[1] [figure appears here on page 3] DRuis, whõ Seneca calleth Dryus,De morte Cl [...]ud. be|ing the ſon of Sarron, was after his father e|ſtablyſhed the fourthe king of Celtica, indif|ferentely reignyng as well ouer the Celtes as Britons, or rather (as the inhabitantes of this Iſle were then called) Samothians.
[1] This Prince is cõmended by Beroſus to bee ſo plentifullye endued with wiſedome and ler|ning, that Annius taketh him to be the vndoub|ted authour of the beginning and name of the famous ſecte of Philoſophers called Druides, whome Ceſar and all other auncient Greeke and Latine writers doe affirme to haue had their be|ginning in Brytayne, and to haue bin brought from thence into Gallia, in ſo muche that when there aroſe any doubt in that countrey touching any point of their diſcipline, they did repaire to be reſolued therin into Britayne, where, eſpeci|ally in the Ile of Angleſey, as Humfrey Llhuyd witneſſeth, they made their principal aboade.
[1] Touching their vſages many things are wri|ten by Ariſtotle, Secion, Plinie, Laertius,Anti. lib. 5. Annius ſu|per eundem. De bello Gal|lico. lib. 9. De bello Gal|lico. lib. 6. Bo|dinus, and others: which I will gather in brief, and ſet downe as followeth.
[1] They had (as Ceſar ſayth) the charge of cõ|mon and priuate ſacrifices, ye diſcuſſing of poin|tes of religion, the bringing vp of youth, the de|termining of matters in variance, with full po|wer to inte [...]ite ſo manye from the ſacrifice of their goddes, and the company of men, as diſo|beyed their awarde.
[1] Polidore affirmeth,Hist. an. li. 1. how they taught ye mens ſoules coulde not dye, but departed from one bo|dye to an other, and that to the intente to make men valiant and dreadleſſe of death.
[1] Tullic writeth, that partely by tokens,De diui. li. 1. and partely by ſurmiſes, they wold foretell of things to come. And by report of Hector Boetius,Hist. Scoti lib. 2. ſome of them were not ignorant of the immortalitie of the one and euerlaſting God.
[1] All theſe things they had written in the greke toung,De migr. gen lib. 2. Marcellinus. in ſo much that Wolfg. Lazius vpon re|porte of Marcellinus declareth howe the Greeke letters were firſt brought to Athenes by Tima|gines from the Druides, and herevpon it cometh alſo to paſſe, the Britiſh toung to this daye hath in it remayning ſome ſmacke of the Greke.
[1] Among other abuſes of the Druides, they had (according to Diodorus) one cuſtome to kill men, and by the falling, bleeding, and diſmem|bring of them to diuine of things to come: for the whiche and other wicked practiſes,De vitae A|gricolae. their ſecte was firſt condemned for abhominable (as Cor. Taritus writeth,) and diſſolued in Gallia (as Auentinus witneſſeth) by Tyberius and Clau|dins the Emperours:Anna. Bo [...]o|rum lib. 22. and laſtly aboliſhed heere in Britayne, by report of Caius when the goſ|ſpel of Chriſt by the preaching of Fugatius and Damianus was receyued among the Britons,De ant. Cant. cent. vnder Lucius king of Britayne, about the yeare of our ſauiour. 179.