The real Anglo-Saxon word for priest is 'preost', from Old English c. 696 (Chambers Dictionary of Etymology). That is where we get the word 'priest' from. And due to early missionary efforts, many Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had been 'converted' to Christianity by the 8th century (read Bede if you want to get one of our early sources on the Anglo-Saxons). In fact, as far as I can recall, the druids belonged to the early Britons and their religion, long before the Anglo-Saxons came. So, let me make it clear, the Anglo-Saxons did not call their priests druids! With regards to their religion before Christianity, according to my history lecturer at the University of Glasgow, little is known about it, other than that it was a pantheistic religion with similarities to Norse and Germanic mythology.
