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.
