What is really intriguing is the possibility that the druidic order and their
sanctuaries were absorbed in some fashion by early monastic communities such as
the Culdees. Irish mythology is of course replete with references to the Druidic
class. The Táin Bo Cuailgne, for instance, has a Druid, Cathbad, who is
mentioned several times. His war cries and incantations are very similar to
Tacitus' accounts of the pre-battle actions of the druids of Anglesey . I can
understand the heavy reliance on Caesar's accounts of his campaigns in Gaul but
there's so much material to be found in these sagas, it would be a shame not to
consider them in assessing what kind of transformations must have occurred in
the druidic sanctuaries.
Though written down in the 10th c. the language
of the Táin dates to the 8th c. and obviously comes from an oral tradition
that's at least a few hundred years old. Cathbad is called a drui which by the
time the monks were compiling the tale would have connoted - in derogatory
fashion - a magician or soothsayer, contrary to his leadership role in the epic
(which is not central but periphery) - perhaps indicating already a shift in
power status.
From what I can gather Irish scholars are pretty sure that
the druidic class in Ireland splintered into the filid (poets) and breithemain
(jurists) though how close this occurred to Christianization is a matter of
conjecture but it must have been associated with the adoption of canon law.
In "Early Irish Law" T. M. Charles Edwards writes;
"In the legal
texts of the seventh and eighth centuries there are distinct hierarchies for the
fili 'poet-seer' and the ecnae 'ecclesiaistical scholar' as well as the ordinary
hierarchy of the church. In most texts the druid is as if he had been forgotten,
but some take the trouble to exclude him specifically from the ranks of those
who enjoy high status through their craft"
Their marginalisation it seems
was a slow and painful one which lends further credence to the thesis that they
may have gradually filtered into a new form of social institution whilst
retaining some of their doctrines.(One of the texts Edwards is referring to is
the "Bretha Crolige".)
On the subject of the druid's longevity in
Ireland it is known also that Diarmuid Mac Cearbaill (d.565) helped St. Ciarán
build one of the first churches at Clonmacnoise; the same Diarmuid who is
mentioned in the Annals of Tighernach as the last king to have a pagan (i.e.
druidic) inauguration at Tara. The east wing of the Cross of the Scriptures at
Clonmacnoise is regarded as depicting both Diarmiat and Ciarán;
"Then
Ciarán planted the first stake, and Diarmait son of Cerball was along with him.
Said Ciarán to Diarmait when setting the stake, 'Let, O warrior, thy hand be
over my hand, and thou shalt be in sovereignty over the men of
Ireland.'"
The Celtic historian Prof. James Carney also regards Diarmiat
as the last king of Ireland to be associated with a druid. I presume he's
talking about Bec Mac Dé (unfortunately he doesn't specify) who is supposed to
have prophesied Diarmiat's death. Interesting, given researches on the etymology
of saor, saer etc that we may have a druid figure in such proximity to Ciaran
and Clonmacnoise with the moniker "little son of God". I've seen Bec Mac Dé
variously regarded as a "saint", "prophet" and "druid" so evidently this period
in Ireland when Ciarán is establishing Clonmacnoise marks some kind of
transitional phase. Carney himself regards the Cearbaill kingship as the 'last
stand' of paganism.
I know it's hard to gauge how long druidism proper
lasted in Ireland but if Bec Mac Dé is a genuine remnant of the old order
collapsing amidst the encroachments of the church then this would surely bring
us right up to the immediate pre-Christian period. It would also make sense,
would it not, that he and those 'sons of god' like him would prefer to retain as
much autonomy as possible and take a separate path free from the strictures of
any order - an "order" exactly of the nature of the Culdees who preferred to
steer clear of the dictats from Rome.
Christianity, when it came, fit the
people like a glove - the seanchus law tracts weren't up to the task of
protecting their rights in the same way that the message of Christianity could.
If one of the druid's task was to modulate the warring tribes then his function
has been usurped by the new gospels; but their habits of learning cannot be
displaced into a vacuum. A new social institution needs to be created to absorb
the phalanx of scholars, hence perhaps the ripeness for cenobitic orders such as
the Céli Dé. The monastic theory of druidic absorption is in fact pretty
irresistible
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