that country, says:

"Certain it is--and the observance may be daily made even at
Canton--that they (the Buddhist priests) practice the
ordinances of celibacy, fasting, and prayers for the dead;
they have holy water, rosaries of beads, which they count with
their prayers, the worship of relics, and a monastic habit
resembling that of the Franciscans" (an order of Roman
Catholic monks).

Pere Premere, a Jesuit missionary to China, was driven to conclude that
the devil had practiced a trick to perplex his friends, the Jesuits. To
others, however, it is not so difficult to account for these things as
it seemed for the good Father. Sir John continues his account as
follows:

"These priests are associated in monasteries attached to the
temples of Fo. They are in China precisely a society of
mendicants, and go about, like monks of that description in
the Romish Church, asking alms for the support of their
establishment. Their tonsure extends to the hair of the whole
head. There is a regular gradation among the priesthood; and
according to his reputation for sanctity, his length of
service and other claims, each priest may rise from the lowest
rank of servitor--whose duty it is to perform the menial
offices of the temple--to that of officiating priest--and
ultimately of 'Tae Hoepang,' Abbot or head of the
establishment."

The five principal precepts, or rather interdicts, addressed to the
Buddhist priests are:

1. Do not kill.
2. Do not steal.
3. Do not marry.
4. Speak not falsely.
5. Drink no wine.

Poo-ta-la is the name of a monastery, described in Lord Macartney's
mission, and is an extensive establishment, which was found in
Manchow-Tartary, beyond the great wall. This building offered shelter to
no less than eight hundred Chinese Buddhist priests.[401:1]

The Rev. Mr. Gutzlaff, in his "Journal of Voyages along the coast of
China," tells us that he found the Buddhist "Monasteries, nuns, and
friars very numerous;" and adds that: "their priests are generally very
ignorant."[401:2]

This reminds us of the fact that, for centuries during the "dark ages"
of Christianity, Christian bishops and prelates, the teachers, spiritual
pastors and masters, were mostly _marksmen_, that is, they supplied, by
the sign of the cross, their inability to write their own name.[402:1]
Many of the bishops in the Co