hetic to Buddhists and by another as a
crowned persecutor.[685] He had been a bonze himself in his youth but
left the cloister for the adventurous career which conducted him to
the throne. It is probable that he had an affectionate recollection of
the Church which once sheltered him, but also a knowledge of its
weaknesses and this knowledge moved him to publish restrictive edicts
as to the numbers and qualifications of monks. On the other hand he
attended sermons, received monks in audience and appointed them as
tutors to his sons. He revised the hierarchy and gave appropriate
titles to its various grades. He also published a decree ordering that
all monks should study three sutras (Lankavatara, Prajnaparamita
and Vajracchedika), and that three brief commentaries on these works
should be compiled (see Nanjio's Catalogue, 1613-15).

It is in this reign that we first hear of the secular clergy, that is
to say, persons who acted as priests but married and did not live in
monasteries. Decrees against them were issued in 1394 and 1412, but
they continued to increase. It is not clear whether their origin
should be sought in a desire to combine the profits of the priesthood
with the comforts of the world or in an attempt to evade restrictions
as to the number of monks. In later times this second motive was
certainly prevalent, but the celibacy of the clergy is not strictly
insisted on by Lamaists and a lax observance of monastic rules[686]
was common under the Mongol dynasty.

The third Ming Emperor, Ch'eng-tsu,[687] was educated by a Buddhist
priest of literary tastes named Yao Kuang-Hsiao,[688] whom he greatly
respected and promoted to high office. Nevertheless he enacted
restrictions respecting ordination and on one occasion commanded that
1800 young men who presented themselves to take the vows should be
enrolled in the army instead. His prefaces and laudatory verses were
collected in a small volume and included in the eleventh collection of
the Tripitaka,[689] called the Northern collection, because it was
printed at Peking. It was published with a preface of his own
composition and he wrote another to the work called the Liturgy of
Kuan-yin,[690] and a third introducing selected memoirs of various
remarkable monks.[691] His Empress had a vision in which she imagined
a sutra was revealed to her and published the same with an
introduction. He was also conspicuously favourable to the Tibetan
clergy. In 1403 he sent his he