domestic life and he admitted that they were as capable as men of attaining the highest stages of spiritual and intellectual progress.  This is also attested by the Pitakas, for some of the most important and subtle arguments and expositions are put into the mouths of nuns[544].  Indeed the objections raised by the Buddha, though emphatic, are as arguments singularly vague and the eight rules for nuns which he laid down and compared to an embankment built to prevent a flood seem dictated not by the danger of immorality but by the fear that women might aspire to the management of the order and to be the equals or superiors of monks.

So far as we can tell, his fears were not realized.  The female branch of the order showed little vigour after its first institution but it does not appear that it was a cause of weakness or corruption.  Women were influential in the infancy of Buddhism, but we hear little of the nuns when this first ardour was over.  We may surmise that it was partly due to personal devotion to Gotama and also that there was a growing tendency to curtail the independence allowed to women by earlier Aryan usage.  The daughters of Asoka play some part in the narratives of the conversion of Ceylon and Nepal but after the early days of the Church female names are not prominent:  subsequently the succession became interrupted and, as nuns can receive ordination only from other nuns and not from monks, it could not be restored.  The so-called nuns of the present day are merely religious women corresponding to the sisters of Protestant Churches, but are not ordained members of an order.  But the right of women to enjoy the same spiritual privileges as men is not denied in theory and in practice Buddhism has done nothing to support or commend the system of the harem or zenana.  In some Buddhist countries such as Burma and Siam women enjoy almost the same independence as in Europe.  In China and Japan their status is not so high, but one period when Buddhism was powerful in Japan (800-1100 A.D.) was marked by the number of female writers and among the Manchus and Tibetans women enjoy considerable freedom and authority.

Those who follow the law of the Buddha but are not members of the Sangha are called Upasakas[545], that is worshippers or adherents.  The word may be conveniently rendered by laymen although the distinction between clergy and laity, as understood in most parts of Europe, does not quite correspond to the distinction between Bhikkhus and Upasakas.  European clergy are often thought of as interpreters of the Deity, and whenever they have had the power they have usually claimed the right to supervise and control the moral or even the political administration of their country.  Something similar may be found in Lamaism, but it forms no part of Gotama’s original institution nor of the Buddhist Church as seen to-day in Burma, Siam and Ceylon.  The members of the Sangha are not priests or mediators.  They have joined a confraternity