while Caesar says not a word of community life among the Druids.  The hostility of Christianity to the Druids would have prevented any copying of their system, and Irish monasticism was modelled on that of the Continent.  Druidic organisation probably denoted no more than that the Druids were bound by certain ties, that they were graded in different ranks or according to their functions, and that they practised a series of common cults.  In Gaul one chief Druid had authority over the others, the position being an elective one.[1037] The insular Druids may have been similarly organised, since we hear of a chief Druid, primus magus, while the Filid had an Ard-file, or chief, elected to his office.[1038] The priesthood was not a caste, but was open to those who showed aptitude for it.  There was a long novitiate, extending even to twenty years, just as, in Ireland, the novitiate of the File lasted from seven to twelve years.[1039]

The Druids of Gaul assembled annually in a central spot, and there settled disputes, because they were regarded as the most just of men.[1040] Individual Druids also decided disputes or sat as judges in cases of murder.  How far it was obligatory to bring causes before them is unknown, but those who did not submit to a decision were interdicted from the sacrifices, and all shunned them.  In other words, they were tabued.  A magico-religious sanction thus enforced the judgments of the Druids.  In Galatia the twelve tetrarchs had a council of three hundred men, and met in a place called Drunemeton to try cases of murder.[1041] Whether it is philologically permissible to connect Dru- with the corresponding syllable in “Druid” or not, the likeness to the Gaulish assembly at a “consecrated place,” perhaps a grove (nemeton), is obvious.  We do not know that Irish Druids were judges, but the Filid exercised judgments, and this may be a relic of their connection with the Druids.[1042]

Diodorus describes the Druids exhorting combatants to peace, and taming them like wild beasts by enchantment.[1043] This suggests interference to prevent the devastating power of the blood-feud or of tribal wars.  They also appear to have exercised authority in the election of rulers.  Convictolitanis was elected to the magistracy by the priests in Gaul, “according to the custom of the State."[1044] In Ireland, after partaking of the flesh of a white bull, probably a sacrificial animal, a man lay down to sleep, while four Druids chanted over him “to render his witness truthful.”  He then saw in a vision the person who should be elected king, and what he was doing at the moment.[1045] Possibly the Druids used hypnotic suggestion; the medium was apparently clairvoyant.