[38] Compare Beal’s “Romantic Legend of Sakhya Buddha from the Chinese Sanscrit,” pp. 33 sqq., with the Protevangelion, the Gospel of the Infancy, the Gospel of Nicodemus, etc.
Somewhat similar to the Buddhist legend is the assertion of the Jainas that their great Tirthankara, Mahavira, selected the womb of Brahamani Devanandi, wife of Rishabha Datta, as his place of birth; but Sakra, indignant that he should be born in the Brahman caste, caused him to be transferred to Trisala, wife of the Kshatriya Siddhartha (Kalpa Sutra, Bk. I. ch. i. Stevenson’s Translation, pp. 24, 38). Concerning the comparative priority of Jainism and Buddhism, see Thomas’s “Jainism, or the early Faith of Asoka,” London, 1877.
In this connection, it is perhaps worth while to note the Mazdean belief in Saoshyans, the future Messiah, who, as in Judaism, is to overcome the evil powers at the end of the world, and preside over the resurrection of mankind, and who is to be born of a virgin, Eredhat Fedri. (Vendidad, Fargard XIX. 18; Bundehesh XXX. XXXII. 8, 9; Haug’s Essays, Ed. 1878, pp. 313-14). The mode of his conception as related in the Bundehesh, may be compared with the less decent speculations of Sanchez as to that of Christ.
[39] Beal’s Buddhist Tripitaka, pp. 114-5.
[40] Marini, Missioni di Tumkino, Roma, 1663, pp. 125, 481, 490 sq.
[41] “Quare vel ut natus est unusquisque nostrum manet, vel nuptiis copulatus unicis, secundæ enim decorum quoddam adulterium sunt.” Athenag. pro Christ. Legat.—“Unius matrimonii vinculo libenter inhæremus, cupiditate procreandi aut unam scimus aut nullam.” M. Minuc. Felicis Octavius.—“Ut ii qui lege humana bis conjugium ineunt peccatores sunt apud præceptorem nostrum.” Justin. Mart. Apol. II.—I. Cor. vii. 39.
[42] Concil Neocæs. ann. 314 c. 7.—Concil. Laodicens. ann. 352 c. 1.—Gelasii PP. I. Epist. IX. Rubr. ad cap. xxii.—Cf. Hieron. Epist. XLVIII. apologeticus, c. 18.—Ejusd. Comment. in Jeremiam Prolog. Even in modern times the priest who pronounces a benediction on a second marriage commits an offence subjecting him to punishment (Rodriguez, Nuova Somma de’Casi di Coscienza, Venez. 1609. P. I. cap. ccxl. No. 4).
[43] Val. Max. II. i. 3.—Plut. Quæstt. Roman. 105.—Diod. Sicul. XII. 14.—Tertull. Lib. di Exhort. Castit. xiii.—Auli Gellii X. 15.
[44] Tertull. Lib. di Exhort. Castit. VII.; de Monogam. xi.—Concil. Eliberit. xxxviii.
[45] Hippol. Ref. omn. Hæres. IX. vii.—Hieron. Epist. LXIX. ad Oceanum.—Constit. Apostol. VI. 17.—Canon. Apostol. xvii., xviii., xix.