Besides, it is not to be past over in silence, how _Tacitus_ expresseth himself in the before cited fourteenth Book of his Annals, telling us; _The_ Romans _overthrew not the Temples, or razed to the Foundations, any of the sacred structures of the_ Druid’s _and_ Britans _made of stone, or other materials, which he might as readily have done, if they had used any such: but positively, the_ Romans _cut down the_ Britans _woods and groves, amongst them reckoned holy, and consecrated to their execrable superstitions_. True it is, other Temples, of greater magnificence then already spoken of, I find none: Ornaments of Art to enrich them they were not acquainted with: such orderly composed works as _Stoneheng_, they had not any: yea, no kind of sacred structures of stone were in use amongst them: their idolatrous places being naturally adorned, only with wild, and overgrown shades, designed and brought to perfection by Dame Nature her self, she being Architect generall to all their Deities. Nor did it consist with their vain Religion to use any other, they making their worship, performing their Ceremonies, offering their Sacrifices in dark and obscure groves, most conformable unto their barbarous, and inhumane, humane oblations.
Neither must it seem strange, they used no other Temples then these, it not being their custom alone; for the _Excelsi_ or high places mentioned in the sacred Story, wherein the Heathen performed idolatrous rites unto their Idols, were commonly groves, affectedly sited upon some mountainous place, without any _House_ or _Temple_. The _Persians_ of old, (of whom _Herodotus_) _Neque statuas, neque templa, neque aras extruere consuetudo est_, _Erected neither Images, nor Temples, nor Altars_: _quinimo hoc facientibus insaniæ tribuere_, _accounting it great folly and madnesse in those that did_: but ascending to the tops of the highest, and most lofty hils, on them offered sacrifices to their Gods. From hence, _Xerxes_, in his expedition, burnt down the Temples of the _Greeks_, because they shut up their Gods therein, to whom all things are open and free, and to whom the whole Universe serves for a Temple. The _Abasgians_ also (inhabiting Mount _Caucasus_) did worship, even till _Procopius_ his time, groves and woods; and in a barbarian simplicity esteemed the very trees themselves to be Gods. In like manner, the Northern and Southern people of _America_, made all their Invocations and Exorcisms in woods. The ancient _Germans_ likewise consecrated woods and forests. _Lucos ac nemora consecrant_, saith _Tacitus_ of them. And the like places for idolatrous superstition, did divers other barbarous Nations use, before reduced to order, and civility of life, _Tacitus_ giving this reason for it: They thought it a matter ill beseeming the greatnesse of their Deities, to enclose them within Temples made by Art. His words are, _Nec cohibere parietibus Deos arbitrantur_, _They thought it not fit to restrain their Deities within compacted walls_: _id est, neque templis, neque domibus_, viz. _neither within Temples or Houses made with hands_, as _C. Pichenas_ commenting thereon more fully interprets.