| Here I want to talk about the relations of Church and | | | | of Tibet, they had no Pope and no hierarchy. They |
| State. These are simplest in Buddhism, which teaches | | | | produced no à'Beckets or Hildebrands and no |
| that the truth is one, that all men ought to follow it and | | | | Inquisition. They did not quarrel with science but |
| that all good kings should honour and encourage it. This | | | | monopolized it. |
| is also the Christian position but Buddhism has almost | | | | The views prevalent in China and Japan as to the |
| always been tolerant and has hardly ever | | | | relations of Church and State are almost the antipodes |
| countenanced the doctrine that error should be | | | | of those described. In those countries it is the hardly |
| suppressed by force. Buddhism does not claim to | | | | dissembled theory of the official world that religion is a |
| cover the whole field of religion as understood in | | | | department of government and that there should be |
| Europe: if people like to propitiate spirits in the hope of | | | | regulations for gods and worship, just as there are for |
| obtaining wealth and crops, it permits them to do so. | | | | ministers and etiquette. If we say that religion is |
| In Japan and Tibet Buddhism has played a more | | | | identified with the government in Tibet and forms an |
| secular role than in other countries, analogous to the | | | | imperium super imperium in India, we may compare its |
| struggles of the medieval European church for | | | | position in the Far East to native states under British |
| temporal authority. In Japan the great monasteries | | | | rule. |
| very nearly became the chief military as well as the | | | | There is no interference with creeds provided they |
| chief political power and this danger was averted only | | | | respect ethical and social conventions: interesting |
| by the destruction of Hieizan and other large | | | | doctrines and rites are appreciated: the Government |
| establishments in the sixteenth century. | | | | accepts and rewards the loyal co-operation of the |
| What was prevented in Japan did actually happen in | | | | Buddhist and Taoist priesthoods but maintains the right |
| Tibet, for the monasteries became stronger than any | | | | to restrict their activity should it take a wrong political |
| of the competing secular factions and the principal | | | | turn or should an excessive increase in the number of |
| sect set up an ecclesiastical government singularly like | | | | monks seem a public danger. The Chinese Imperial |
| the Papacy. In southern countries, such as Burma and | | | | Government successfully claimed the strangest |
| Ceylon, Buddhism made no attempt to interfere in | | | | powers of ecclesiastical discipline, since it promoted |
| politics. | | | | and degraded not only priests but deities. |
| Buddhism and Hinduism both have the idea that the | | | | In both China and Japan there has often been a strong |
| monk or priest is a person who in virtue of ordination | | | | current of feeling in the official classes against |
| or birth lives on a higher level than others. He may | | | | Buddhism but on the other hand it often had the |
| teach and do good but irrespective of that it is the | | | | support of both emperors and people, and princes not |
| duty of the laity to support the priesthood. This doctrine | | | | infrequently joined the clergy, especially when it was |
| is preached by Hinduism in a stronger form than by | | | | desirable for them to live in retirement. Confucianism |
| Buddhism. The intellectual superiority of the Brahmans | | | | and Shintoism, which are ethical and ceremonial rather |
| as a caste was sufficiently real to ensure its | | | | than doctrinal, have been in the past to some extent a |
| acceptance and in politics they had the good sense to | | | | law to the governments of China and Japan, or more |
| rule by serving, to be ministers and not kings. In theory | | | | accurately an aspect of those governments. But for |
| and to a considerable extent in practice, the Brahmans | | | | many centuries Far Eastern statesmen have rarely |
| and their gods are not an imperium in imperio but an | | | | regarded Buddhism and Taoism as more than |
| imperium super imperium. The position was possible | | | | interesting and legitimate activities, to be encouraged |
| only because, unlike the Papacy and unlike the Lamas | | | | and regulated like educational and scientific institutions. |