ey also appear to have exercised authority in the election of rulers.
Convictolitanis was elected to the magistracy by the priests in Gaul,
"according to the custom of the State."[1044] In Ireland, after
partaking of the flesh of a white bull, probably a sacrificial animal, a
man lay down to sleep, while four Druids chanted over him "to render his
witness truthful." He then saw in a vision the person who should be
elected king, and what he was doing at the moment.[1045] Possibly the
Druids used hypnotic suggestion; the medium was apparently clairvoyant.

Dio Chrysostom alleges that kings were ministers of the Druids, and
could do nothing without them.[1046] This agrees on the whole with the
witness of Irish texts. Druids always accompany the king, and have great
influence over him. According to a passage in the _Tain_, "the men of
Ulster must not speak before the king, the king must not speak before
his Druid," and even Conchobar was silent until the Druid Cathbad had
spoken.[1047] This power, resembling that of many other priesthoods,
must have helped to balance that of the warrior class, and it is the
more credible when we recall the fact that the Druids claimed to have
made the universe.[1048] The priest-kingship may have been an old Celtic
institution, and this would explain why, once the offices were
separated, priests had or claimed so much political power.

That political power must have been enhanced by their position as
teachers, and it is safe to say that submission to their powers was
inculcated by them. Both in Gaul and in Ireland they taught others than
those who intended to become Druids.[1049] As has been seen, their
teachings were not written down, but transmitted orally. They taught
immortality, believing that thus men would be roused to valour,
buttressing patriotism with dogma. They also imparted "many things
regarding the stars and their motions, the extent of the universe and
the earth, the nature of things, and the power and might of the immortal
gods." Strabo also speaks of their teaching in moral science.[1050] As
has been seen, it is easy to exaggerate all this. Their astronomy was
probably of a humble kind and mingled with astrology; their natural
philosophy a mass of cosmogonic myths and speculations; their theology
was rather mythology; their moral philosophy a series of maxims such as
are found in all barbaric communities. Their medical lore, to judge from
what Pliny says, was largely magica