Celts. How did they live? Compare them to today's America. James Madison wrote of the dangers of the nobility/church alliance. Madison felt such arrangements often ended with those groups exploiting the rest of a human society. Following this logic, the Constitution expressly forbids establishment of a state religion and forbids a nobility. Everyone equal, as much as can be.
The Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, rejects this arrangement. As the force proclaimed duly appointed communicator with a supernatural God--an arrangement it holds to be "undeniable"--the official Roman Catholic Church claims it alone may determine proper morality for all human beings. While Madison and the US Constitution were not banned, the Catholic Church did ban the intellectual roots from which those documents grew, banning various authors who made similar arguments regarding human societal patterns, men such as Spinoza, Locke, Hume, and Montesquieu.
Most of the Founding Fathers held Protestant beliefs. To justify the American Revolution in the Declaration of Independence, in the pamphlet Common Sense and in our social contract the Constitution, the Founding Fathers directly cited the Catholic banned works of Locke and Montesquieu.
In the period from 1670 till today admitting to Spinocism--an almost complete denial of the Judeo christian superstitions--would ruin careers, bring curses from little old ladies, and ofttimes got people killed.
As a preliminary question: Is it correct that groups of men tend to coalesce into three groups, commoners, religion, and nobility?
Second, Do the latter two groups get preferential treatment?
Third, is the Catholic Church position that such arrangements should be supported as best for mankind, have they been Divinely held appropriate?
Fourth, are we as Americans to be held to the dictates of a group of Italian dominated men?
And, if a Church-Nobility alliance, a daunting power structure, often occurs in Human affairs to the detriment of the commoners, why cannot the Constitution preclude or limit such arrangements?
The first question is whether the groupings, by virtue of how groups of individuals interact, occur.
The Bible has several examples. By 1600, it was clear that France, Italy, Germany, Holland, England, all those societies were examples of the superstition-rich person alliance. For them, great. For the commoners, people suffered.
As to the second question, should the noble/religious leaders get special treatment? Common Sense seemed to destroy that argument. Perhaps we'll leave the question--do they deserve it as a matter of law--for other essays.
Around 50 B.C., Julius Caesar wrote Commentaries on the Gallic War. Below our fold is a slightly revised version of one translation.
Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War.
chapter 13
Throughout all Gaul the Celtish tribes have three orders of men: Commoners, Priests and Knights. Only the Priests, called Druids, and Knights have rank and special dignity. The common man lives akin to our Roman slaves. He dares no undertakings; has no voice in any governance; must take direction from the leaders. Many commoners, when they are pressed either by debt, or the large amount of their tributes, or the oppression of the more powerful, give themselves up in vassalage to the nobles, who possess over them the same rights without exception as masters over their slaves.
The priests are named Druids. They resolve all disputes and have the power over all things the Celts hold sacred. They conduct the public and the private sacrifices, and control all matters of religion. To these a large number of the young men resort for the purpose of instruction, and they [the Druids] are in great honor among them. For they determine respecting almost all controversies, public and private; and if any crime has been perpetrated, if murder has been committed, if there be any dispute about an inheritance, if any about boundaries, these same persons decide it; they decree rewards and punishments; if any one, either in a private or public capacity, has not submitted to their decision, they banish him from the sacrifices. This among them is considered a heavy punishment.
The Druids also have a hierarchy, with one Druid who possesses supreme authority. Upon his death, if any individual among the rest is pre-eminent in dignity, he succeeds; but, if there are many equal, the election is made by the suffrages of the Druids; sometimes they even contend for the presidency with arms. These assemble at a fixed period of the year in a consecrated place in the territories of the Carnutes, which is reckoned the central region of the whole of Gaul. Hither all, who have disputes, assemble from every part, and submit to their decrees and determinations.
The Celts claim that this institution was devised in Britain, and brought to Gaul. Those who desire to become Druids generally go to Britain for study.
Chapter 14
The Druids do not go to war, do not pay tribute as must the commoners and Lords. They are exempted from military service and all other work.
Induced by such great advantages, many embrace this profession of their own accord, and [many] are sent to it by their parents or relations.
Nothing of Celtish law or religion is written. Instead, the Druids learn by heart a great number of rules and stories through memory. The training can last twenty years.
The Celts do have writing: They use written Greek for both public and private transactions. But it is not lawful to commit either their rules or religion to writing.
I think they hide their rules and stories for two reasons. First, they do not want the commoners to know their doctrines, as this would diminish the Druids’ power over the tribes. Second, they claim that allowing men to rely on writing rather than memorization would make them lazy.
Among their leading tenets is a belief that souls do not become extinct, but pass after death from one body to another. The Druids claim that this helps men be brave in battle, for any fear of death will be less regarded. They likewise discuss and impart to the youth many things respecting the stars and their motion, respecting the extent of the world and of our earth, respecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty of the immortal gods.
Chapter 15
The other order is that of the knights. These, when there is occasion and any war occurs (which before Caesar's arrival was for the most part wont to happen every year, as either they on their part were inflecting injuries or repelling those which others inflected on them), are all engaged in war.
The knights are well known. The most distinguished by birth and resources have the greatest number of vassals and dependents about them. The Celts acknowledge this sort of influence and power only.
Chapter 16
The entire Gaulish nation is extremely devoted to superstitious rites; and on that account they who are troubled with unusually severe diseases, and they who are engaged in battles and dangers, either sacrifice men as victims, or vow that they will sacrifice them, and employ the Druids as the performers of those sacrifices; because they think that unless the life of a man be offered for the life of a man, the mind of the immortal gods can not be rendered propitious, and they have sacrifices of that kind ordained for national purposes.
One sacrifice involves constructing a figure of vast size, the limbs formed by osiers. Inside the figure they fill with living men. Then they set it on fire. The men within perish enveloped in the flames.
Men caught stealing, robbing, or any other offense are the first burned, as the Druids claim they are most acceptable to the immortal gods. But when sufficient criminals cannot be found, they select and burn the innocent.
Chapter 17
[They worship Gods similar to our own roman Gods.] They love Mercury in particular, and have many images of him, and regard him as the inventor of all arts, they consider him the guide of their journeys and marches, and believe him to have great influence over the acquisition of gain and mercantile transactions.
Next to him they worship Apollo, and Mars, and Jupiter, and Minerva; respecting these deities they have for the most part the same belief as other nations... All Gauls claim they descend from the god Dis.
The Germans tribes have different customs....