_Rites._
I have left myself little space to write of the many points of close
similarity between the Buddhists and the Roman Catholics.
The French missionary Huc, in his celebrated travels in Thibet, was
much struck with this similarity.
"The crozier, the mitre, the dalmatic, the cope or _pluvial_, which
the grand lamas wear on a journey, or when they perform some ceremony
outside the temple, the service with a double choir, psalmody,
exorcisms, the censer swinging on five chains, and contrived to be
opened and shut at will, benediction by the lamas, with the right
hand extended over the heads of the faithful, the chaplet, sacerdotal
celibacy, Lenten retirements from the world, the worship of saints,
fasts, processions, litanies, holy water--these are the points of
contact between the Buddhists and ourselves."
Listen also to Father Disderi, who visited Thibet in the year 1714.
"The lamas have a tonsure like our priests, and are bound over to
perpetual celibacy. They study their scriptures in a language and
in characters that differ from the ordinary characters. They recite
prayers in choir. They serve the temple, present the offerings, and
keep the lamps perpetually alight. They offer to God corn and barley
and paste and water in little vases, which are extremely clean. Food
thus offered is considered consecrated, and they eat it. The lamas have
local superiors, and a superior general." ("Lettres edifiantes," vol.
iii., p. 534.)
Father Grueber, with another priest named Dorville, passed from Pekin
through Thibet to Patna in the year 1661. Henry Prinsep ("Thibet
Tartary, etc.," p. 14) thus sums up what he has recorded:--
"Father Grueber was much struck with the extraordinary similarity he
found, as well in the doctrine as in the rituals of the Buddhists of
Lha Sa, to those of his own Romish faith. He noticed, first, that the
dress of the lamas corresponded with that handed down to us in ancient
paintings as the dress of the Apostles. Second, that the discipline
of the monasteries and of the different orders of lamas or priests
bore the same resemblance to that of the Romish Church. Third, that
the notion of an Incarnation was common to both, so also the belief in
paradise and purgatory. Fourth, he remarked that they made suffrages,
alms, prayers, and sacrifices for the dead, like the Roman Catholics.
Fifth, that they had convents filled with monks and friars to the
number of thirty thousand, near Lha Sa, who all made the three vows
of poverty, obedience, and chastity, like Roman monks, besides other
vows. Sixth, that they had confessors licensed by the superior lamas or
bishops, and so empowered to receive confessions, impose penances, and
give absolution. Besides all this there was found the practice of using
holy water, of singing service in alternation, of praying for the dead,
and of perfect similarity in the customs of the great and superior
lamas to those of the different orders of the Romish hierarchy. These
early missionaries further were led to conclude from what they saw
and heard that the ancient books of the lamas contained traces of the
Christian religion, which must, they thought, have been preached in
Thibet in the time of the Apostles."
In the year 1829, Victor Jacquemont, the French botanist, made a
short excursion from Simla into Thibet. He writes: "The Grand Lama of
Kanum has the episcopal mitre and crozier. He is dressed just like
our bishops. A superficial observer at a little distance would take
his Thibetan and Buddhist mass for a Roman mass of the first water.
He makes twenty genuflexions at the right intervals, turns to the
altar and then to the congregation, rings a bell, drinks in a chalice
water poured out by an acolyte, intones paternosters quite of the
right sing-song--the resemblance is really shocking. But men whose
faith is properly robust will see here nothing but a corruption of
Christianity." (Corr. vol. i., p. 265.)
It must be borne in mind that what is called Southern Buddhism has the
same rites. St. Francis Xavier in Japan found Southern Buddhism so
like his own that he donned the yellow sanghâti, and called himself
an apostle of Buddha, quieting his conscience by furtively mumbling a
little Latin of the baptismal service over some of his "converts."
This is what the Rev. S. Beal, a chaplain in the navy, wrote of a
liturgy that he found in China:--
"The form of this office is a very curious one. It bears a singular
likeness in its outline to the common type of the Eastern Christian
liturgies. That is to say there is a 'Proanaphoral' and an 'Anaphoral'
portion. There is a prayer of entrance (τῆς εἰσοδου), a prayer of
incense (τοῦ θυμιάματος), an ascription of praise to the threefold
object of worship (τρισαγίον), a prayer of oblation (τῆς προσ θεσεως),
the lections, the recitations of the Dharanî (μυστηριον), the
Embolismus or prayer against temptation, followed by a 'Confession,'
and a 'Dismissal.'" ("Catena of Buddhist Scriptures," p. 397.)
Turning to architecture, I must point out that Mr. Fergusson, the
leading authority in ancient art, was of opinion that the various
details of the early Christian basilica--nave, aisle, columns,
semi-domed apse, cruciform ground plan--were borrowed _en bloc_ from
the Buddhists. Mr. Fergusson lays special stress on the Dâgoba and its
enshrined relics, represented in the Christian Church by the high
altar, the bones of a saint, the baldechino. Relic worship, he says,
was certainly borrowed from the East. Of the rock-cut temple of Kârle
(B.C. 78) he writes:--
"The building resembles, to a great extent, an early Christian church
in its arrangements, consisting of a nave and side aisles terminating
in an apse or semi-dome, round which the aisle is carried.... As a
scale for comparison, it may be mentioned that its arrangements and
dimensions are very similar to those of the choir of Norwich Cathedral,
and of the Abbaye aux Hommes at Caen, omitting the outer aisles in the
latter buildings.
Immediately under the semi-dome of the apse, and nearly where the altar
stands in Christian churches, is placed the Dâgoba." ("Indian and
Eastern Architecture," p. 117.)
The list of resemblances is by no means exhausted. The monks on
entering a temple make the gesture that we call the sign of the cross.
The Buddhists have illuminated missals, Gregorian chants, a tabernacle
on the altar for oblations, a pope, cardinals, angels with wings,
saints with the nimbus. For a full account I must refer the reader to
my "Buddhism in Christendom," where I give (pp. 182, 184) drawings of
monks and nuns, the Virgin and Child (p. 205), the adoration of the
rice cake on the altar (p. 83), Buddha coming down to the altar with
the heavenly host (p. 210), the long candles, artificial flowers,
cross, incense burner, and divine figure with the aureole, of the
Buddhist temple (p. 208). The election of the Grand Lâma I show to be
pin for pin like the election of the Pope. The list is endless.
How is all this to be accounted for? Several theories have been
started:--
The first attempts to make light of the matter altogether. All
religions, it says, have sacrifice, incense, priests, the idea of
faith, etc. This may be called the orthodox Protestant theory, and many
bulky books have recently appeared propounding it. But as these books
avoid all the strong points of the case, they cannot be called at all
satisfactory to the bewildered inquirer.
To this theory the Roman Catholics reply that the similarities between
Buddhism and Catholicism are so microscopic and so complete, that
one religion must have borrowed from the other. In consequence they
try to prove that the rites of Buddhism and the life of its founder
were derived from Christianity, from the Nestorians, from St. Thomas,
from St. Hyacinth of Poland, from St. Oderic of Frioul. (_See_ Abbé
Prouvéze, "Life of Gabriel Durand," vol. ii., p. 365.)
In the way of this theory, however, there are also insuperable
difficulties. Buddha died 470 years before Christ, and for many years
the Christian Church had no basilicas, popes, cardinals, basilica
worship, nor even for a long time a definite life of the founder. At
the date of Asoka (B.C. 260) there was a metrical life of Buddha (Muni
Gatha), and the incidents of this life are found sculptured in marble
on the gateways of Buddhist temples that precede the Christian epoch.
This is the testimony of Sir Alexander Cunningham, the greatest of
Indian archæologists. He fixes the date of the Bharhut Stupa at from
270 to 250 B.C. There he finds Queen Mâyâ's dream of the elephant, the
Rishis at the ploughing match, the transfiguration of Buddha and the
ladder of diamonds, and other incidents. At the Sanchi tope, an earlier
structure (although the present marble gateways, repeated probably from
wood, are fixed at about 19 A.D.), he announces representations of
Buddha as an elephant coming down to his mother's womb, three out of
the "Four Presaging Tokens," Buddha bending the bow of Sinhahanu, King
Bimbisâra visiting the young prince, and other incidents.
A man who invents a novel high explosive, or a quick-firing gun, at
once puts his idea to a practical test. Let us try and construct a
working model here. Suppose that the present ruler of Afghanistan
were paying us a visit, and, introduced at Fulham Palace, he were to
suggest that the life of Mahomet should supersede that of Jesus in our
Bible, and Mussulman rites replace the Christian ritual in the diocese
of London. What would be the answer? The bishop, anxious to deal gently
with a valuable ally, would point out that he was only a cogwheel in a
vast machinery, a cogwheel that could be promptly replaced if it proved
the least out of gear. He would show that the Anglican Church had a
mass of very definite rules called canon law, with courts empowered to
punish the slightest infringement of these rules. He would show that
even an archbishop could not alter a tittle of the gospel narrative.
Every man, woman, and child would immediately detect the change.
Similar difficulties would be in the way of St. Hyacinth of Poland
in, say, a monastery of Ceylon. The abbot there would be responsible
to what Bishop Bigandet calls his "provincial," and he again to his
"supérieur général" (p. 478), and so on to the Âchârya, the "High
Priest of all the World," who, in his palace at Nalanda, near Buddha
Gayâ, was wont to sit in state, surrounded by ten thousand monks.
Buddhism, by the time that a Christian missionary could have reached
it, was a far more diffused and conservative religion than Anglicanism.
It had a canon law quite as definite. It had hundreds of volumes
treating of the minutest acts of Sakya Muni.
THE END.
_Printed by Cowan & Co., Limited, Perth._
INDEX.
Amrapalî, the Buddhist Magdalene, 61.
Alexandria, bridges East and West, 102.
Altar, Apostles of the Bloodless, 99 _et seq._
Antiochus, mentioned by King Asoka, 97.
Apostles, the Buddhist Parivrajakas, 105.
Appearances of Buddha after death, 67.
Architecture, Christian, derived from the Buddhist rock temples, 177.
Asita, the Indian Simeon, 29.
Asoka, King, 93 _et seq._
Atheism, early Buddhist disproved, 77 _et seq._
Atonement, 68.
Baptism, the Buddhist, 43, 108.
Beal, Rev. S., on a Buddhist liturgy, 176.
Beatitudes, the Buddhist, 48.
Bigandet, Catholic bishop, his "Life of Gautama" cited, 27 _et passim_.
Bimbisâra, advised like Herod to kill the Holy Child, 28.
Bhikshu, Buddhist beggar, Ebionite, 129.
Bodhi, Gnosis, interior knowledge, 77.
Brahma, union with, object of early Buddhism, 80.
Buddha, born of a virgin, 24;
Star in the East, 26;
Baptism and fasting, 44;
Temptation, 45;
Disputation with the doctors, 30;
Third commandment, 51;
Triumphant entry into the city of the king, 54;
Forsaken by disciples, 58;
Transfigured, 63;
Last supper, 65;
Death, 65;
Darkness over all the land at his death, 65.
Buddhism defined, 77;
Schools of, 84;
Eight spiritual states, 108.
Burnouf, Emile, considers Christianity due to a conflict between
Mosaism and Buddhism, 1.
Ceylon scriptures, 85.
Chakravartin, King of Kings, Messiah, 35.
Chief priest in early Church modelled on Jewish, 161.
Circumcision widely spread amongst savages, 15.
Church of Jerusalem, creed, 129; Description of, 160.
Clement of Alexandria on the Hylobii and followers of Buddha, 89.
Colebrooke, Henry, Orientalist, sees Buddhist philosophy in the
teaching of Pythagoras, 101.
Cunningham, Sir Alexander, traces incidents of Buddha's life in
pre-Christian sculptures in the Buddhist temples, 179.
Darkness over the land at Buddha's death, 65.
Daranatha, Chinese historian, valuable testimony about early
Buddhism, 90, 99.
Disciple whom Buddha loved, 46.
Disciples, twelve great, 46.
Disderi, Father, visits Lha Sa, 174.
Ebionite, Buddhist bhikshu, 129.
Enoch, Book of, 164.
Epiphanius cited, 130.
Essenes, due to Buddhist propagandism, Philo on, 103.
"Evolution of Christianity," author of cited, 171.
Ezra compiles Old Testament, 6, 7.
Faith in Buddhist books, 62.
Fergusson, James, architect, derives Christian basilica from Buddhist
rock temple, 177.
"Follow me!" phrase used by Buddha, 46.
Freemasonry in Buddhism, Mithraism, etc., 100.
"Fulfilling," vague word without any meaning in modern polemics, 143.
Giles, Rev., on the Christian forgeries of Peregrinus, 128;
Amended version of Luke's opening verses, 144.
Ginsburg, Dr., on the eight spiritual states of the Essenes, 107.
"Glad tidings" (Subha Shita), word used for the Buddhist revelation, 46.
Golden book for the Buddhist recording angels, 68.
"Golden Bough," by Mr. Frazer, cited, 9.
Grueber, Father, on Buddhist rites, etc., 175.
Gymnosophists, Buddhists, 104.
Heaven, the Buddhist, 68.
Hebrews, Gospel according to, 114 _et seq._;
St. Jerome on, 101;
Condemned and suppressed, 129.
Hegesippus used Gospel according to the Hebrews, 112;
Describes James, 162.
Hippolytus cited to show that the early Church held Christ to be a
mere man, 129.
Hodgson, Bryan, on the Pyrrhonism of the second or "Great Vehicle"
school of Buddhism, 86.
Holy Ghost descends _into_ Christ, in the Gospel according to the
Hebrews, 131.
Hylobii, Greek term for Buddhists, 89.
Irenæus, on Gospel according to Hebrews, 112;
On the many spurious gospels in his day, 128;
Shows that early Church of Jerusalem used water in the communion, 130.
Jacquemont, Victor, French botanist, on similarity of Buddhist and
Catholic mass, 176.
James succeeds Christ, who appears and gives him communion bread on
the very night of the Crucifixion, 133;
Account by Hegesippus, 162.
Jerome, St., on the Gospel of the Hebrews, 111.
Jerusalem, Church of, 160 _et seq._
Josephus, initiation of Essenes, 137.
Judas, the Buddhist, 64.
Justin Martyr, 112 _et seq._
Kanishka, or Kanerkos, introduces atheistic Buddhism and Pyrrhonism, 85.
Kârle, cave temple, described, 177.
Karma, the Buddhist doctrine, mixed up with the Atonement, 68.
Lang, Andrew, on savage terrorism, 9.
Lightfoot, Bishop, on the "swathing bands" of Judaism, 141.
Luke, Gospel of, analysed, 144.
Magic, Buddhist, 79.
Maitreya, Buddha of Brotherly Love, 2.
Man born blind, parable, 79.
Matthew, St., an ascetic, 164.
Marcion's gospel, testimony of Megethius that it has been added to and
falsified, 146.
Megasthenes on the Buddhists, 90.
Mithras, religion of, 99.
Müller, Max, on Buddhism, 77.
Newman, Cardinal, his "Dream of St. Gerontius," 168.
Nicator, Seleucus, sends an ambassador to Patna, 89.
Nicholson, E. B., best authority on the Gospel according to the
Hebrews, 114.
Nirvritti the same as the Pleroma of the Gnostics, 169.
Nuns in Buddhism and Essenism, 106.
Origen on the abundant falsification of the gospels in his day, 128.
Oswald, Felix, cited, 57.
Papias, Bishop, on the composition of the gospels, 111.
Parables, the Buddhist, 70 _et seq._
Pax Vobiscum! the Hebrew "Schalom!" the Buddhist "Sadhu!" 47.
Peregrinus composes Christian scriptures, 128.
Peter, Gospel according to, cited, 127.
Philo on the Essenes and Therapeuts, 104;
Connects them with the Gymnosophists of India, 104.
Photismos in early Church, 107.
Pravritti, the Buthos of the Gnostics, 169.
Prodigal Son, Buddhist parable, 70.
Protevangelion compared with Luke's gospel, 149.
Pythagoras, Buddha's teaching fathered on, 101.
Racine translates the "Contemplative Life of Philo," 136.
"Rakshà Bhagavatî" the great Bible of atheistic Buddhism, 86.
Rajendra Lala Mitra proves atheistic Buddhism to have been forced on
early Buddhism by the "Great Vehicle," A.D. 20, 85.
Renan on the Church of Jerusalem, 161;
On the status of St. James, 134.
_Revue des Deux Mondes_ defines Christianity as due to a conflict
between Buddhism and Mosaism, 1.
Saints appear at Buddha's death, 66.
Samanna Phala Sutta cited, 79.
Sayings of Christ, according to Justin Martyr, 117.
Semites, 4, 5.
Smith, Professor Robertson, on the "Totems" of the Old Testament, 19.
Son of Perdition, the Buddhist, 64.
Sunyapushpa (the "Carriage that drives Nowhere"), nickname of early
Buddhists for innovating Pyrrhonism, 91.
Supper, Buddhist last, 65.
Sutta, Tevigga, gives Buddha's ideas about God, 80.
Therapeuts, _see_ Essenes.
Throne, great white, 67.
Transfiguration, the Buddhist, 63.
Twelve great disciples of Buddha, 46.
"Vehicle, Great," 85;
"Little," 84, 85.
Valentinus, fourth gospel due to his teaching, 172.
Walking on water, miracle, 59.
War in Heaven, 61.
Washing feet, 64.
Wassiljew cited, 90.
Williams, Sir Monier, his views on Buddhism, 77.
Woman at the well, 70.
Zacharias, legend about, 148.
Zoroaster, Buddha as, 98.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.
Revue des Deus Mondes corrected to Revue des Deux Mondes.
Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been
retained except in the case of conflict with index entries.
Perigrinus has been corrected to Peregrinus and Ferguson to Fergusson.