ind of priestly organisation, M. Bertrand founds on them a theory that
the Druids were a kind of monks living a community life, and that Irish
monasticism was a transformation of this system.[1036] This is purely
imaginative. Irish Druids had wives and children, and the Druid
Diviciacus was a family man, while Caesar says not a word of community
life among the Druids. The hostility of Christianity to the Druids would
have prevented any copying of their system, and Irish monasticism was
modelled on that of the Continent. Druidic organisation probably denoted
no more than that the Druids were bound by certain ties, that they were
graded in different ranks or according to their functions, and that they
practised a series of common cults. In Gaul one chief Druid had
authority over the others, the position being an elective one.[1037] The
insular Druids may have been similarly organised, since we hear of a
chief Druid, _primus magus_, while the _Filid_ had an _Ard-file_, or
chief, elected to his office.[1038] The priesthood was not a caste, but
was open to those who showed aptitude for it. There was a long
novitiate, extending even to twenty years, just as, in Ireland, the
novitiate of the _File_ lasted from seven to twelve years.[1039]

The Druids of Gaul assembled annually in a central spot, and there
settled disputes, because they were regarded as the most just of
men.[1040] Individual Druids also decided disputes or sat as judges in
cases of murder. How far it was obligatory to bring causes before them
is unknown, but those who did not submit to a decision were interdicted
from the sacrifices, and all shunned them. In other words, they were
tabued. A magico-religious sanction thus enforced the judgments of the
Druids. In Galatia the twelve tetrarchs had a council of three hundred
men, and met in a place called Drunemeton to try cases of murder.[1041]
Whether it is philologically permissible to connect _Dru_- with the
corresponding syllable in "Druid" or not, the likeness to the Gaulish
assembly at a "consecrated place," perhaps a grove (_nemeton_), is
obvious. We do not know that Irish Druids were judges, but the _Filid_
exercised judgments, and this may be a relic of their connection with
the Druids.[1042]

Diodorus describes the Druids exhorting combatants to peace, and taming
them like wild beasts by enchantment.[1043] This suggests interference
to prevent the devastating power of the blood-feud or of tribal wars.
Th