Roman Destruction Of the Druids!

The Roman invasion and conquer of Britain (except for us tenacious Scots) was to all extents a peaceful invasion. Many of the tribes had already established contact with Rome, and several deposed chieftains had actively encouraged Claudius to embark on the venture. However, Rome was not concerned with tribal quarrels, but with the expansion of the Catuvellauni, which had jeopardised and in many cases extinguished lucrative trade routes between Rome and Britain.

I don't want to discuss the details of the Roman invasion here, everyone familiar with the history of that period will be well aware of the tactics used by the Romans, they forced chieftains to pledge their loyalty, then imposed crippling taxes upon the local populace. Dissenters were brutally crushed and any survivors would be sent as slaves to Rome, there to be sold.

I want to look at a specific area of the Roman expansion across Northern Europe, particularly Gaul and Britain. For some reason, the Romans were determined to annihilate the druids. The reasons for this extermination are not clear and history only informs us that it was the druidical practise of human sacrifice which so appalled the Romans, a practice which they themselves had once been partial to. Perhaps it's my suspicious mind, but I get the impression that there are far deeper issues involved in the reasoning behind the purge.

The annals of history don't tell us much about what it was the Druids did, they were not allowed to write their secrets, but we do know that training took up to 20 years, and may have involved learning in astronomy, astrology, herbology, medicine, and any other number of sciences which had a basis in nature, although some or all of these may have been regarded as magical arts by those who were not initiated.

Is it possible that the Romans feared the power of these men? Or was it the sway the Druids held over the people that drove the Romans to dispose of them? After all, cut off the head and the body no longer poses a threat. After the last stand of the Druids at Anglesey in 60AD, they no longer remained a force to be reckoned with. They may have possessed knowledge or secrets which died with them, we'll never know, and Britain became a civilized nation, apart from us Scots!

The Great Heresy!

For as long as Christianity has existed, there have been heretics, and possibly even before Christianity existed, because there were already those who knew a damn site more about Jesus than Paul did, and they had formed there own church in Egypt. They consisted of, possibly some of the disciples, friends, family and associates of Jesus. You may well ask why the church formed by those individuals did not succeed where the Roman church was able. Well, in the main, the Egyptian church was a Jewish church which regarded Jesus as a prophet but a man neverthless, whereas the Roman church had deified Jesus Christ, elevating him to the position of the son of God. Did Jesus ever claim to be such, yes he did, but facing a stoning changed it to be "we are all the sons of God".

The new Roman church could not have a rival church, claiming a different "truth", and so heresy was born. Heretics were people who held the same beliefs, but may have held alternative views regarding scripture or religious doctrine. You only need to read Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose" to get a feel for how easy it was to be branded a heretic, where the issue of whether Jesus ever laughed takes on enormous significance. Of course it isn't enough that a heretic should burn to death for being a heretic, they must also confess their crimes under torture, and be tortured until they do confess, for confessing or not confessing, either way being accused of heresy was usually a death sentence.

Throughout the intervening centuries, the Roman church has purused relentlessly any sect or group which has threatened alternative concepts of Christianity, and especially where the enormous wealth of the Roman church was threatened. Any sect or cult proclaiming that poverty should be observed were dealt with most harshly.

With the arrival of "Witchcraft" in the Middle Ages, heresy took on a new meaning, as the Roman church had always despised women anyway, and because fear of the devil coupled with superstitious beliefs (especially among the peasantry) were very successful in drawing the masses into church. Over 1 million women are thought to have been executed for Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, most of whom were probably the victims of jealous neighbours.

Another major stop for the Roman church's blood frenzy was South America. When Cortes and his men saw the Aztec religion in action, it was not the sacrifices and violence that offended them, it was the striking similarity between the Aztec religion and Catholicism. That was the driving force for a purge of the Aztecs, it was clearly heresy at its worst. Almost certainly, the priests in the retinue of Cortes would have made it immediately plain what they thought should be done about it.