Tree-worship was rooted in the oldest nature worship, and the Church had the utmost difficulty in suppressing it.  Councils fulminated against the cult of trees, against offerings to them or the placing of lights before them and before wells or stones, and against the belief that certain trees were too sacred to be cut down or burned.  Heavy fines were levied against those who practised these rites, yet still they continued.[683] Amator, Bishop of Auxerre, tried to stop the worship of a large pear-tree standing in the centre of the town and on which the semi-Christian inhabitants hung animals’ heads with much ribaldry.  At last S. Germanus destroyed it, but at the risk of his life.  S. Martin of Tours was allowed to destroy a temple, but the people would not permit him to attack a much venerated pine-tree which stood beside it—­an excellent example of the way in which the more official paganism fell before Christianity, while the older religion of the soil, from which it sprang, could not be entirely eradicated.[684] The Church often effected a compromise.  Images of the gods affixed to trees were replaced by those of the Virgin, but with curious results.  Legends arose telling how the faithful had been led to such trees and there discovered the image of the Madonna miraculously placed among the branches.[685] These are analogous to the legends of the discovery of images of the Virgin in the earth, such images being really those of the Matres.

Representations of sacred trees are occasionally met with on coins, altars, and ex votos.[686] If the interpretation be correct which sees a representation of part of the Cuchulainn legend on the Paris and Treves altars, the trees figured there would not necessarily be sacred.  But otherwise they may depict sacred trees.

We now turn to Pliny’s account of the mistletoe rite.  The Druids held nothing more sacred than this plant and the tree on which it grew, probably an oak.  Of it groves were formed, while branches of the oak were used in all religious rites.  Everything growing on the oak had been sent from heaven, and the presence of the mistletoe showed that God had selected the tree for especial favour.  Rare as it was, when found the mistletoe was the object of a careful ritual.  On the sixth day of the moon it was culled.  Preparations for a sacrifice and feast were made beneath the tree, and two white bulls whose horns had never been bound were brought there.  A Druid, clad in white, ascended the tree and cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle.  As it fell it was caught in a white cloth; the bulls were then sacrificed, and prayer was made that God would make His gift prosperous to those on whom He had bestowed it.  The mistletoe was called “the universal healer,” and a potion made from it caused barren animals to be fruitful.  It was also a remedy against all poisons.[687] We can hardly believe that such an elaborate ritual merely led up to the medico-magical use of the mistletoe.  Possibly, of course, the