the Benedictines to cross the threshold of the monastery without the permission of his superior.

It is probable that in this part of the institute the ascetic would meet with his heaviest cross. By the constitution of our species, as social beings, we are necessitated on many occasions to give up our own will; and whenever new associations are formed, whether as a family, a club, an order, a sect, a city, or a country, there are additional barriers to the exercise of the individual will. But in all these instances there is an interchange of assistance, a reciprocity of kindly offices, and an acknowledged advantage, that causes the momentary sacrifice on our part to be recompensed in a thousand modes, that are more than an equivalent for the loss we have had to sustain; so that the home in which the family is congregated, or the country by which the exercise of our national institutions is bounded, are magic words that have often been the most powerful impulse in the rallying cry that has led men on to victory or death. But there is in man a natural propensity to usurp a greater authority than that which is properly conceded to him, on account of the position in which he is accidentally placed as a ruler. In this respect we are true children of the father-fiend, who is made to say that he had rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. It is a base lie that he utters, as he would readily give up his sovereignty to be the lowest of the seraphs that ministers before the throne; but it is one so consonant with our own corrupt imaginations that we give it credence, until maturer thought has convinced us that it is an empty boast. In the monastic institutes this passion has been carried out to its utmost limit. The recluse was taught that all within, as well as all without, is to be abandoned; that not only the mine but the me was to be sacrificed at the ascetic altar. The superior aimed at exercising an influence like that of the steam-engine of some extensive manufactory in modern times, which throughout the vast edifice over which it rules is the motive power by which every thread is thrown and every wheel revolves. There was a restriction upon all the senses of the monk, that there might be no outward irregularity; and if the mind wandered, however innocently, from the prescribed course, the weakness was to be confessed to the superior aud absolution sought. In the Pátimokkhan the misdemeanours that require confession and absolution form the more numerous class.

When viewed in connexion with this severity of discipline, some of the names given to the monks and nuns, as brother, and abbot;

sister, and abbess; appear to be singularly inappropriate, as the tender associations to which they allude ought to have no place in the breast of the recluse, if the principle of asceticism be right. He is not allowed to love any being whatever upon earth; the order or the institute, a thing of the imagination, is to engross the place of every relationship; and it sometimes usurps the place of God. The titles given to the superior priests of Budha are more consistent with their circumstances, being equivalent rather to prior or archimandrite. Jerome did not approve of the word abbas, as he thought that its use was contrary to the command, to "call no man father upon earth."

Among the Budhists, so strict a rigidity of social discipline is not required, as the priests are enjoined to take the alms-bowl from house to house, in order to procure food. This itself is an employment, enough to engage the attention without producing fatigue, whilst it affords them the opportunity of exercise; and by bringing them into contact with much that is beautiful in the world without, is equally beneficial to the body and the mind. We have therefore no reason to suppose that in the pansal there is exercised the cruelty of the western inquisitor, who too frequently wrings tears and blood from the reluctant inmate of his dark prison-house before his spirit is subdued or his heart broken. Nevertheless, there is the recognition of the same principle; every mark of respect is to be paid to the superior priest, and the causing of a division among the priesthood is one of the sins from the penal consequences of which there is no possible release by means of anything that can be done in the present state of existence.

The following precepts are contained in the Pátimokkhan: The priest is forbidden to bring a groundless charge against another priest, in order to have him excluded from the community; he is not to take hold of some trifling matter, and found a charge thereon; with all solemnity he is charged not to sow dissensions, or to endeavour to perpetuate existing divisions, among the priesthood; no one is to aid and abet a priest who is causing divisions; the priest is not to refuse admonition; when spoken to on account of any evil conduct, he is not to say that the priests are captious and partial; he is not to use contemptuous speech, nor to slander the priests; unless with permission, he is not to declare to others the crimes of the priests; he is not to go to the place previously occupied by another priest, in order to annoy him, and cause him to

leave; he is not from anger, to expel another priest, or cause him to be expelled; he is not to act unkindly, or do anything that would discompose another priest; he is not to hide, or cause to be hid, even in sport, the articles belonging to another priest; he is not to bring forward again a cause that has been once decided; he is implicitly to obey the precepts called Sahadammikan (laws binding on all the priests); he is not to be angry with another priest and strike him or push against him; he is not to suggest doubts against another priest, in order to annoy him, nor is he to listen when other priests are in debate or at strife; and he is not to consent to any ecclesiastical procedure, and then complain of the investigation.

The law declaring that the priest shall not take hold of any trifling matter and found a charge thereon was enacted by Gótama Budha under the following circumstances. A certain priest wishing to ruin another priest, named Dabbo, was unable to accomplish his object without resorting to an equivocation, as the conduct of Dabbo was blameless. Walking one day with his fellow-priests, and seeing a flock of goats, he said that he would give to one of the he-goats the name of Dabbo, and to a she-goat the name of Mettiya (a priestess who had been previously excluded), in order that he might be enabled to declare that he had seen Dabbo and Mettiya guilty of improper conduct. An investigation took place, but the equivocation was detected; and this law was enacted in consequence.*

It is forbidden to the inferior priests to be in the company of the superior, or those who are more aged, without paying them proper respect. They are not to jostle them, nor to go in front of them when seated; nor are they to sit on a higher seat, or to talk when near them, or when talking with them to use action with their hands and feet; they are not to walk near them with their sandals on, or to walk about in some part of the same court at a higher elevation, or to walk at the same place at the same time. They are not to go before them or press upon them, when carrying the alms-bowl. They are not to be harsh with the novices. And they are not to take upon themselves matters with which they have no right to interfere, such as to put firewood in the place where water is warmed for bathing, or to shut the door of the bath, without permission.† The crime called sangha-bhéda, or the causing of a division

* Gogerly's Translation of the Pátimokkhan; Ceylon Friend, Dec. 1839. + Wisudhi Margga Sanné.

among the priesthood, is one of the five deadly sins, for which the delinquent must suffer during a whole kalpa in hell. It cannot be committed by a laic or a novice; it can only be done by one who has received upasampadá ordination.* The five deadly sins have been already enumerated, p. 37.

Some of these regulations will remind the reader of the forms observed on board our men of war. The strictness of the discipline that is enforced is the salient point at which the monk and the soldier meet; and though the warrior and the recluse form an antithesis, in this as in many other instances extremes have been made to meet from some partial resemblance, and in the year 1119, a military order was founded in Jerusalem combining the monastic life with the tumult of the camp and the strife of the battle.

XV. THE EXERCISE OF DISCIPLINE.

The code of ecclesiastical law called Pátimokkhan, is to be recited bi-monthly in a chapter of not fewer than four priests. But the ascetic brotherhood appear ever to dislike being reminded of their duty, as this rule is not attended to in Ceylon, and an abbot of Wardon, in his letter of resignation, assigns the following as one of the reasons why he could no longer hold the office. "They be in nombre xv brethern, and excepte iij of them, non understande ne knowe ther rule nor the statutes of ther religione." Yet according to the Regulations of Benedict all the monks who are able, are to learn the rules of the order memoriter.

Before the Pátimokkhan is read, the place of assembly must be swept, low cushions prepared for the priests to sit upon, and water placed for them to drink. There are twenty-one persons who may not be present, as laics, eunuchs, &c. Between each priest a space is to be left of two cubits and a-half. constituted if all the priests are under same crime.

The chapter is not legally ecclesiastical censure for the

In that case it will be necessary that they be absolved by some one who is not guilty; but if they be guilty of different faults they can absolve each other, after confession, and then proceed to business. When one section of the rule is read, the enquiry is made three times if all that are present have observed *Milinda Prasna.

the precept; and if no answer is given, it is supposed to be in the affirmative; but if any one has broken the precept, and does not confess it, he is regarded as being guilty of a wilful lie. When a priest has been guilty of any of the thirteen crimes that involve suspension and penance, and shall conceal the fact, upon its discovery he is placed under restraint as many days as he has concealed it, then for six nights he is subject to a kind of penance, and after this period he may be restored to his office by a chapter, at which twenty priests must be present. No priest is allowed to question the utility of reading the Pátimokkhan, in the manner prescribed, and if any priest is convicted of manifesting impatience relative to the reading of this code, he is to confess his crime and receive absolution. The matters brought before the chapter are to be deliberately investigated, and the sentence is to be determined by the majority. The modes of punishment that are appointed are of the mildest description, including reprimand, forfeiture, penance, suspension, and exclusion. The principal exercises of penance appear to be, sweeping the court-yard of the wihára, and sprinkling sand under the bó-tree or near the dágobas. In one legend it is stated that some ascetics, who were required as penance to go to the Ganges and take up a portion of sand which they were to bring to a certain place, had by this means, in the course of time, made a mound of sand that was many miles in extent. It was the custom of Pachomius to carry sand from one place to another, in the night season, when he wished to overcome his drowsiness.

It is said in the Wisudhi Margga Sanné, that when a priest falls into an error, or commits a fault, that is comparatively of little moment, he is to seek forgiveness from a superior priest; and if all who reside in the same wihára are inferior to himself, he is to go to some other wihára for the purpose. Until absolution is thus received, the evils arising from the fault continue to exist.

In Burma, when a priest is detected in the violation of the law of continence, the inhabitants of the place where he lives expel him from his monastery, sometimes driving him away with stones. The government then strips him of his habit, and inflicts upon him a public punishment. The grand master, under the predecessor of Badonsachen, having been convicted of this crime, he was deprived of all his dignities, and narrowly escaped decapitation, to which punishment he was condemned by the emperor. Whenever a priest

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