for there are creeks there in which the Slavs can keep well
hidden, and from which they can break out unperceived to attack and
plunder the unwary. For the Slavs are particularly strong in sudden
surprises. Hence even up to recent times this custom of robbing has
such possession of them that they are always ready for maritime enter-
prises to the entire disregard of the profits of agriculture, for their whole
hope and all their wealth depend on their ships. Indeed they do not
even trouble themselves much about house-building; rather they fashion
for themselves huts of wicker-work, as they only seek shelter at need from
storm and rain. As often as war threatens to break out, they thresh all
the grain and bury it in holes together with all gold and silver and what
precious things they possess; their women and children however they
take into their fortified places or at least into the forests, so that nothing
remains for the enemy to plunder but the huts, the loss of which they
very easily bear. They pay no regard to the attacks of the Danes,
indeed they consider it spoil to measure themselves against them. " We
see here a remarkable fusion of the viking pirates, Altaian herdsmen and
Slav peasants on the Island of Riigen. But could the most terrible of
all pirates, the Danes, who fill the gloomiest pages in British history,
here stand helpless before Slav pirates? It is more likely that Danish
vikings were here opposed by Slavised vikings. So too the Narentanian
pirates of Dalmatia, called Pagani, seem to be Norse vikings trans-
planted by the Avars, for here too we find a noble class of vitezi.
Giesebrecht excellently characterises the Baltic Slavs: "A mixed
## p. 457 (#489) ############################################
Political Impotence of the Slavs 457
race, not seldom fluctuating in sharp contradiction in their belief, law,
and customs, the Wends were already a fallen nation when they came
into contact with the Franks. Thus from them could proceed much
that was energetic as far as it could be carried out by individuals, families,
or associations, but nothing that presupposed national unity. "
More favourable conditions for a thriving development were obtained
by those Slav peoples among whom either the Altaian or the German
dominating class destroyed the other. The Russian Slavs with the
Varangians whom they absorbed finally reached a national and social
harmony, while the Bohemians and a part of the Alpine Slavs overcame
their Avar oppressors. But they found it a still harder task to build up
their rude freedom into an orderly State. This the Carinthians brilliantly
performed, remaining in true freedom without a nobility for a long time.
Even under German dominion, under far less favourable conditions, they
were an equal match for the Germans of Ditmarschen in Holstein.
As a people who for immemorial ages were deprived of justice and
politically broken the Slavs longed only for an ordered legal State. !
An early example of this is afforded with an objectivity extremely
rare among medieval chroniclers by the author of Chapters xlviii
and lxviii of the "Fredegar" Chronicle (Chronist B). In Samo's king-
dom Prankish merchants were robbed and killed and King Dagobert
demanded redress. Samo "only agreed on a reciprocal legal procedure
on this and similar disagreements which had arisen on both sides. Here-
upon Sycharius in the manner of an arrogant envoy let. . . fall threats to the
effect that Samo and his whole people had to be subject to Dagobert. "
Samo replied, "The land we inhabit and we ourselves are Dagobert's, j
yet only in case he will maintain friendship with us. " Sycharius: "It is
not possible for Christians, the servants of God, to stand in friendship
with dogs. " Samo: "If you are the servants of God, and we are God's
dogs, we are permitted to bite you when you ceaselessly act against his
will. " This led to Dagobert's crushing defeat at Wogastisburg.
The appeal to law and not to the sword is the basis of Old Slavonic f
thought and aspiration; the principal task of the Slav princes was to
secure a passable administration of justice—the Russian Slavs actually
appealed to Norse pirates. The chronicler Cosmas pictures the oldest
Bohemian princes as simple judges, and by their memorable ritual the
Carinthians hoped to secure the necessary foundation of justice, but this
was an ideal not always attainable among a people where no man was
willing to subordinate himself to another without an army capable of
breaking down resistance. And as the Slavs lacked everything in the
remotest way like this, they often became the prey of their warlike
neighbours and perished in impotent rebellions to gain the human
rights denied them. Mighty Slav States arose indeed, but without the
co-operation of the people themselves, whose endeavours were early
directed to social questions. This was a favourable soil for social
## p. 458 (#490) ############################################
458 Social Ideas
religious dreams of an evangelical way of life, and the Slav temperament
reached its greatest perfection in an offshoot of the Hussite movement
fanned into flame by the teaching of Wyclif—in the venerable Unity of
the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren. This movement was democratic,
not communistic—a wonderful theoretic union of human perfection
with spiritual purity in the midst of a society saturated with selfishness.
Their chief representative, well known in England also, was the founder
of the new pedagogy, John Amos Comenius (Komensky), the teacher of
the peoples of Europe.
## p. 459 (#491) ############################################
459
CHAPTER XV.
(A)
KELTIC HEATHENISM IN GAUL.
The purpose of this chapter is to give a short account of the religion
of the Gauls, that is to say the inhabitants of the district bounded by
the Rhine, the Pyrenees, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
We have to gather our information about this religion from in-
complete and vague documents which do not belong to Gaul strictly
speaking: that is from the historians of Greece and Rome (Posidonius,
Caesar, Strabo, Diodorus, Mela, Lucan, etc. ). There are also monuments
(bas-reliefs, bronzes, and inscriptions) dating from the time when Gaul
already formed part of the Roman Empire, and had been influenced
by Rome. Both these sources of information shew us, not the pure
and true Gallic religion, but this religion either as it was more or
less correctly interpreted by strangers, or more or less transformed by
imported beliefs.
Another difficulty arises from the fact that under the term Gallic,
the ancients included both the original inhabitants of Gaul and other
peoples of quite a different character. There were Aquitanians south of
the Garonne, related to the Iberians or Cantabrians of Spain: Ligurians
in the Alpine districts, and Germans in the Moselle and Meuse valleys.
The rest really belonged to the so-called Gauls, and concerning them
two things must be said: first that they fall into two groups, the Kelts
between the Marne and the Garonne, who were the earlier settlers, and
the Belgae, between the Marne and the Ardennes forest, more recent
comers and less civilised. Secondly the Belgae and Kelts, or Gauls as
they are sometimes called, do not represent a homogeneous people; but
the name must be taken to cover both a very ancient race (usually
known as Ligurians) and a smaller group of conquerors or immigrants,
who were the Belgae or Kelts proper. This country of Gaul was then
composed of as various elements as the Francia of the time of Clovis,
and each of these groups of peoples doubtless possessed their own gods
and rites. Therefore when the Gallic religion is referred to, it must be
understood to imply the religion practised in a definite district, and
not by a definite race.
CH. XV. (a)
## p. 460 (#492) ############################################
460 The Gods
Concerning the gods; one type of divinity exists that was probably
common to all these peoples, Ligurians, Germans, Gauls and Aquitanians.
That is the gods of the soil, or, as the Romans said, genii loci, meaning
the gods who inhabited the visible and salient features of the earth;
such as springs, brooks, lakes, rocks, mountains, forests, trees and bogs.
These gods were the most popular, ancient, numerous and varied of all.
Each possessed a distinct name, which was at the same time applied to
the natural feature, whether it were stream or mountain, over which it
presided.
Amongst these divinities, so numerous in Gaul (specially among the
non-Gallic peoples on the frontier, such as the Aquitanians, Ligurians
and Germans), those that recur most frequently and that seem to have
received the greatest share of devotion and fame were connected with
springs, streams and rivers. This I believe to be due to the important
part played by springs in the economic life of families and villages.
They give assurance of life to man and his cattle, and therefore—to
quote Pliny the Naturalist—" They create towns and engender gods. "
Some of these stream-divinities, worshipped in spots destined to be-
come the sites of fair towns, have won a still greater celebrity, as for
instance Nemausus, the god-fountain or the god of the fountain of
the great spring at Nimes, whose temple was consecrated in later
times to Diana; Divona the spring of Burdigcda (Bordeaux) sung
by the poet Ausonius, to be discovered to-day in the stream of the
Deveze; and Bibracte, the spring on Mont Beuvray, the celebrated
Bibracte that was the capital city of the Aedui when Caesar fought them.
Other Keltic towns which also owe their name and origin to stream-god-
desses are Aventicum (Avenches in the territory of the Helvetii), and
Arausio (Orange). Side by side with these must be placed the gods and
goddesses of medicinal springs, which were worshipped so devoutly in
Roman times, and doubtless also in the time of Gallic independence;
such as Luxovnis at Luxeuil, Borbo at Bourbon, and others at Greoulx,
at Luchon, at Dax, at Mont-Dore, etc. In fact it would be necessary to
name all the mineral waters of France to complete the list of gods of
this description. There were also the deities of rivers, who had their
sanctuaries later, sanctuaries rich in every kind of votive offering; of
which the most famous in Roman times was that of the Seine springs.
Such were the Dea Sequana the Seine, Icaunis the Yonne, Mairona the
Marne; while the Classical authors shew that the Rhine was looked upon
as a supreme god. Closely related to these divinities, both as regards
origin and attributes, were those of lakes and marshes; such as the god
of the sacred lake of Toulouse, to whom thousands of ingots of gold
and silver, spoils of the Roman proconsuls, were consecrated.
The gods of mountains, or rather of isolated peaks, were perhaps
rather less numerous and popular, but were also very powerful. A few
of them, by virtue of the majesty of the summit they inhabited,
## p. 461 (#493) ############################################
Worship of the Dead 461
attained (like the Rhine) to the highest rank among the gods. The
col of the Puy-de-D6me, Dumias, was accounted one of the greatest
deities in Gaul, as were also Ventoux, Vintur in Provence, Donon in
the Vosges, not to mention lesser heights. Indeed it appears that the
true Gauls were more attracted by the worship of mountains than by
that of springs.
On the other hand, the Ligurians, Aquitanians and Germans seem
to have cared more for that of forests and trees, though this statement
must not be taken to refer to anything more definite than a preference
for one rather than the other, since all the Gallic peoples were ac-
quainted with the same gods. It is usually possible to distinguish
between the gods and goddesses of the whole forest, most plentiful in
the North, such as the Dea Arduenna of the Ardennes, and the Deus
Vosegus of the Vosges, and the particular divinities which inhabited
a single tree, or a clump of trees; such as the Deus Fagus "the god
. of the beech tree,'" or the Deus Sexarbores, which is the Roman version
of the divinity inhabiting a group of six trees. Such gods might be
found most frequently in the land of the Aquitanians north of the
Pyrenees.
It remains yet to shew in what manner these nature gods were re-
presented and grouped. Sometimes they dwelt in solitude; in which
case the stream or mountain only belonged to a single divinity, either
male (e. g. Deus Nemausus) or female (e. g. Dea Sequana). This seems
to have been the case specially in regions where Keltic or Iberian in-
fluence predominated. Sometimes the mystic properties of a spring
were attributed to an indivisible group of gods, most often composed
of three, but occasionally of five divinities; called by the Romans
"Mothers" or "Matronae" or "Nymphae"" of the spring: for instance
Matres Ubelnae "the Goddess-Mothers" of the Huveaune (a Provencal
spring), but it is clear that the word Matres is only the translation
of a native word, whose use must have been very ancient. This con-
ception of the gods of springs was general between the Pyrenees and the
Rhine, but appeared in a more fully developed form in Provence, the
Ligurian districts, and the forest lands bordering on Germany.
It is impossible to attribute to one tribe more than to another
the worship of the gods sprung from human life; by which is meant
the cult of the dead. We have no trustworthy documentary evidence
testifying to this cult before the Roman period. But monuments
dedicated to the manes of the departed are as common in every part of
Gaul as in Italy and Greece, they shew practically the same formulae,
and they bear witness to the same rites and beliefs. Therefore it is safe
to attribute to the Gauls or Ligurians that worship of the dead which
was an essential element in Greek or Roman life, as Fustel de Coulanges
has shewn in La Citi Antique.
OH. XV. (a)
## p. 462 (#494) ############################################
462 Star-gods
Above these local and human deities appear the great gods. In
this respect more marked individuality is discernible amongst the
different tribes, Kelts, Aquitanians or Ligurians. They gradually gave
distinctive characteristics to their superior gods, the more so since
these deities were regarded as the protectors and representatives—not
of places or men—as were those mentioned above, but of whole nations,
states and public societies. Naturally each of these societies, leading
its individual life, attributed to its national god or tutelary deities a
special character, corresponding to the chief characteristics of its own
life. At the same time, in spite of the obvious differences which they
display, these superior gods possess certain common features, which serve
to recall the existence of the great sovereign and universal deities, older
than the grouping of nations.
All the tribes mentioned, whatever their origin may have been, have
this in common; that they all believed in the existence of a superior
divinity, representing the virtue of the earth, which produces all and
reaps all. We find this same divine principle appearing under a multi-
tude of diverse forms in later times, such as the Earth, mother of the
god of the Germans, Dinpater, father of the Gauls, Earth again, from
whom the indigenous Britons sprang, Vesta or Herecura (Juno Regina)
known to us from the Roman inscriptions in Gaul and Germany; and
Minerva of the tribes of the South. And if we find later that the
Aquitanians of Lectoure and the Kelts of the Viennoise and the Three
Gauls accepted with enthusiasm the cult of the Magna Mater brought
to them from the Palatine at Rome and Pessinus in Asia, the explana-
tion lies in the fact that they were accustomed to adore a chthonian
divinity of the same nature.
Similarly Gauls, Ligurians and Gallo-Germans worshipped the sun,
moon, fire and the stars; and in the more human figures which repre-
sented their gods in later times it is possible to see clearly traces
of these ancient and primitive beliefs. Thus among the greatest of
the Keltic gods was Taranis (or Taranus) whom Caesar reasonably
considered as the equivalent of Jupiter, since his emblems were the
thunder-bolt, the S and the wheel of the chariot of the Sun. By his
side the same people worshipped Beknus, translated Apollo by the
Romans, as being more correctly the Sun-god. They also possessed an
equivalent for Diana, perhaps in the person of Sirona; while the
appearance of stars on various Gallic monuments shews that the cult of
the lesser stars was not foreign to them. Above all, these astral or
heavenly gods kept their primordial importance among the non-Gallic
tribes, the Aquitanians and Ligurians, and among the Gauls in the
Belgic district. An examination of the symbols on coins of the period
of independence, or the inscriptions of the Roman time, discloses the
apparently incontrovertible fact, that in proportion as the Seine is left
to the south, and the Ardennes and the Rhine are approached, astral
## p. 463 (#495) ############################################
National Gods 463
symbols increase on coins, and figures connected with the heavens become
more numerous on monuments.
For there is no doubt that the symbol
of a snake-footed giant supporting a triumphant cavalier, which is so
often found in Belgium, may be interpreted as illustrating the episodes
in the progress of the seasons or the stars. Also it may be observed
that it was this same region that was most notable, in Imperial times, for
the worship of the seven days of the week.
The permanent and natural functions of these chthonian and astral
gods prolonged their existence and stereotyped their characteristics
until the time of the Roman conquest: thus it is easier to speak with
certainty of these than of the merely political deities, for their sway
was closely connected with the national life of the tribes; as was that of
Capitoline Jupiter or Jahveh of the Israelites.
The Kelts, while they formed a federation of cities bearing the same
name, owned as their political deity one that the writings of Lucan
have made known to us as Teutates, and this name itself reminds us of
his essential characteristic, which was to identify himself with his people
(as did Jahveh with the Israelites), for the root " teui" appears to mean
something approaching to "national" (patrius). It was this god that
the Romans, following the example of Caesar, identified with Mercury;
though it is probable that any other interpretation would have served
equally well: for instance Mars, Saturn or Dispater, according as the
Classical authors or the worshippers in the Imperial period may have
preferred the intellectual, warlike or creative attributes. For like all
other national gods of ancient peoples, this deity seems to have been
omnipotent. He probably led his people to battle, protected their
merchants, taught them all the arts, while he was also the creator of
mankind and the founder of the national name, as was Jehovah himself.
Besides this god, but still within the circle of their national deities,
the Kelts worshipped Esus, who probably came into existence as a
duplication or avatar of Teutates. He seems to have possessed the same
attributes, though perhaps it is possible to discern in him more definitely
and constantly the features of a warrior.
Besides these two, a feminine deity is found, more or less sprung
from the earth goddess; she is also at the same time a warlike and
intellectual deity, known by the Romans as Minerva or Victoria, perhaps
also the mysterious Andarta of certain epigraphic writings. Yet further,
there may possibly have been a fourth deity of this nature in the Gallic
pantheon, a god of war and labour, of fire and the smithy, identified by
the Romans as Vulcanus.
If only the tribes bearing the name of Gauls had lived in strict bonds
of unity under one government, as did the Carthaginians and Romans,
it is probable that the individual characters and special characteristics
of the gods might have become permanently fixed. But the Gallic
world, like the Greek, was frequently changed by scatterings and quarrels.
CH. XV. (a)
## p. 464 (#496) ############################################
464 Representation of the Gods
Thus each of the tribes worshipped, conceived of and made combinations
of the gods at its own pleasure, until Gaul may be said to have con-
tained as many pantheons as cities; though the same fundamental
principles can easily be traced in each.
In this way the Druidical federation which had its centre in the land
of the Carnutes, kept as its sovereign gods Teutates and Esus associated
with Taranis the thunder-god. Among the Vocontii of Dauphine the
great national divinity appears to have been Andarta, Victory. The
Allobroges appear to have consecrated themselves to two military
divinities resembling the Roman Mars and Hercules. Perhaps the
Arverni, who were for a long time the sovereign people among the
Kelts, had with more piety maintained the worship of a single Teutates,
to whom they raised the sanctuary that is found consecrated in Roman
times to the Latin form of this god, Mercurius Dumias.
So far we have only dealt with the Gauls, amongst whom it is possible
to discover the existence of political gods, presiding over a great
federation or a single city. This type of god is far more difficult to
study among the Aquitanians and Ligurians, because their national life
was, to a surprising degree, less concentrated, and the tribal system
preponderated. Even here, however, we occasionally discover a great
god possessing the attributes of Mars, another resembling Hercules, or a
third with feminine characteristics. The pacific and creative faculties
which caused the Keltic Teutates to resemble Mercury are less clearly
marked in the chief gods of this region.
Another cause of the indefiniteness noticeable in the characters of
all these gods is the fact that in all probability the Gauls had not
yet reached the stage known as anthropomorphism. It must not be
understood by this that they completely denied themselves any repre-
sentation of the gods; for when Julius Caesar speaks of the simulacra
of their Mercury, or Lucan mentions the simulacra of the gods of the
Kelto-Ligurian peoples dwelling near Marseilles, they were doubtless
thinking of images of the human figure. But these images, not a single
one of which has survived for us, can only have been unformed trunks,
rough-hewn pillars, a kind of sheath in wood or stone (arte carent, said
Lucan) analogous to the most ancient xoana of the Greeks, without any
of the features of a man or those fixed attributes which make it possible
to distinguish a Zeus from an Apollo.
The image of the deity was as indefinite as his nature was vague
and complex. At the same time, it appears that the religious image
was not universally accepted; and that the priests, like those of Latium
in the time of Numa, refused to give their authority to representations
of the gods.
To the eyes of worshippers the gods were represented rather by
emblems than figures, and before the time of Roman influence the
Gallic religion was as rich in symbols as it was poor in images. We
-
## p. 465 (#497) ############################################
Sacred Animals and Plants 465
may study the Gallic coins struck in the second and first centuries b. c,
which are the only authentic witness to the period of independence,
without finding a single representation of one of the native gods, either
full-length or as a bust. On the other hand, attributes, symbols and
emblems will be found in abundance, either of the objects which formed
the equipment of a god, weapons or utensils, or signs which would be
pointless except for the mysterious significance attached to them.
Thus the sign in the form of the letter S, which has given rise to
many designs on coins, and to the fabrication of many metal amulets,
appears to have been the symbol of Taranis; the same may be said of
the wheel or little wheel. The hammer, according to the most reliable
theory, was the attribute of Teutates, his changeless weapon.
Further, the gods possessed permanent companions, birds, beasts,
trees and animals, which accompanied them during their lives or made
manifest their actions. Amongst quadrupeds, the horse appears most
often on coins; while of all the birds, the raven most certainly plays
the principal part in divine matters in Gaul, as among so many peoples
of the ancient world. A chatterer, ever restless with his varied cries, he
was manifestly the interpreter of the wishes of the gods on earth, and
their permanent oracle.
We are rather better informed on the subject of sacred plants,
thanks to some of the writings of Pliny the Naturalist. It must not be
forgotten, however, that he wrote more than a century after the loss of
Gallic independence, and that the sacred plants had by then been more
or less wrested from their divine functions by their transformation into
mere magical agents. We know the most important to have been the
mistletoe; not mistletoe found in any place, but mistletoe cut from an
oak. It owed its great value to several circumstances: mistletoe is very
rare on oaks, the oak was the most sacred tree among the Kelts, and the
presence of a plant of mistletoe on an oak was therefore a proof that
a god had chosen it for his dwelling. Further to explain the potency
of mistletoe it must be remembered that its seed is spread by birds,
its leaves face the earth, not the sky, and that it displays its perfect
greenness at a time when all other vegetation seems dead in the cold
winter weather. Thus it is possible that in it the Gauls beheld a symbol
of immortality, but Pliny only speaks of it as a remedy for all ills.
Later, under the Roman domination, all these different beings and
things comprised in the Gallic religion, gods, animals, plants and
emblems, were combined and united to form groups of consecrated
images, analogous to those at that time presented by the Graeco-Roman
mythology. The sculptors of Roman Gaul continually reproduced and
repeated the new conceptions of their belief. We have therefore a type
of the thunder-god, clothed more or less like a Jupiter, armed above
all with the wheel: a god with a hammer, accompanied by a dog and
holding a goblet in his hand: a three-headed god flanked by a serpent
C MED. H. VOL. II. CH. XV. (a) 30
## p. 466 (#498) ############################################
466 Sacred Buildings
with a ram's horn: a horse-god, carried by the snake-footed giant: a
goddess seated on a beast of burden (Epona, the goddess of horses):
a horned god, and many others. But we hesitate before pronouncing
these images to be the manifestations of unmixed Keltic thought. At
the time when they appeared a century had elapsed since the Gauls had
been independent in their thoughts and beliefs; they were no longer
under the direction of their priests, and they were ceaselessly open to
contact with Greek and Roman imagery, so that they often combined
native emblems with copies of foreign symbols; they spoke no more of
Teutates, but invoked Mercury in his place. All these images possess
a real interest none the less, but it is necessary to guard against attri-
buting to them an undue importance in the history of Gallic religion.
What has been said of religious sculpture is still more true of archi-
tecture. All the temples and altars without exception, which were
consecrated to Gallic gods, date from the period of the Roman Empire:
and by that time the Roman architects and priests had invaded the
land with their stereotyped buildings and their customs, the templum
and ara. This does not imply that it is impossible to discover in these
constructions a trace of indigenous survivals. Thus a great many
temples in Gaul proper are constructed on a square plan (as for
instance that of Champlien, in Normandy), and this architectural type
is hardly to be found in the Graeco-Roman world, therefore it may
possibly recall some sacred customs of the Gauls; but a complete inquiry
on these lines has not yet been made. It is certain that in the time of
independence, the Gauls possessed sacred places; and a few, like that of
the Virgins of the Isle of Sein (in Armorica), must have been complete
buildings, with walls and roofs. But these were doubtless made of wood
(hence their complete destruction) and they were in the minority among
sanctuaries. The majority of consecrated places were simply open spaces
limited by ritual, but not by material boundaries; spaces where frag-
ments of the precious metals, destined for the gods, were accumulated.
There were also clusters of trees, spaces reserved in the great forests, or
even lakes or marshes, like those of Toulouse, which have been men-
tioned already. When a spring was considered to be holy it is probable
that offerings for the god of the place were thrown into the water; the
spring was at the same time both god and sanctuary. This theory
explains the fact that when sites are excavated the springs often yield
the largest crop of surprising discoveries.
All that has been said helps to shew why it is still more difficult
to penetrate far in the knowledge of doctrines; that is, the fashion
in which the Gauls conceived of the destinies of man, the world, and
the gods. But there remain a few indications of their beliefs in these
matters, escaped from the total ruin which has befallen their religious
poems. Further, it is always possible that the Greeks and Romans
have not given a very exact interpretation even of what they were
## p. 467 (#499) ############################################
Doctrine 467
able to learn. At the time when they were writing on Gallic religion
there was a fashion prevalent, owing its origin doubtless to Alexandria,
of painting the wisdom and philosophy of the barbarians in glowing
colours; so that quite possibly they may have endowed the Gallic
dogmas with a purity and elevation really quite foreign to them.
The Keltic doctrine most highly praised by these writers is that of
the immortality of the soul. They have not explained to us very clearly
the nature of this immortality, but it is more than probable (if we
examine the equipment of a Gaul in his tomb) that the Kelts imaged
the next life as very similar to this, with more pleasures and with greater
combats for him who died bravely on the battle-field. This type of
immortality is traceable in the beliefs of most barbaric peoples; it
has no special mark of nobility, and does not justify the frequent
practice of deducing from it any particular glory for the Kelts.
Concerning the world, their religious poems spoke of the struggle
between water, earth and fire, of the triumph of the two first-named
elements, and of the submergence of all in a future cataclysm. More-
over, the world was later to emerge as victor over destruction. This is
a sufficiently childish cosmogony, in which it is possible to trace all the
usual elements.
The religious practices of the Gauls do not seem to. offer any extra-
ordinary features, either good or bad. Caesar and others tell us that
they were the most religious of men, and performed no action without
consulting their gods; in this they resembled the Greeks and Romans of
primitive times, and if the contemporaries of Augustus were astonished at
it, it was merely because at that time it was considered by educated Romans
to be good taste to mock at the gods and to act independently of them.
The Gauls must be severely condemned for their human sacrifices,
whether of those already sentenced to death, or of innocent persons
whom they are said to have enclosed in large wicker hampers. Re-
cently certain modern scholars, too ready perhaps (like the Alexandrians
in the time of Posidonius) to admire the Gauls, have tried to deny
or excuse these horrible ceremonies. This is only labour lost. We
must accept their existence, not forgetting, however, that they were
not peculiar to the Gauls, but that the Greeks and Romans themselves
had their sacrifices of men and women. The ancients have insisted with
equal vehemence on the Keltic practice of divination, and have cited
many facts to shew their passion for the art of the diviner, whether by
means of birds, entrails of victims, decisions of augurs or dreams.
Without doubt the Gauls had essayed all these means for discovering
the future, but in this again they took the same course as the Greeks
and Romans of earlier times; and if the raven was by them accounted
the greatest of soothsaying birds, it held a similar position among the
Greeks long before.
With regard to the magical practices of the Gallic world, the
ch. xv. (a) 30—2
## p. 468 (#500) ############################################
468 Druidism
ancients have little to tell us. This may simply be due to chance, but
possibly the Kelts were really inferior, in this respect, to the Italians and
Carthaginians. Various indications (specially the relative scarcity of
magical tablets under the emperors) seem to shew that as far as magic is
concerned, they were rather imitators than masters.
Perhaps it was in their sacerdotal organisation that the Kelts (they
alone can be dealt with in this connexion) shewed most originality; though
it is necessary to add that we are only half-informed on the subject.
They called their chief priests Druids. This name (whatever its
etymology may be) seems to have conveyed a more important meaning to
them than did the words sacerdos or pontifex to the Romans. Neverthe-
less, the druids were not without some resemblance to the men who bore
one or other of these titles at Rome. They also were drawn from the
upper class of society; they were selected from the nobles, exactly as the
pontifices of primitive Rome were chosen from the patrician ranks.
The dignity of druid did not force its holder to withdraw himself from
civil and political life. Caesar has told us of an Aeduan druid in his
time, Diviciacus by name, who was, perhaps, the chief of all the Gallic
druids. He was very rich, wielding great influence both in his own
tribe and throughout Gaul, he was probably both married and the father
of a family; he was allowed to ride and to wear arms; he accompanied
Caesar on his first campaigns, and the Roman proconsul even entrusted
the command of a corps of the army to him. His obligations, as a Gaul,
do not seem to have differed from those of Caesar as a Roman, and
Caesar was pontifex maximus.
Two points remain, however, in which the druids do not resemble the
priests of Classical antiquity, but rather recall those of the East. First,
though each tribe in Gaul had its own druid or druids, all the druids
were associated in a permanent federation, like priests of the same cult.
Although they were not formally a clergy, they did form a church, like
the bishops of the Catholic Church; and this church necessitated both
a hierarchy and periodical assemblies.
At the head of the druids was a high-priest, who seems to have held
his dignity for life. Since there was an organised hierarchy, the high-
priest was succeeded by the man who held the post immediately below
his own. If the succession should be disputed by rival claimants of
equal rank, a decision was made by means of election, or sometimes by
a duel with weapons, standing probably for some kind of divine judg-
ment by the sword.
Every year all the druids of Gaul met in a solemn assembly in the
territory of the Carnutes (Chartres and Orleans); this country was
chosen because it was considered (and with considerable accuracy) to be
the centre of the whole of Gaul. This assembly had at the same
time a political, judicial and religious aspect. The druids formed them-
selves into a tribunal, and judged all cases submitted to their decision;
## p. 469 (#501) ############################################
Druidism 469
such as those involving murder, disputed inheritance and boundaries.
It is probable that this tribunal came into competition with the jurisdic-
tion of the ordinary magistrates of the cities. The druids pronounced
sentences which seem in the main to have consisted of formulae of com-
position or of excommunication. Those excluded by them from the
sacrifices were, said Caesar, treated as scoundrels, and guilty of impiety,
and no one dared approach them. It remains to be discovered to what
extent this tribunal was attended, its sentences executed and its juris-
diction respected. It may be that in the last century of independence,
these druidical assizes were but the survival of very ancient institutions,
then falling more and more into desuetude—a form without much mean-
ing. None the less, they are one of the strangest things found in Gaul,
and even in the whole of the West.
The second original feature of druidism was that the priests were
also the teachers of the Gallic youth. If it were said absolutely that
they directed the schools, the expression would be unsuitable. But they
gathered round them the young men of the Gallic families, and taught
them all that they knew or believed concerning the world, the human
soul and the gods. A few of these scholars stayed with their masters
until they had reached the age of twenty years; but it is clear that those
who were to become priests received the lion's share of attention. Such
an institution, making the priests into the educators of the young, is
surprising in ancient times, and calls to mind modern conditions. We
cannot be certain, however, that in it we have an exceptional pheno-
menon, for is it not possible that something approaching the druidical
teaching may be found in the schools founded in Rome in connexion
with the members of the colleges of Augurs and Pontifices?
In all other respects, however, the analogy between druidism and the
ancient priesthoods is complete. The druids alone possessed the power
of offering sacrifices by the act of presiding at them; they studied philo-
sophy, astronomy and physiology; they wrote (in verse) the annals of
their people, as did the pontifices of Rome and the priests of Israel.
The druids were not the only priests of the Gauls. They were the
most important, and probably they alone were considered to rank in
dignity with the nobles. But they had depending on them a good many
subordinate priests who officiated singly, and others who were combined
to form a sodality.
The single priests were those who were attached to a sanctuary as
a kind of guardian or celebrant of a temple and its god: somewhat
resembling the Roman aedituus. Among the greater number of tribes
they were known as gntuater.
The Gauls also possessed priestly confraternities, which seem to have
been largely made up of women. The ancient geographers tell us of a
few, which were all dedicated to the orgiastic cults, doubtless having a
chthonian origin. The most famous was that of the maidens of the Isle
CH. XV. (a)
## p. 470 (#502) ############################################
470 Decay of Druidism
of Sein (already mentioned) who foretold the future, and raised or tran-
quillised storms. The truth of this information has frequently been
denied of late, but all ancient religions have confraternities of this kind,
all having a similar origin, and all giving rise to, and carrying on, the
worship of the Earth-Mother.
Druidism did not disappear with Gallic independence, but it under-
went fundamental modifications, which must be mentioned here in order
to explain the way in which medieval writers have alluded to it.
The druids, as public high-priests of the Gallic tribes, lost their
old place under the Roman domination. They were suppressed, or
rather, transformed into Sacerdotes according to the Roman custom; and
in the Concilium of the Three Gauls at Lyons, composed of Sacerdotes
Romae et Augusti it is possible to trace a Roman interpretation of the
druidical assemblies in the land of the Carnutes.
The lower priests, prophets, diviners, sages, guardians of temples and
sorcerers, survived in obscurity, carrying on their traditions and sought
after by devotees and peasants who were faithful to the old popular cults.
Thus it came about that the word druid, which was formerly applied to
the sacerdotal aristocracy, was finally used to designate these rustic
priests, the last survivals of the national religion. When, therefore, the
Latin writers mention druids and druidesses in connexion with mistletoe,
remedies and witchcraft, it is probable that they allude to these priests
of the uneducated people.
The word druid is found in medieval writings applied to the native
priests of Ireland and the so-called Keltic lands. It is difficult to feel
sure that the word is there a direct survival, and that the Irish druids
really were the authentic descendants of those mentioned by Pliny and
Tacitus. In more than one place, the name and the dignity might have
been interpolated by a learned writer who had read Caesar and Strabo.
But ought this statement to be made general? and further, is it not
possible that all druids found in the West in medieval times are the
production of literary men? The present writer refrains from ex-
pressing an opinion on the subject.
One last question remains in connexion with the druids. Caesar
states in his Commentaries that their doctrine (disciplina) was evolved
(inventa) in the isle of Britain, from whence it had been taken to Gaul.
He adds "those who wish to study it deeply, usually go to the Island,
and stay there for a time. "
A completely satisfactory explanation of this passage has not yet been
given. Perhaps it was simply an invention of the Gallic druids, who
wished to invest their doctrine with the attractiveness that belongs to
a mystery, and therefore evolved this British origin for it. But per-
haps their dogmas and their myths really did spring from the large
neighbouring island. In this latter case, two hypotheses must be
considered.
## p. 471 (#503) ############################################
Literature 471
In the time of Caesar the British population was composed of two
different groups: a minority consisting of conquerors who had come from
Gaul, Belgians or Kelts; and a majority consisting of natives. To which
of these two races did the druids ascribe the paternity of their intellectual
discipline? If to the Gauls, possibly Britain produced a reforming
druid, who restored the religious doctrines of the nation to their primi-
tive purity. If to the natives, it may be that an ancient religious
community existed on the Island, with foreign rites and teaching,
that nevertheless supplied inspiration to the druids.
In either case, one thing seems certain. It is that Britain, the last,
in point of date, of the Keltic settlements in Europe, somehow preserved
more faithfully than the other countries the religious habits of the
common mother-land. It is evident from Caesar that the Britons still
respected the most ancient customs of the Gallic race, therefore it is
probable that among them religion would have retained the most
primitive forms. This may explain why the druids sent their novices
there for instruction.
The druids of Gaul, like the pontifices of Rome, were writers. Caesar
reiterates his account of their long poems; for to prevent their doctrines
from being made known to all, they composed (or had composed)
thousands of verses, which they compelled their disciples to learn by
heart. These poems dealt with the stars, the gods, the earth and
nature; probably also with the origin of the Gallic tribes and the
human soul. They were at the same time their books of Genesis and
Chronicles. Moral precepts were mixed with or added to this theoretical
teaching, the best known being that which taught that death is not to
be feared, and that another life is to be expected.
Probably these didactic poems did not exhaust the religious poetry
of the Gauls. Their sacred literature seems to have been extraordinarily
rich. We find quotations referring to songs of war and victory, also
magnificent melodies, hymns in honour of their leaders, and historical
poems, often of an epic character, in which facts and supernatural events
alternate bewilderingly. The unfortunate fact is that all this is known
to us only by the vague allusions to it to be found in the Classical authors.
In connexion with these songs and poems, the word most often used
by the ancient writers is Bardi, and this was the ordinary term for
poet among the Gauls. These Bardi must be remembered in considering
Gallic religion, for it is possible that they were half priests, half prophets,
living in dependence on the druids.
As well as references to druids and Gallic gods, we come across
bards in the celebrated Keltic poems of the Middle Ages; and the
same question arises in connexion with all these traces of Gallic
religion. Do they all come directly and continuously from the past, or
are they nothing more than clever reconstructions due to readers of
the Classics?
ch. xv. (a)
## p. 472 (#504) ############################################
472 Heathenism in Britain
(B)
KELTIC HEATHENISM IN THE BRITISH ISLES.
Just as the general condition of Britain in Roman times is far more
imperfectly known than that of Gaul, so, too, we have but scanty
data for painting a complete picture of Keltic heathendom in these
islands during the period in question, and that which immediately
succeeded it. Such evidence as we find is derived partly from inscrip-
tions, partly from the survival in legend of certain names which are
either those of known Keltic deities, or which may be presumed from
their forms to have been those of divine beings, partly from the
allusions found in legend to heathen practices, and partly from inferences
based upon a study of existing folk-lore. A consideration of this
evidence leads to the conclusion that the condition of heathenism in
Britain was very similar to that of Gaul, except that, in North Britain
and Ireland and the less Romanised parts of Southern Britain, there
had been less assimilation of the native religion to that of Rome.
In Britain, as in Gaul, the basis of Keltic religion was largely local
in character, and rivers, springs, hills and other natural features were
regarded as the abodes of gods and goddesses. The belief in fairies and
similar beings, as well as in fabulous monsters supposed to inhabit caves,
lakes and streams, which comes to view in medieval and modern Keltic
folk-lore, is doubtless a continuous survival from the period of heathenism,
and certain of the practices connected with regularly recurring festivals,
such as the lighting of bonfires, the taking of omens and the like, have
probably come down from the same time. The curious reader can find
a very full account of these and similar survivals in Sir John RhyVs
Celtic Folk-lore, Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands and
Dr Frazer's Golden Bough.
Certain of the deities of Britain may have been tribal, and there are
reasons for thinking that, in Britain as well as in Gaul, some deities
were worshipped by several Keltic tribes, so that these may be regarded
as the major deities of the Keltic pantheon. For instance, the name of
Lug, a character of Irish legend, and that of Lieu in Welsh legend, are
both cognate with the Gaulish Lugus, a god whose wide worship in the
Keltic world is attested by the number of places called after his name
Lugudunum or Lugdunum (the fortress of Lugus), and it is highly
probable that both Lug of Irish legend and Lieu of Welsh legend were
once regarded in their respective countries as divine. The Welsh place-
names Dinlleu (the fort of Lieu) and Nantlleu (the valley of Lieu) in
Carnarvonshire point in the same direction, no less than the ancient
British name of Carlisle, Luguvallium (the embankment of Lugus).
## p. 473 (#505) ############################################
The Gods 473
A name corresponding to that of the god Segomo of Gaul is found
on an Ogam inscription in Ireland—Netta-Segamonas (the Champion
of Segamo), and, later, as Nia-Sedhamain (for Seghamain). The
Gaulish god Camulos has his British counterpart in the Camalos or
Camulos after whom Colchester received its name Camalodunum or
Camulodunum. The proper name Camulorigho (in an oblique case)
found on an inscription in Anglesey, as well as Camelorigi, which occurs
on an inscription at Cheriton in Pembrokeshire, are further evidence that
the god Camulos was not unknown in Britain. This is still more pro-
bable, since the name of this deity occurs on an inscription at Barhill1,
while the wide range of his worship is suggested by the existence of his
name on inscriptions at Salona*, Rome' and Clermont.
It would be unsafe to take the fact that the name of a deity occurs
on an inscription in Britain as evidence that the deity in question was
worshipped by the natives, since the inscriptions found in Britain are
mostly those of soldiers who often paid their vows to the deities of their
own lands. At the same time, the area over which certain inscriptions
are found makes it highly probable that the deities mentioned on them
were worshipped, among other countries, in Britain itself.
