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Bible Dictionaries
Druids
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary
or The priests, or ministers of religion among the ancient Gauls, Britons, and Germans. They were chosen out of the best families; and the honours of their birth, joined with those of their function, procured them the highest veneration among the people. They were versed in astrology, geometry, natural philosophy, politics, and geography; they were the interpreters of religion, and the judges of all affairs indifferently. Whoever refused obedience to them was declared impious and accursed. We know but little as to their peculiar doctrines, only that the believed the immortality of the soul, and, as is generally also supposed, the transmigration of it to other bodies; though a late author makes it appear highly probable they did not believe this last, at least not in the sense of the Pythagoreans. The chief settlement of the Druids in Britain as in the isle of Anglesey, the ancient Mona, which they might choose for this purpose, as it is well stored with precious groves of their favourite oak. They were divided into several classes or branches, such as the priests, the poets, the augurs, the civil judges, and instructors of youth. Strabo, however, does not comprehend all these different orders under the denomination of druids; he only distinguishes three kinds; bardi, poets; the vates, priests and naturalists; and the druids, who, besides the study of nature, applied themselves likewise to morality.
Their garments were remarkably long; and when employed in religious ceremonies, they likewise wore a white surplice. They generally carried a wand in their hands, and wore a kind of ornament, encased with gold, about their necks, called the druid's egg. They had one chief, or arch-druid, in every nation, who acted as high priest, or pontifex maximus. He had absolute authority over the rest, and commanded, decreed, and punished at pleasure. They worshipped the Supreme Being under the name of Esus or Hesus, and the symbol of the oak; and had no other temple than a wood or a grove, where all their religious rites were performed. Nor was any person permitted to enter that sacred recess unless he carried with him a chain in token of his absolute dependence on the Deity. Indeed, their whole religion originally consisted in acknowledging that the Supreme Being, who made his abode in these sacred groves, governed the universe; and, that every creature ought to obey his laws, and pay him divine homage. They considered the oak as the emblem, or rather the peculiar residence of the Almighty; and accordingly chaplets of it were worn both by the druids and people, in their religious ceremonies: the altars were strewed with its leaves, and encircled with its branches.
The fruit of it, especially the misletoe, was thought to contain a divine virtue, and to be the peculiar gift of Heaven. It was, therefore, sought for on the sixth day of the moon with the greatest earnestness and anxiety; and when found, was hailed with sure rapture of joy, as almost exceeds imagination to conceive. As soon as the druids were informed of the fortunate discovery, they prepared every thing ready for the sacrifice under the oak, to which they fastened two white bulls by the horns; then the arch-druid, attended by a prodigious number of people, ascended the tree, dressed in white; and, with a consecrated golden knife, or pruning hook, cropped the misletoe, which he received in his robe, amidst the rapturous exclamations of the people. Having secured this sacred plant, he descended the tree; the bulls were sacrificed; and the Deity invoked to bless his own gift, and render it efficacious in those distempers in which it should be administered.
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Buck, Charles. Entry for 'Druids'. Charles Buck Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/cbd/d/druids.html. 1802.
