wrangling brothers of
the monastery of Kosamb[=i], he left them, saying, "'Truly these fools
are infatuate; it is no easy task to administer instruction to them,'
and," it is added simply, "he rose from his seat and went away."[33]

The significance of the church organization in the development of
Buddhism should not be under-estimated. Contrasted with the lack of an
organized ecclesiastical corporation among the Brahmans the Buddhistic
synod, or congregation, Sangha, exerted a great influence. In
different places there would be a park set apart for the Buddhist
monks. Here they had their monastery buildings, here they lived during
the rainy season, from this place out as a centre the monks radiated
through the country, not as lone mendicants, but as members of a
powerful fraternity. To this monastery came gifts, receipts of all
kinds that never would have been bestowed upon individuals.
Undoubtedly organization did much for the spread of Buddhism. Yet we
think its influence has been emphasized almost too much by some
scholars, or rather the effect has been represented as too radical.
For the monasteries, as represented by tradition, with their immense
wealth and political importance as allies of the heretical kings of
the East, are plainly of secondary growth. If one limit their national
and political importance to a period one or two hundred years after
the Master's time, he will not err in attributing to this cause, as
does Barth, the reason for the rapid rise and supremacy of Buddhism
over India. But the first beginnings of the institution were small,
and what is to be sought in the beginning of Buddhism is rather
the reason why the monasteries became popular, and what was the hold
which Buddha had upon the masses, and which induced the formation of
this great engine of religious war. And when this first question is
raised the answer must still be that the banding together of the monks
was not the cause but the effect of the popularity of Buddhism. The
first monasteries, as Barth well says, were only assemblies of pious
men who formed a spiritual band of religious thinkers, of men who
united themselves into one body to the end that they might study
righteousness, learning together how to imitate the Master in holiness
of living. But the members converted soon became so many that formal
assemblies became a necessity to settle the practical disputes and
theoretical questions which were raised by the new multitude of