ere was no compulsion, no suppression of
discussion, no delegated power to explain or supplement the truth. Hence
differences of opinion in the Buddhist Church have largely taken the
shape of schools of thought rather than of separate and polemical sects.
Dissension indeed has not been absent but of persecution, such as stains
the annals of the Christian Church, there is hardly any record. The fact
that the Sangha, though nearly five hundred years older than any
Christian institution, is still vigorous shows that this noble freedom
is not unsuccessful as a practical policy.

The absence of anything that can be called worship or cultus in Gotama's
regulations is remarkable. He not merely sets aside the older religious
rites, such as prayer and sacrifice; he does not prescribe anything
whatever which is in ordinary language a religious act. For the
Patimokkha, Pavarana, etc., are not religious ceremonies, but chapters
of the order held with an ethical object, and the procedure (the
proposal of a resolution and the request for an expression of opinion)
is that adopted in modern public meetings, except that assent is
signified by silence. It is true that the ceremonial of a religion is
not likely to develop during the life of the founder, for pious
recollection and recitation of his utterances in the form of scripture
are as yet impossible. Still, if the Buddha had had any belief whatever
in the edifying effect of ritual, he would not have failed to institute
some ceremony, appealing if not to supernatural beings at least to human
emotions. Even the few observances which he did prescribe seem to be the
result of suggestion from others and the only inference to be drawn is
that he regarded every form of religious observance as entirely
superfluous.

At first the Sangha consisted exclusively of men. It was not until about
five years after its establishment that the entreaties of the Buddha's
fostermother, who had become a widow, and of Ananda prevailed on him to
throw it open to women as well[543] but it would seem that the
permission was wrung from him against his judgment. His reluctance was
not due to a low estimate of female ability, for he recognized and made
use of the influence of women in social and domestic life and he
admitted that they were as capable as men of attaining the highest
stages of spiritual and intellectual progress. This is also attested by
the Pitakas, for some of the most important and subtle argume