to hide from him the existence of
sickness and old age, and his meetings with a cripple and an old man.
The legends of St. Placidus (or Hubert) and St. Christopher have also
been identified with the Nigrodha and Sutasoma Jatakas.[1132] The
identification is not to my mind conclusive nor, if it is admitted, of
much importance. For who doubts that Indian fables reappear in Aesop
or Kalilah and Dimnah? Little is added to this fact if they also
appear in legends which may have some connection with the Church but
which most Christians feel no obligation to believe.

But the occurrence of Indian legends in the Apocryphal Gospels is more
important for it shows that, though in the early centuries of
Christianity the Church was shy of this oriental exuberance, yet the
materials were at hand for those who chose to use them. Many wonders
attending the superman's birth were deliberately rejected but some
were accepted and oriental practices, such as asceticism, appear with
a suddenness that makes the suspicion of foreign influence legitimate.

Not only was monasticism adopted by Christianity but many
practices common to Indian and to Christian worship obtained the
approval of the Church at about the same time. Some of these, such as
incense and the tonsure, may have been legacies from the Jewish and
Egyptian priesthoods. Many coincidences also are due to the fact that
both Buddhism and Christianity, while abolishing animal sacrifices,
were ready to sanction old religious customs: both countenanced the
performance before an image or altar of a ritual including incense,
flowers, lights and singing. This recognition of old and widespread
rites goes far to explain the extraordinary similarity of Buddhist
services in Tibet and Japan (both of which derived their ritual
ultimately from India) to Roman Catholic ceremonial. Yet when all
allowance is made for similar causes and coincidences, it is hard to
believe that a collection of such practices as clerical celibacy,
confession, the veneration of relics, the use of the rosary and bells
can have originated independently in both religions. The difficulty no
doubt is to point out any occasion in the third and fourth centuries
A.D. when oriental Christians other than casual travellers had an
opportunity of becoming acquainted with Buddhist institutions. But the
number of resemblances remains remarkable and some of them--such as
clerical celibacy, relics, and confession--are old institutions