nephew, and be able to satisfy the wishes of his parents. By this time the nephew thought it would be well to go and see his uncle, as he had been absent from him a considerable period. The two priests met on the borders of the river Mahaweli; and, after mutual explanations, the uncle remained near the same place to perform a certain ceremony, and the nephew proceeded onward to his native village. The day after his arrival his father went to invite him to perform wass at his house, as he had heard that a stranger had come to the monastery. The priest accordingly went every day, for the space of three months, to his father's house to say bana; but he was not recognized by any of his relatives. When the ceremony was concluded, he informed his parents that he was about to depart; but they entreated him to come the next day, and they then gave him a cruse of oil, a lump of sugar, and a piece of cloth nine cubits long. After giving them his blessing, he began his journey to Ruhuna. The two priests again met on the borders of the river, when the nephew informed his uncle that he had seen his parents, and at the same time washed his feet with the oil, gave him the sugar to eat, and presented him with the piece of cloth. He then proceeded on his journey, and his uncle set out to return to Koranakara. From the time that the son began to perform wass at his parent's house, his father went out every day in the direction of Ruhuna, to see if the priest was returning with his child; but when he saw him alone, as he concluded at once that his son was dead, he threw himself at the feet of the priest, wept, and lamented aloud. The priest saw the error into which the father had fallen, and made known to him what had taken place, convincing him of the reality of what he said by showing him the cloth he had received. The father then went in the direction his son had gone, fell on his face and worshipped, saying that his son was without an equal, as he had visited his parents' house every day during three months, and yet never discovered himself to any of his relatives. To such a priest even parents are no palibhóda or hindrance to the reception of tranquillity.* * Wisudhi Margga Sanné. VII. POVERTY. The vow of poverty is a natural result of asceticism, so that we expect to meet with it as a matter of course wherever men have been taught that to save their souls it is necessary for them to abandon the world. The monks of Christendom suppose that they have an additional motive for this rule in the example of Christ and his apostles. Thus, Chaucer's Wife of Bath, v. 6761, exclaims, "And ther as ye of poverte me repreve, The highe God, on whom that we beleve, The universal tendency there is among all ascetics to the breaking of this law, as well as the difficulty of framing regulations that may not be set aside by the ingenuity of those who wish to transgress them, may be seen in the fact, that nearly every order has been intended at its commencement to repress the style of luxury in which the preceding communities have lived; whilst it has only required the elapse of a reasonable time before the new order has been drawn into the vortex of the very extravagancies it was intended to put down, and for which purpose it was originated. By Jerome (Ep. 95) complaint is made that some who called themselves solitarii lived in the midst of a crowd, and had the attendance of servants; they had all the conveniences requisite for a carousal; and their food was eaten from vessels of glass or some other costly material. The same author relates (Ep. 18) that a certain anchoret left a hundred crowns at his death. When the monks resident in the same desert met together to enquire what was to be done with the money, some proposed that it should be given to the poor, but it was finally resolved that the whole sum should be thrown into his grave, with the malediction, "May thy money pass with thee to perdition." Until the rise of the mendicants, the individual members of the various orders were regarded as denying themselves the enjoyment of personal property, though the community to which they belonged might itself possess ample revenues. Even Dominic, though he prescribed the most severe poverty, did not forbid the houses of his order to enjoy in common small rents in money. But Francis pro hibited his monks from possessing a collective revenue, and the vow of poverty was absolute. The rule was as follows:-" Fratres sibi nihil approprient, nec domum, nec locum, nec aliquam rem; sed sicut perigrini et advenae in hoc seculo, in paupertate et humilitate famulantes Domino, vadant pro eleemosynâ confidenter." The bishop of Acco, 1220, writing of the Franciscans, says, "They have neither monasteries nor churches; neither fields, nor vineyards, nor cattle; nor houses, nor any possessions; nor where to lay the head." When a church was bestowed upon Francis by the Benedictines of Monte Sonbazo, he refused to accept the property or dominion, and would only have the use of the place; in token of which he sent the monks annually a basket of fish. He would not allow any property to be invested in his order, that he might say more perfectly that he had neither house, food, nor clothes. When asked which of all the virtues he thought was the most agreeable to God, he replied, "Poverty is the way to salvation, the nurse of humility, and the root of perfection. Its fruits are hidden, but they multiply themselves in ways that are infinite," Yet a division broke out among his followers as to the precise interpretation of his rule, in consequence of which a mitigation of the requirement as to the total abrogation of all worldly possessions was made by Gregory IX. in 1231; and in 1245 the bull of Innocent IV. allowed them to possess certain articles of furniture, with a few utensils, books, &c. About a century afterwards a dispute arose between the Franciscans and Dominicans respecting the poverty of Christ and his apostles; it being argued by the followers of Francis that they had no possessions of any kind whatever, either as private property or as a common treasure, whilst the followers of Dominic asserted most strenuously a contrary opinion. The pope decided in favour of the Dominicans; and it is recorded that many of the Franciscans perished in the flames of the inquisition for persisting in their opposition to this decree. It was enjoined by Ignatius Loyola that the professed Jesuits should not possess any real estates or revenues, either in particular or in common; but that colleges might enjoy revenues and rents for the maintenance of students of the order. It is said to be peculiar to this society, that the religious, after their first vows, retain some time the dominion or property of their patrimony, without the administration (the latter condition being essential to a religious vow of poverty) till they make their renun * Alban Butler, July 31. ciation. Francis of Sales did not allow the nuns belonging to the order of the Visitation to have the propriety or even the long use of anything whatever, even their chambers, beds, crosses, beads, and books, were to be changed every year. The monastic churches were, however, sometimes adorned in a costly manner, even when the rule of poverty was personally regarded with all strictness. Benedict long used wooden, and afterwards glass or pewter chalices at the altar, and if any presents of silk ornaments were made to him, he gave them to other churches; but he afterwards effected a change in this practice, and built a stately church, furnished with silver chalices and rich ornaments. It was a rule among the Cistertians that in their places of worship all unnecessary display should be avoided; they had neither gold nor silver crosses, nor candelabras, except one of iron; nor a chalice, except it were one of copper or iron; and they reproached the monks of Clugny with having churches "immensely high, immoderately long, superfluously broad, sumptuously furnished, and curiously painted;" so that men were led to admire more that which was beautiful than that which was sacred. There were individual monks who carried out these ideas to their utmost extent. All the furniture in the little cell of John, the Carmelite, consisted of a paper image and a cross made of rushes, and his beads and breviary were of the meanest description. The words fakir and dervish, so commonly met with in all accounts of Mahometan countries, are said to mean, the one in Arabic, and the other in Persian, poor. These devotees ask alms in the name of God, and are restricted to a life of poverty, relying for their support upon the charity of the faithful. Some of them are independent, whilst others are associated together in communities like the monastic orders of Christendom. The monks endeavour to trace the origin of their system to the first year of the Hegira; and it is said that there are now thirty-two different orders existing in the Turkish empire. They found the reason of the ascetic life upon a saying of Mahomet-Poverty is my glory. The priest of Budha, previous to his ordination, must possess eight articles, called ata-pirikara. 1, 2, 3. Robes, of different descriptions. 4. A girdle for the loins. 5. A pátara or alms-bowl. 6. A razor. 7. A needle. 8. A perahankada, or water-strainer. The robes will form the subject of a separate section. The bowl is for the purpose of receiving the food presented in alms by the faithful. The razor is for the shaving of the hair. The needle, which is for the repairing of the priest's robes, is not to have a case made of bone, ivory, or horn; if he is found to possess one, it is to be broken, and the fault requires confession and absolution. In this respect some of the monks carried their vow of poverty to greater excess than the Budhists, as Theodorus forbade his followers to have even as much property as a needle. Among the later monks, however, every one had a table-book, knife, needle, and handkerchief. It was formerly common for men to carry needle-cases about their persons, in order that they might be able to mend their clothes. In the time of Chaucer the needle was of silver. The waterstrainer is considered to be a necessary article, as "if any priest shall knowingly drink water containing insects, it is a fault that requires confession and absolution;" it is to be a cubit square, without a single thread broken. Even the laic who takes upon himself the five obligations is required to possess a strainer, and to use it whenever he drinks water. The Jaina priests, in addition to the strainer, carry a broom, in order that they may sweep the insects out of their way as they walk, as they fear to tread on the minutest being.† These articles can be given to a single priest; but as other descriptions of property can only be given to a chapter, they are the only things he can possess in his own individual right. When taking upon himself the last of the ten obligations, the priest declares, "I will observe the precept that forbids the receiving of gold or silver." But some other articles, such as chairs, couches, curtains, umbrellas, sandals, and staves, may be received by the chapter. If the priest receives coined gold or silver, or causes it to be received, or uses it if deposited for him; or if he uses any kind of bullion; it is a fault involving forfeiture. He is also expressly forbidden to engage in mercantile transactions. When the priest sees money, jewels, or ornaments in any place, he is not to touch them, though they may appear to be lost, unless it be in a house or garden, in which case it may be picked up and given to the owner. It was supposed by the late James Prinsep, from the absence of any of the titles of sovereignty on many coins that are evidently of Budhist origin from the symbols that they bear, that the Budhist *Fosbroke's British Monachism. + Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays, ii. 194. E |