Nor can we stay to point out the many instances in which,
invading the domain of politics, the Ten-dai abbots with their armies of
monks, having made their monasteries military arsenals and issuing forth
clad in armor as infantry and cavalry, have turned the scale of battle
or dictated policies to emperors. Like the Praetorian guard of Rome or
the clerical militia in Spain, these men of keen intellect have left
their marks deep upon the social and political history of the country in
which they dwelt. They have understood thoroughly the art of practising
religion for the sake of revenue. To secure their ends, priests have
made partnerships with other sects; in order to hold Shint[=o] shrines,
they have married to secure heirs and make office hereditary; and
finally in the Purification of 1870, when the Riy[=o]bu system was blown
to the winds by the Japanese Government, not a few priests of this sect
became laymen, in order to keep both office and emolument in the
purified Shint[=o] shrines.
The Sect of the True Word.
It is probable that the conquest and obliteration of Shint[=o] might
have been accomplished by some priest or priests of the Ten-dai sect,
had such a genius as K[=o]b[=o] been found in its household; but this
great achievement was reserved for the man who introduced into Japan the
Shin-gon Shu, or Sect of the True Word.
Pages:
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326