100 
“ velat ibi quoddam numen sit ” as the next Council quoted, 
Concilium Rotomagense, aptly says. 
This council was also occupied with the iniquity of catidles 
and other gifts brought to the sacred trees and fountains, or 
to certain stones, as if to altars. The Concilium Tolitanum 
(ann. 681) tells the adorers of idols, the worshippers of stones, 
those who light torches and honour (excolentes) sacred foun- 
tains and trees, are admonished that they who thus sacrifice 
to the devil are the authors of their own death. 
In the year a.d. 789 I find the injunction that the cau- 
culatores (in German, gauckler ), enchanters, weather-makers, 
&c., should mend their ways, and those ( stulti ) who brought 
candles (luminaria) to the stones ( petris ) or fountains should 
cease this custom ( 'pessimus usus et Deo execrabilis). These 
cauculatores might well be remnants and survivals of the old 
priests. 
To come nearer home, we learn in the pages of this erudite 
author, that in the reign of King Edgar (circ. ann. 967, as is 
found in a MS. in Christ's College, Cambridge) the strongest 
admonitions were issued against similar practices, some of 
which are even unintelligible at the present time. The laws 
of Canute prohibit the same things, the adoration of the sun, 
moon, fire-fountains, rocks, &c. All this tends to show us 
that this natural idolatry had so strong a hold upon the people 
that the only way found to wean them from it was to intro- 
duce them more or less into the bosom of the Church, as the 
Concilium Nannetensis, for instance, decrees.* 
The struggle of the Church with Druidism was, theu, long- 
continued and a very real thing ! As in many contests, the 
victory, though final, was not altogether without compromise. 
In the year a.d. 384 the Emperor Theodosius “ prohibited 
sacrifices, and forbade the curious inquisition into futurity by 
the examination of the viscera ” of human beings, practised by 
the King of Babylon, circ. B.c. 593 (see Ezek. xxi. 21), and by 
Julian the Apostate (circ. a.d. 363) .f To the disgrace of 
humanity, this absurd and cruel practice lingered thus long. 
Indeed, we are informed by a French author that human 
sacrifices were still offered in Brittany in the seventh century. J 
* “ Omnibus interdicatur, ut nullus votum faciafc aut candelam vel aliquod 
munus pro salute sua rogaturus alibi deferat, nisi ad Ecclesiam Domino Deo 
suo with which agrees “ Capitulum,” &c. “ Ut sacerdotes admoneant viros 
et mulieres, ut ad basilicas luminaria et incensum , et bucellas, et primitias 
afferant,” p. 14. 
t Smith’s Did., sub voce, u Theodosius.” See Cwolson’s Ssabier and Trans. 
Viet. Ins. + Le Morbihan , par D^landre, p. 21. 
