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Françoise Leroux takes an extraordinary approach to considering one of the most important social and ideological functions of the Druids - the function of educating and educating youth, which, with this approach, turns out to be closely related to the fate of Druidism as a whole. It is usually believed that after the Roman conquest in the process of Romanization of Gaul, the Druidic community by itself, spontaneously and quickly ceased to exist, having lost its most important functions. It is believed, in particular, that the Romanization of Gaul dealt a blow to the ideological function of the Druids as educators of youth. After the Roman conquest, instead of the Druidic schools, Roman secular schools appeared, in which poetry, rhetoric, and mathematics were taught.
Disagreeing with this point of view, Françoise Leroux compares Caesar's testimony about the training of the Druids with the testimony of Pomponius Mela, who wrote on the same topic 90 years later. She shows that Pomponius Mela actually repeats the information reported by Caesar, adding only remarks about the secrecy of druidic training (clam - secret). [77 - Mela, III, 2, 19.]
Françoise Leroux makes a well-founded conclusion that, in fact, in the field of education, despite the emergence of Roman schools, the upbringing and training of the Druids after the Roman conquest did not change so rapidly.
As for this secrecy of Druidic teaching, alluded to by Pomponius Mela, it is usually considered a consequence of the Roman persecution of the Druids, which was to follow the prohibitive edicts of Tiberius (A. D. 14-37) and Claudius (A. D. 4 to 41 years). Françoise Leroux also disagrees with this widespread point of view. She notes that, in fact, in the 1st century AD. e. Gaul was poorly and inconsistently governed by the Roman administration, and these imperial edicts were hardly followed so strictly. It seems to her that the text of Pomponius Mela rather makes one recall the "remote forests" (hemotis lucis) of Lucan, where, according to his testimony, the Druids reside. [78 - Pharsal., I, 452-453.] The author does not develop his idea further, but the reason for the secrecy of the training of the Druids is clear: it is connected with their unwillingness to distort their doctrine.
Considering the functions of the druids, Françoise Leroux, naturally, cannot pass over in silence the most important religious function of the druids - the leadership of all religious sacrifices, including human ones. Ancient texts state this quite unambiguously. Strabo [79 - Strabo., IV, 4, 5.] writes about the different ways of human sacrifice performed by the Celts, and at the same time he notes that sacrifices are not performed without druids. Diodorus [80 - Diod., V, 31, 2-5.] Also reports on the presence of human sacrifices among the Celts. He ends his story about them with the remark that the Celts have a custom of no sacrifice without a philosopher not to make. Meanwhile, a little higher, Diodorus wrote that the Celts call their philosophers Druids. Thus,Strabo and Diodorus make Druids indispensable participants in all religious sacrifices.
The text of Caesar shows that the Druids are not only participants in the sacrifices, but also monitor the correctness of their performance and generally guide the entire religious life of the people: “Druids take an active part in worshiping God, observe the correctness of public and private sacrifices, interpret all to religion ". [81 - Caes., BG, VI, 13, 4.] Then in the 26th chapter Caesar gives a description of the burning of people intended for sacrifice, it is true, without mentioning the druids, but from the previous it is clear that the druids also directed this type of sacrifice.
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Although the texts quoted are clear enough, attempts have been made to remove responsibility from the Druids for participating in human sacrifice. One attempt was made by Nora Chadwick, who, commenting on Strabo's text, argued that there was nothing in this passage to suggest that the Druids were responsible for this custom. Only the presence of druids during human sacrifices was noted, which was the presence of officials who monitored the execution of the ritual and warned of the incorrect conduct of the process. [82 - Chadwick NK The Druids. P. 21-22]
Another attempt to separate the druids from human sacrifice was made by Françoise Leroux [83 - See present. ed. Ch. 2, § 3 (section of sacrifice).] Of course, she knows these texts of Diodorus, Strobon and Caesar and, being a scrupulous researcher, as always quotes them in full. However, the paragraph on Celtic sacrifice, she begins with the assertion that no concrete traces of human sacrifice are found in Ireland, the commission of which is so often imputed to the Druids. True, she further makes a reservation that even if sacrifices were carried out on the island similar to those described by Caesar in Gaul, the Christian censorship would still destroy the mention of them in Irish sources. Despite this reservation, the next phrase already shows that Françoise Leroux really wants to protect the druids: “In any case,the idea of a druid making a human sacrifice on a dolmen is exclusively a figment of the imagination.”[84 - See present. ed. page 104.]
With regard to the messages of ancient authors, Leroux gives the following reasoning. In both Irish and Welsh legends, history is very difficult to separate from mythology, a desire of this kind was generally alien to the Celtic mentality. The classical authors - Caesar, Strabo, Diodorus and others, did not understand this, and therefore they made the mistake of exaggerating the significance and reality of human sacrifice among the Celts. She notes that for a contemporary of Caesar and Augustus, Gaul and Britain seemed almost as fabulous countries as Africa to a man of the Middle Ages, and therefore had the most incredible stories circulating. [85 - See now. ed. page 108.]
Professor Piggott objected to both ladies, Nora Chadwick and Françoise Leroux, who tried to protect the druids from participating in human sacrifice. Having objectively examined the testimonies of ancient authors and rightly considering them reliable, he argued that it is hardly realistic to exclude the Druids from participation and, probably, active in beliefs and rituals that included human sacrifice. The Druids were the priests of Celtic society, and the Celtic religion was their religion with all its cruelties. British archaeologist Stuart Piggot (1910-1996) wrote: "It is pure romanticism to imagine that when making sacrifices, the Druids were on duty, but stood with disapproval on their faces, immersed in sublime reflections." [86 - Piggott S. The Druids. P. 117-118.] True,classical writers emphasize the random nature of human sacrifices performed by the druids, making it clear that they took place only in times of great danger, or when, for whatever reason, the people were extremely agitated. [87 - Diod., VI, 31, 2-5.] Hence, there is no need to assume that sacrifices were part of the regular practice of Druidry.
Turning to the consideration of the legal functions of the Druids and noting that the filial jurisdiction in Ireland was the jurisdiction of the filials, Françoise Leroux touches on the controversial issue of the relationship between the Irish fili and the Druids. [88 - See present. ed. pp. 113-114.] As shown above, Darbois de Jubainville believed that the Druids and Philids of Ireland represented two rival organizations. In his opinion, in pagan times, the Druids rather than the Philids were involved in legal proceedings in Ireland, and intermediary jurisdiction was transferred to the Philids only after the triumph of Christianity.
Françoise Leroux does not share this point of view of Darbois de Jubinville, believing that he was inspired by a modern character based on a strict separation of powers and competencies. Medieval Ireland had no such dichotomy. Irish law consisted of rules, examples and ancient maxims, on the basis of which legal proceedings were ruled. According to Leroux, precisely because the Irish Philids were in charge of jurisdiction, just like the Druids in Gaul, they can be safely attributed to the class of Irish Druids: their long legal studies, their knowledge of the archaic language could only increase their prestige.
To confirm his point of view, Leroux once again returns to the testimony of Caesar, who did not indicate the division of the Gallic priests into categories, either because the existence of these categories eluded him, or because he wanted to present a general picture of Gallic druidism, simple and clear. Leroux notes that in Ireland, by contrast, the scribes who were the heirs of the Philid storytellers had neither the desire nor the need to be brief and provided many details. However, a study of Irish social structure reveals an essential identity with the state of affairs in Gaul.
In this case, the author's reasoning does not seem convincing. More preferable seems to be the point of view, if not of Darbois de Jubenville himself, then at least of A. Hubert, who followed him, who also believed that the Irish branches constituted a corporation parallel to the corporation of the Druids. But both corporations were related, complementary to each other, and in ancient times had a common organization and privileges.
Celtic Druids. Book by Françoise Leroux
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