Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/243

Rh had passed away in the previous year, while observing the sixtieth 'retreat' since his ordination.

While King Asoka was engaged in the festivals connected with the dispatch of the branch of the bo-tree, another mission, headed by his grandson Suinana, arrived from Ceylon to_ beg for relics to be enshrined in the great stûpa by the island king. The request of this second mission also was granted by King Asoka, who bestowed upon his ally a dishful of holy relics, to which Sakra, lord of the Devas, added the right collar-bone of Buddha, extracted from the Chulâmani stûpa. The relics were received with extreme honour, and enshrined with due ceremony in the Thûarâtmâ stûpa, the moment being marked by a terrific earthquake. Witnessing this miracle, the people were converted in crowds, and the king's younger brother joined the Order, which in those days received an_ accession of thirty thousand monks.

THE LEGEND OF THE THIRD CHURCH COUNCIL

When, as has been related, the heretics waxed great in numbers and wrought confusion in the Church, so that for seven years the rite of confession and other solemn rites remained in abeyance, King