Caesar and Condorcet on Druid Esotericism, and the division of political labor.

Josephine Quinn — yes, I am name dropping! — suggested I take a look at a passage from Julius Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico or, as I will call it, Gallic War. As regular readers know I have a modest fascination with the ways (Welsh) Druids are represented in works of philosophy that, in principle, are wholly unconnected to Druids (or the Welsh). In particular, they are often treated as engaged in human sacrifice. She pointed me to Philip A. Harland’s blog, where he maintains a useful webpage with a translation of the salient passages (here).

The key passage is 6.16, where Caesar reports the role of human sacrifice in the religion of the Celts of Gaul. Basically, they do so when they are worried they may die in war or from disease, or thankful they survived it. They then employ “the Druids as ministers for such sacrifices.” The practice presupposes a view of a cosmic balance: a life saved requires the death of another life to be gifted to the Gods who are otherwise not placated. And in context, Caesar strongly implies that one reason quite a bit of the population is enslaved is to serve as sacrifice in time of need.

It is by no means obvious that Caesar is reporting the truth about the practice. He was not an impartial reporter, after all. It may just be an instance of war propaganda. Not so much, I think, to put the Gauls and druids in a bad light — the way Suetonius does in later age to justify attack on Britain —, but rather to make the Gauls seem fearsome (and so a worthy opponent).

Be that as it may, Caesar does have interesting things to say about the druids and their function in Gaul’s society. And we have less reason to assume that’s war propaganda (although for my purposes it may well be—makes no difference). I want to describe that first, and then suggest this influenced Condorcet nearly two millennia later. Here’s Caesar’s description:

Of the two classes above mentioned one consists of Druids, the other of knights. The former are concerned with the affairs of the gods, the proper performance of public and private sacrifices, and the interpretation of ritual questions. A large number of young men gather around them for instruction and hold them in great honour. In fact, it is Druids who judge almost all disputes, public and private, and if any crime or murder has been committed or there are any disputes about succession or boundaries, they also decide it, determining rewards and penalties. If any person or group does not abide by their decision, they ban them from sacrifice, which is their heaviest penalty. Those that are banned are considered impious and criminal. All men avoid encountering them on the path and shun their approach and conversation, because they are worried that they may face some harm as a result of contact. Nor are those who are shunned administered justice when they seek it. Nor are they granted any distinction. Among these Druids, one is the leader who has the highest authority among them. At his death, either any other that is preeminent in position succeeds or, if there are several of equal standing, they strive for the primacy by the vote of the Druids, or sometimes even with armed force. These Druids, at a certain time of the year, meet within the borders of the Carnutians, whose territory is reckoned as the centre of all Gaul, and the Druids sit in conclave in a consecrated spot. All who have disputes assemble there, and they obey the decisions and judgments of the Druids. Their teaching was supposedly discovered in Britain and transferred to Gaul from there, and today those who want to study the subject more accurately generally journey to Britain to learn it. (6.13)

So, according to Caesar Gaul society has a functional division of labor between a ruling, warring and property-owning class, and those Druids with spiritual authority to adjudicate disagreements among men and to control communication with the gods. I use ‘spiritual’ authority because they control access to communication with gods (and so their favor). And their authority is rooted in a population’s willingness to follow their edicts of excommunication/shunning.

As an aside, it is not wholly clear if the Druids lack property altogether. But I suspect it must be fairly minimal because otherwise they would be (perceived as) interested parties in disputes and would also require retainers (as the Knights have) to defend theirs. Since, as will be clear from a subsequent quote, it takes a long time to study to become a Druid, they must have some resources. From Caesar’s narrative it can be inferred that Druids are the younger or less courageous sons of Knights (and so may have access to resourceful families). Although Caesar implies that the absence of taxation allows for accumulation among Druids.

Interestingly enough, from the point of evolution of later democracy, the Druids have an internal hierarchy that is meritocratic in character. This is thought compatible with a form of election among other skilled practitioners.

One may well wonder how the Druids know what is the centre of Gaul. But as we learn from a subsequent passage they are skilled in astronomy and presumably geography. In the Mediterranean world these were closely entwined, so this is not surprising.

14 The Druids usually avoid participation in war, and do not pay war taxes with everyone else. They are excused from military service and exempt from all liabilities. Tempted by these considerable rewards, many young men assemble of their own volition to receive their training. Many are sent to do this by parents and relatives. It is reported that they learn by heart a great number of verses in the schools of the Druids, and therefore some persons remain twenty years in training. They think it is not appropriate to write these oral teachings down, although in almost all other matters – both public and private accounts – they make use of Greek letters. I believe that they have adopted this practice for two reasons: they do not wish the teaching to become common knowledge and they do not want those who learn the teaching to rely on writing and, as a result, lose their skills in memorization. In fact, it does usually happen that reliance on writing tends to lessen the diligence of the student and ability to memorize. The cardinal principle which they teach is that souls do not die, but after death pass from one to another. They think this belief is the greatest incentive to courage, since the fear of death is thereby discarded. Besides this, they teach the young students about the stars and their movement, about the size of the universe and the earth, about the order of nature, and about the strength and powers of the immortal gods.

So, on Caesar’s account part of the Druids’ spiritual authority resides in multiple forms of esotericism. As Caesar notes this has an elitist political function as well as a role in maintaining certain skills. Given the significance of transmigration of the souls, it cannot be ruled out, of course, that Caesar is interpreting the Druids’ views on writing through Platonic passages familiar from, say, the Seventh Letter or Phaedrus. Finally, for the Druids natural philosophy (including astronomy) and natural theology are closely intertwined.

Okay, so much for set up. A few years ago, in a very entertaining and illuminating blogpost, Liam Kofi Bright called attention to how Condorcet emphasizes the “necessity of specialisation for various tasks” in his last work (and posthumously published) Outlines of an historical view of the progress of the human mind. Liam’s piece prompted a post by me on Smith and Condorcet (here), and I have developed my thoughts in a work in progress. At the core of Liam’s argument is a passage from Condorcet’s First Epoch (or an early stage of history):

Meanwhile there is presented to us in this epoch one fact of importance in the history of the human mind. We can here perceive the beginnings of an institution, that in its progress has been attended with opposite effects, accelerating the advancement of knowledge, at the same time that it disseminated error; enriching the sciences with new truths, but precipitating the people into ignorance and religious servitude, and obliging them to purchase a few transient benefits at the price of a long and shameful tyranny.

I mean the formation of a class of men the depositaries of the elements of the sciences or processes of the arts, of the mysteries or ceremonies of religion, of the practices of superstition, and frequently even of the secrets of legislation and polity. I mean that separation of the human race into two portions; the one destined to teach, the other to believe; the one proudly concealing what it vainly boasts of knowing, the other receiving with respect whatever its teachers condescend to reveal: the one wishing to raise itself above reason, the other humbly renouncing reason, and debasing itself below humanity, by acknowledging in its fellow men prerogatives superior to their common nature.

This distinction, of which, at the close of the eighteenth century, we still see the remains in our priests, is observable in the least civilized tribes of savages, who have already their quacks and sorcerers. It is too general, and too constantly meets the eye in all the stages of civilization, not to have a foundation in nature itself: and we shall accordingly find in the state of the human faculties at this early period of society, the cause of the credulity of the first dupes, and of the rude cunning of the first impostors.—Condorcet, Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas. Outlines of an historical view of the progress of the human mind. M. Carey, 1795, pp. 29-30.

While allowing for Condorcet’s polemical, anti-clerical purposes, I think it’s pretty clear that Condorcet is influenced by Caesar or a source shaped by Caesar. This makes sense for a few reasons: first, Caesar was one of the oldest then available sources on the Gauls (of particular interest in France, of course). Second, Condorcet echoes Caesar’s account of the functions assigned to the Druids, including that they practice esotericism (‘proudly concealing’). Third, not unlike Caesar (Gallic War 1.1 & 6.19), Condorcet draws a contrast — which turns out to be rather important in the subsequent argument — between savage and civilization. Interestingly enough, being skilled at astronomy doesn’t imply one is civilized.

Of course, Condorcet treats the Druids as imposters. And this Enlightenment trope about false religion goes beyond Caesar’s own argument (which emphasizes that the Druid religion is not so different from the Romans).

Condorcet’s argument about the functional role of pagan priests was not original. We find anticipations of it in Mandeville, Fontenelle, Toland, Hume, and Adam Smith (and quite a few others in Clandestine literature). Once (here) I spelled out how Toland and Adam Smith both used Cicero and Timaeus Locrus on the Pythagoreans. It would be neat to find other instances where Caesar is the likely original source.