No
One From Without Was To Have Access To The Prince; And He Was To Witness
None Of The Afflictions
Of humanity, poverty, disease, old age, or death,
but only what was pleasant, so that he should have no inducement
To think
of the future life; nor was he ever to hear a word of CHRIST or His
religion. And, hearing that some monks still survived in India, the King
in his wrath ordered that any such, who should be found after three days,
should be burnt alive.
The Prince grows up in seclusion, acquires all manner of learning, and
exhibits singular endowments of wisdom and acuteness. At last he urges his
father to allow him to pass the limits of the palace, and this the King
reluctantly permits, after taking all precautions to arrange diverting
spectacles, and to keep all painful objects at a distance. Or let us
proceed in the Old English of the Golden Legend.[3] "Whan his fader
herde this he was full of sorowe, and anone he let do make redy horses and
joyfull felawshyp to accompany him, in suche wyse that nothynge dyshonest
sholde happen to hym. And on a tyme thus as the Kynges sone wente he mette
a mesell and a blynde man, and wha he sawe them he was abasshed and
enquyred what them eyled. And his seruautes sayd: These ben passions that
comen to men. And he demaunded yf the passyons came to all men. And they
sayd nay. Tha sayd he, ben they knowen whiche men shall suffre.... And
they answered, Who is he that may knowe ye aduentures of men. And he began
to be moche anguysshous for ye incustomable thynge hereof. And another
tyme he found a man moche aged, whiche had his chere frouced, his tethe
fallen, and he was all croked for age.... And tha he demaunded what
sholde be ye ende. And they sayd deth.... And this yonge man remembered
ofte in his herte these thynges, and was in grete dyscoforte, but he
shewed hy moche glad tofore his fader, and he desyred moche to be enformed
and taught in these thyges." [Fol. ccc. lii.]
At this time BARLAAM, a monk of great sanctity and knowledge in divine
things, who dwelt in the wilderness of Sennaritis, having received a
divine warning, travels to India in the disguise of a merchant, and gains
access to Prince Josaphat, to whom he unfolds the Christian doctrine and
the blessedness of the monastic life. Suspicion is raised against Barlaam,
and he departs. But all efforts to shake the Prince's convictions are
vain. As a last resource the King sends for a magician called Theudas, who
removes the Prince's attendants and substitutes seductive girls, but all
their blandishments are resisted through prayer. The King abandons these
attempts and associates his son with himself in the government. The Prince
uses his power to promote religion, and everything prospers in his hand.
Finally King Abenner is drawn to the truth, and after some years of
penitence dies. Josaphat then surrenders the kingdom to a friend called
Barachias, and proceeds into the wilderness, where he wanders for two
years seeking Barlaam, and much buffeted by the demons. "And whan Balaam
had accomplysshed his dayes, he rested in peas about ye yere of Our Lorde.
cccc. &. Ixxx. Josaphat lefte his realme the xxv. yere of his age, and
ledde the lyfe of an heremyte xxxv. yere, and than rested in peas full of
vertues, and was buryed by the body of Balaam." [Fol. ccc. lvi.] The King
Barachias afterwards arrives and transfers the bodies solemnly to India.
This is but the skeleton of the story, but the episodes and apologues
which round its dimensions, and give it its mediaeval popularity, do not
concern our subject. In this skeleton the story of Siddharta, mutatis
mutandis is obvious.
The story was first popular in the Greek Church, and was embodied in the
lives of the saints, as recooked by Simeon the Metaphrast, an author whose
period is disputed, but was in any case not later than 1150. A Cretan monk
called Agapios made selections from the work of Simeon which were
published in Romaic at Venice in 1541 under the name of the Paradise,
and in which the first section consists of the story of Barlaam and
Josaphat. This has been frequently reprinted as a popular book of
devotion. A copy before me is printed at Venice in 1865.[4]
From the Greek Church the history of the two saints passed to the Latin,
and they found a place in the Roman martyrology under the 27th November.
When this first happened I have not been able to ascertain. Their history
occupies a large space in the Speculum Historiale of Vincent of
Beauvais, written in the 13th century, and is set forth, as we have seen,
in the Golden Legend of nearly the same age. They are recognised by
Baronius, and are to be found at p. 348 of "The Roman Martyrology set
forth by command of Pope Gregory XIII., and revised by the authority of
Pope Urban VIII., translated out of Latin into English by G.K. of the
Society of Jesus.... and now re-edited ... by W.N. Skelly, Esq. London,
T. Richardson & Son." (Printed at Derby, 1847.) Here in Palermo is a
church bearing the dedication Divo Iosaphat.
Professor Mueller attributes the first recognition of the identity of the
two stories to M. Laboulaye in 1859. But in fact I find that the historian
de Couto had made the discovery long before.[5] He says, speaking of
Budao (Buddha), and after relating his history:
"To this name the Gentiles throughout all India have dedicated great and
superb pagodas. With reference to this story we have been diligent in
enquiring if the ancient Gentiles of those parts had in their writings any
knowledge of St. Josaphat who was converted by Barlam, who in his Legend
is represented as the son of a great King of India, and who had just the
same up-bringing, with all the same particulars, that we have recounted of
the life of the Budao.... And as a thing seems much to the purpose, which
was told us by a very old man of the Salsette territory in Bacaim, about
Josaphat, I think it well to cite it:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 165 of 360
Words from 167478 to 168535
of 370046
