5th century BC : First iron age, incineration is
replaced by the interment under a burial mound
As soon as the waters withdraw from the Baden-Alsatia plain,
the Celts or Keltoï settle there. Besides in the South the Germans drive
the Helvetians, a Celtic tribe, back to the Alps.
450 BC : Second iron age.
The Celts continue their migration towards the West to
give birth to the Gallic people.
387 BC : The Celts crush the Romans in northern
Italy and settle in Bohemia.
279 BC : They threaten the Greek treasure of Delphi,
arrive in Thessaly and occupy the country now called Turkey.
113 BC : The Germans go down the Danube and ravage
Gaul and northern Spain.
57 BC : Caesar's campaign against the Belgians,
the most powerful Celtic people of Gaul. Then he campaigns against the Venetians,
the Celts of Armorica. Eventually he crosses the Channel and invades Britain.
52 BC : The uprising of Vercingétorix, the leader
of the Arvenian Celts.
51 BC : Gaul is pacified by the Romans. The Celts
become Gallo-Romans, but some of them prefer to emigrate to Great Britain.
61 AD : Claudius' Roman legions occupy the South
of Great Britain.
77 : Only the heights of Wales, of northern Scotland
and Ireland remain Celtic.
When the Roman empire collapses, the Celts from the British
Island, the Bretons, will cross the Channel to settle in Armorica, and they
will call the country Brittany.
The beliefs have evolved despite the fact that invaders,
and notably the Romans, attempted to eradicate them.
As years went by many druidic communities lived autonomously
in Benedictine monasteries. The secrecy of such druidic communities was
that of the Kings of France, in opposition to Rome, and in conflict with
the German Roman Empire.
Thus for 18 centuries the Druidic order, after having supported
Vercingétorix against Caesar, never accepted to bow to Rome, and thanks
to the royal support, managed to remain alive and inward-looking, to recruit
followers, to train and initiate the masters and to keep rites and traditions
unchanged.
The necessity to gather in silence and in peace was behind
the creation of some monastic orders whose cloisters were erected on the
very places of the former temples.
The druids, though their life was underground, never lost
contact with the history of France and always kept up their customs.
This was made through the Symbol of the Initiation Celtic
Cross, and helped by the Companions in Duty who displayed it in many cathedrals.
It is true that in Brittany the saints are important and
numerous, each of them has a particularity that consists in either healing
or protecting people.
The people of Armorica would recognise in the attitude,
in the teaching or the leading role of their saints those of the ancient
Celtic druids.
Many legends were passed down by word of mouth, and several
texts reached us that were written in old Breton, a language completely
in keeping with the intellectual tradition of old Celts.
