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.

mind the reader of the forms The strictness of the discipline

Some of these regulations will observed on board our men of war. 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. The chapter is not legally constituted if all the priests are under ecclesiastical censure for the same crime. 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.

has been guilty of a violation of the rules of his order, he is required to go immediately to his superior, and kneeling down before him, confess his crime. There are some sins, of which confession must be made, not merely before the priest, but before all who are assembled in the chapter. A penance is then imposed upon the delinquent, which consists of prayers (or, more probably, of stanzas from the bana), to be recited for a certain number of days, according to the time he has suffered to elapse without confession; and these prayers must be said in the night. A promise must also be given to refrain from such faults in future, and pardon asked of all the priests for the scandal given, with a humble request to be again admitted into the order. But these regulations are at present much neglected, as the priests content themselves with an indefinite mode of confession, something resembling the Confiteor of the Romanists.*

Among the Benedictines, when an offence was committed, there was, first, private admonition, then public reproof, separation from the society of the brethren, corporal punishment, expulsion; the delinquent was permitted to return thrice, but after the fourth relapse he was ejected for ever. The discipline of some of the orders was extremely severe. According to the rule imposed by an Irish saint, Columban, the monk who did not say Amen at grace, before and after meals, was to have six lashes; he who talked in the refectory was also to have six lashes; and he who coughed at the beginning of a psalm was to be treated in a similar manner, as well as he who touched the chalice with his teeth, or smiled during the time of divine service. They who spoke roughly and frowardly were to receive fifty lashes, as well as they who were disrespectful to the superior. For small faults the chastisement was six lashes; for greater, especially in things relating to the mass, sometimes 200 lashes were given, but never more than twenty-five at one time. When a monk had finished his task of work, if he did not ask for more, penance was enjoined. Among the punishments were prolonged fasts, silence, separation from the table, and humilations.†

The clergy were anciently punished by suspension; by being mulcted of a portion of their salary; by being forbidden to exercise some of the duties of their office; by degradation, as from the rank of priest to that of deacon; and by non-admission to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, unless they approached the table as laymen. The inferior clergy were liable to imprisonment and stripes. In * Sangermano's Burmese Empire. † Alban Butler, Nov. 21.

large cities there were houses of correction, decanica, attached to the churches. In extreme cases excommunication was resorted to, after which there was no possibility of restoration to the clerical dignity.*

The authority of the popes of Rome was never displayed in such appalling magnificence as when they laid the nations under an interdict. It was then that the prophecy was fulfilled, which spake of him "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."-2 Thess. ii. 4. As the ancient kings are represented as being moved from beneath to meet the monarch of Babylon on his entrance into sheol, so we can imagine the princes of all times, from those who had merely executed justice to those who had waded through seas of gore, going forth to do homage to these "vicegerents of the Almighty," when their "pomp was brought down to the grave," for having so far surpassed all other potentates, in the strength of the spell they dared to mutter, the terribleness of the fears they aroused, and the varied character of the miseries they inflicted upon men. It was not merely that all religious offices were suspensed, that the churches were closed against the laity, the altar against the performance of marriage, and the churchyard against the burial of the dead; in addition, the clergy were placed in deadly opposition to the laity, and the laity to the clergy. The consequences of this antagonism were sometimes tremendous, as when John cast into prison Geoffry, archdeacon of Norwich (for having abdicated the functions of his office as a judge of the exchequer when he heard that his king was excommunicated), and caused him to be wrapped in a sheet of lead shaped like an ecclesiastical mantle, leaving him, without food, to perish under the weight of the metal by which he was oppressed. At the period of the same interdict the ecclesiastics, generally, were exposed to ill-treatment and murder from all ranks. They had suspended the privileges of the church to punish the people, and the people suspended the privileges of the state to punish them.

It was the peculiar privilege of the commandries of the Knights Hospitalars to be permitted to receive persons under sentence of excommunication. By a rule of their order persons who had been denounced might take refuge in their churches, where lights were directed to be kept continually burning. The Hospitalars might

Riddle's Christian Antiquities.

visit interdicted persons when sick to administer consolation, and inter them when dead with the rites of the church in the cemeteries belonging to their own order; if they passed through an interdicted place, they, and they alone, could perform mass in the churches; and if even a whole city or province were excommunicated the people could still resort to the commandries for the offices of religion. There were certain monasteries, as that at Bury, that had also the privilege, as a peculiar mark of pontifical favour, of exemption from the general effects of the interdict. "With the doors shut, without ringing of bell, and with a low voice," the services were at such times to be performed.*

It appears from the Tibetan works on Budhism that the priests of Gótama were accustomed to put under ban, or interdict, any person or family, in the following mode. In a public assembly, after the facts had been investigated, an alms-bowl was turned with its mouth downwards, it being declared by this act that from that time no one was to hold communication with the individual against whom the fault had been proved. According to the text, no one was to enter his house, or to sit down there, or to take alms from him, or to give him religious instruction. After a reconciliation had taken place, the ban was taken off by the alms-bowl being placed in its usual position. This act was as significant as the bell, book, and candle; but much less repulsive in its aspect and associations.

XVI. MISCELLANEOUS REGULATIONS.

The priests in Ceylon are seldom seen with anything in the hand, unless it be the alms-bowl, or the fan which, like a hand-screen, is carried to prevent the eyes from beholding vanity. They are usually followed by an attendant, called the abittaya. When the priest receives the offering of a fleece of wool, he is forbidden by the Pátimokkhan to carry it a greater distance than three yojanas.

The priest is forbidden to dig the ground, or to cause it to be dug; he is not to cut trees or grass; he is not to sprinkle water in which there are insects upon grass or clay, or cause it to be sprinkled; he is not to go to view an army, unless there be a sufficient reason, in which case he may remain with the army two or three

*Taylor's Index Monasticus.