Druids In Disguise

Infamously, the Roman Army did its worst in Anglesey and dispatched many Druids. According to many, that broke the rule of Druids in Britain. But it by no means meant that the Druids were completely wiped-out.

These Christian Britains monks, priests, and bishops, were known as Culdees, servants of God; they established Monasteries and Churches in various parts of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and there is no doubt that many of them were converts from the Druidical faith; in these countries they opened Colleges, and Schools where handicrafts, arts, sciences, and religion were taught to the people.

Note the mention of "Colleges and Schools". The problem is : how to distinguish these from any other Monasteries and Churches that came later?

Their faith was heretical according to the standard which the Church of Rome had adopted after the succession of Constantine, and they were what Cardinal J. H. Newman terms Platonising Christians, or of the esoteric Arcane Discipline.

What does this mean? Cardinal Newman recognises them as Christians, but not "normal" Christians. And what does "esoteric Arcane Discipline" mean?

They believed in the immortality of the soul, but not in the Jewish doctrine of a resurrection of the material body, which was the teaching of Judaising Christians. They are also accused of denying the existence of a personal devil, and the personality of Jesus, in which case they were Gnostics ... St. Patrick is said to have been born a Druid and to have left Dumbarton for Ireland in the year 432.

For more on Patrick's druid origins, see Druids at home.

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