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BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 405 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT , one of the most popular and widely disseminated of See also:

medieval religious romances, which owes its importance and See also:interest to the fact that it is a Christianized version of the See also:story of Gautama Siddharta, the See also:Buddha, with which it agrees not only in broad outline but in essential details. The See also:Christian story first appears in See also:Greek among the See also:works of See also:John (q.v.) of See also:Damascus, who flourished in the See also:early See also:part of the 8th See also:century, and who, before he adopted the monastic See also:life, had held high See also:office at the See also:court of the See also:caliph See also:Abu Ja'far al-Mansur, as his See also:father See also:Sergius is said to have done before him. The outline of the Greek story is as follows:—St See also:Thomas had converted the See also:people of See also:India, and of ter the eremitic life originated in See also:Egypt, many See also:Indians adopted it. But a powerful See also:pagan See also:king arose who hated and persecuted the Christians, especially the ascetics. After this king, Abenner by name, had See also:long been See also:child-less, a boy greatly desired and matchless in beauty, was See also:born to him and received the name of Josaphat. The king, in his joy, See also:summons astrologers to predict the child's destiny. They foretell See also:glory and prosperity beyond those of all his predecessors. One See also:sage, most learned of all, assents, but intimates that the See also:scene of this glory will be, not the paternal See also:kingdom, but another in-finitely more exalted, and that the child will adopt the faith which his father persecutes. The boy shows a thoughtful and devout turn. King Abenner, troubled by this and•by the remembrance of the prediction, selects a secluded See also:city, in which he causes a splendid See also:palace to be built, where his son should abide, attended only by tutors and servants in the See also:flower of youth and See also:health. No stranger was to have See also:access, and the boy was to be cognizant of none of the sorrows of humanity, such as poverty, disease, old See also:age or See also:death, but only of what was pleasant, so that he should have no inducement to think of the future life; nor was he ever to hear a word of See also:Christ and His See also:religion. See also:Prince Josaphat grows up in this seclusion, acquires all kinds of knowledge and exhibits singular endowments.

At length, on his urgent See also:

prayer, the king reluctantly permits him to pass the limits of the palace, after having taken all precautions to keep painful See also:objects out of sight. But through some neglect of orders, the prince one See also:day encounters a leper and a See also:blind See also:man, and asks of his attendants with See also:pain and astonishment what such a spectacle should mean. These, they tell him, are ills to which man is liable. Shall all men have such ills? he asks. And in the end he returns See also:home in deep depression. Another day he falls in with a decrepit old man, and stricken with dismay at the sight, renews his questions and hears for the first See also:time of death. And in how many years, continues the prince, does this See also:fate befall man? and must he expect death as inevitable? Is there no way of See also:escape? No means of eschewing this wretched See also:state of decay? The attendants reply as may be imagined; and Josaphat goes home more pensive than ever, dwelling on the certainty of death and on what shall be thereafter. At this time Barlaam, an eremite of See also:great sanctity and know-ledge, dwelling in the See also:wilderness of Sennaritis, divinely warned, travels to India in the disguise of a See also:merchant, and gains access to Prince Josaphat, to whom he imparts the Christian See also:doctrine and commends the monastic life. Suspicion arises and Barlaam departs.

But all attempts to shake the prince's convictions fail. As a last resource the king sends for Theudas, a magician, who removes the prince's attendants and substitutes seductive girls; but all their blandishments are resisted through prayer. The king abandons these efforts and associates his son in the See also:

government. The prince uses his See also:power to promote.religion, and every-thing prospers in his hands. At last Abenner himself yields to the faith, and after some years of penitence See also:dies. Josaphat surrenders the kingdom to a friend called Barachias and departs for the wilderness. After two years of painful See also:search and much buffeting by demons he finds Barlaam. The latter dies, and Josaphat survives as a See also:hermit many years. King Barachias afterwards arrives, and transfers the bodies of the two See also:saints to India, where they are the source of many miracles. Now this story is, mutatis mutandis, the story of Buddha. It will suffice to recall the Buddha's See also:education in a secluded palace, his encounter successively with a decrepit old man, with a man in mortal disease and poverty, with a dead See also:body, and, lastly, with a religious recluse radiant with See also:peace and dignity, and his consequent See also:abandonment of his princely state for the ascetic life in the See also:jungle. Some of the correspondences in the two stories are most See also:minute, and even the phraseology, in which some of the details of Josaphat's See also:history are described, almost literally renders the See also:Sanskrit of the Lalita Vistara.

More than that, thevery word Joasaph or Josaphat (Arabic, Yudasatf) is a corruption of Bodisat due to a confusion between the Arabic letters for Y and B, and Bodisatva is a See also:

common See also:title for the Buddha in the many See also:birth-stories that clustered See also:round the life of the sage. There are See also:good rtasons for thinking that the Christian story did not originate with John of Damascus, and a strong See also:case has been made out by Zotenberg that it reflects the religious struggles and disputes of the early 7th century in See also:Syria, and that the Greek See also:text was edited by a See also:monk of See also:Saint Saba named John, his version being the source of all later texts and See also:translations. How much older than this the Christian story is, we cannot tell, but it is interesting to remember that it embodies in the See also:form of a speech the " See also:Apology " of the 2nd-century philosopher See also:Aristides. After its See also:appearance among the writings of John of Damascus, it was incorporated with See also:Simeon Metaphrastes' Lives of the Saints (c. 950), and thence gained great See also:vogue, being translated into almost every See also:European See also:language. A famous Icelandic version was made for Prince Hakon early in the 13th century. In the See also:East, too, it took on new life and See also:Catholic missionaries freely used it in their propaganda. Thus a Tagala (Philippine) See also:translation was brought out at See also:Manila in 1712. Besides furnishing the early playwrights with material for See also:miracle plays, it has supplied episodes and apologues to many a writer, including See also:Boccaccio, John See also:Gower and See also:Shakespeare. See also:Rudolph of See also:Ems about 1220 See also:expanded it into a long poem of 16,000 lines, celebrating the victory of Christian over See also:heathen teaching. The heroes of the See also:romance have even attained saintly See also:rank. Their names were inserted by Petrus de Natalibus in his Catalogus Sanctorum (c.

1380), and See also:

Cardinal See also:Baronius included them in the See also:official Martyrologium authorized by See also:Sixtus V.(1585-159o) under the date of the 27th of See also:November. In the Orthodox Eastern See also:Church " the See also:holy Josaph, son of Abener, king of India " is allotted the 26th of See also:August. Thus unwittingly Gautama the Buddha has come to official recognition as a saint in two great branches of the Catholic Church, and no one will say that he does not deserve the See also:honour. A church dedicated Divo Josaphat in See also:Palermo is probably not the only one of its See also:kind. The identity of the stories of Buddha and St Josaphat was re-cognized by the historian of Portuguese India, Dipgo do Couto (1542-1616), as may be seen in his history (Dec. v. liv. vi. cap. 2). In See also:modern times the honour belongs to Laboulaye (1859), See also:Felix Liebrecht in 186o putting it beyond dispute. Subsequent researches have been carried out by Zotenberg, Max See also:Muller, Rhys Davids, Braunholtz and See also:Joseph See also:Jacobs, who published his Barlaam and Josaphat in 1896. See also:BAR-LE-DUC, a See also:town of See also:north-eastern See also:France, See also:capital of the See also:department of See also:Meuse, 50 M. E.S.E. of Chalons-sur-See also:Marne, on the See also:main See also:line of the Eastern railway between that town and See also:Nancy. Pop. (1906) 14,624.

The See also:

lower, more modern and busier part of the town extends along a narrow valley, shut in by wooded or See also:vine-clad hills, and is traversed throughout its length by the Ornain, which is crossed by several See also:bridges. It is limited towards the north-east by the See also:canal from the Marne to the See also:Rhine, on the See also:south-See also:west by a small See also:arm of the Ornain, called the Canal See also:des Usines, on the See also:left See also:bank of which the upper town (Ville Haute) is situated. The Ville Haute, which is reached by staircases and steep narrow thoroughfares, is intersected by a long, quiet See also:street, bordered by houses of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. In this See also:quarter are the remains (16th century) of the See also:chateau of the See also:dukes of Bar, dismantled in 167o, the old See also:clock-See also:tower, and the See also:college, built in the latter See also:half of the 16th century. Its church of St See also:Pierre (14th and 15th centuries) contains a skilfully-carved effigy in See also:white See also:stone of a half-decayed See also:corpse, the See also:work of Ligier Richier (1500-1572), a See also:pupil of Michelangelo—erected to the memory of Rene de Chalons (d. 1544). The lower town contains the official buildings and two or three churches, but these are of little interest. Among the statues of distinguished natives of the town is one to See also:Charles See also:Nicolas See also:Oudinot, whose See also:house serves as the hotel-de-ville. Bar-le-Duc has tribunals of first instance and of See also:commerce, a See also:board of See also:trade arbitrators, a lycee, a training-college for girls, a chamber of commerce, a See also:branch of the Bank of France and an See also:art museum. The See also:industries of the town include See also:iron-See also:founding and the manufacture of machinery, corsets, See also:hosiery, See also:flannel goods, jam and See also:wall-See also:paper, and See also:brewing, See also:cotton See also:spinning and See also:weaving, See also:leather-dressing and See also:dyeing. See also:Wine, See also:timber and iron are important articles of commerce. Bar-le-Duc was at one time the seat of the countship, later duchy, of Bar, the history of which is given below.

Though probably of See also:

ancient origin, the town was unimportant till the loth century when it became the See also:residence of the See also:counts.

End of Article: BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT

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