[181] The strange similarity between some of the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita and Christianity, and the apparent identity of the name and of some of the story of Krishna with those of Christ, would seem to need some such explanation as the above. The problem however is too complicated for discussion here.—See Weber’s Indian Literature p. 238 and Monier Williams’s Indian Wisdom p. 136. For the question of St. Thomas’s Indian Apostolate see Hohlenberg’s learned tract, “De Originibus et Fatis Eccles. Christ. in India Orientali.” Havniæ 1822.
[182] Hi omnes Nestoriani ... cum Jacobinis longe plures esse dicuntur quam Latini et Græci.—Jac. de Vitriaco Hist. Hierosol. cap. lxxvi.
[183] Calixt. de Conjug. Cleric. p. 415.—Osorii de Rebus Emmanuelis Regis Lusit. Lib. IX. (Colon. 1574 p. 305a).
[184] Parkyns’s Life in Abyssinia, chap. xxxi.—Mr. Parkyns sums up about 260 fast days in the year, most of them much more rigid than those observed in the Catholic church.
[185] Davids & Oldenberg’s Vinaya Texts, Part I. pp. 4, 8, 14, 16, 32, 35-7, 42, 47, 56.—Cf. Beal’s Catena pp. 209-14.—Burnouf, Introduction à l’histoire du Buddhisme indien. 2e Éd. pp. 245-8.
[186] Beal’s Chinese Pilgrims pp. xxxviii., xl., 155-9.—Schlagintweit’s Buddhism in Tibet, pp. 164-5.—Wheeler’s Hist. of India, III. 270.—Proc. Roy. Geog. Society, in London “Reader” Nov. 17, 1866.
[187] I. Tim. v. 3-14. cf. Act. IX. 39-41. In the time of Tertullian these women were regularly ordained (Ad Uxor. Lib. I. c. 7). This was forbidden by the council of Nicæa (can. 19) and by that of Laodicea (can. 11) in 372. In 451, however, we see by the council of Chalcedon (can. 15) that the ancient practice had been revived. The authorities on the question will be found very fully given by Chr. Lupus (Scholion in Can. 15 Concil. Chalced.—Opp. II. 90 sqq.). Even as late as the middle of the ninth century stringent rules were promulgated to punish the marriage of deaconesses (Capitul. Add. III. Cap. 75.—Baluz. I. 1191).
[188] Volo ergo juniores [viduas] nubere, filios procreare, matresfamilias esse, nullam occasionem dare adversario—I. Tim. v. 14.
[189] See Leon. I. Epist. lxxxvii. cap. 2. (Harduin. I. 1775). This was not so in the earlier periods. Tertullian (De Præscription. iii.), in alluding to the various classes of ecclesiastics, places the widows immediately after the order of deacons, and before the virgins.
[190] Nothing is so illogical as the logic resorted to in order to prove foregone conclusions. Donato Calvi (apud Panzini, Pubblica Confessione di un Prigioneiro, Torino, 1865, p. 111) quotes the texts Matt. XIX. 12, Luke XIV. 33 and Matt. XIX. 21, 27, and then triumphantly concludes—“Ben lice conchiudere chiaramente da’sacri Vangeli raccogliersi fossero gli Apostoli veri religiosi coi tre voti della religione legati.”