st 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 mi