Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/210

JAPAN this last mood. Partly from sincere belief, partly because the presence of a prince or noble in a cloister contributed materially to its wealth and reputation, the priests preached the doctrine of abandoning this sinful world and devoting life to heaven's service. Their exhortations prevailed even with emperors. When a great personage took the tonsure, he presented usually a sum of money and often a tract of land to the temple which received him, and the priests obtained similar acknowledgment for preserving and praying before the cenotaphs of the dead. The temples were not merely edifices for worship like Occidental churches. In the vicinity of the sacred structure where the image of Buddha was enshrined, there stood extensive buildings forming the residences of the priests, and containing suites of chambers where illustrious parishioners found accommodation on ceremonial occasions. The greater the prosperity of the temple, the more numerous and magnificent these buildings, so that, in some cases, a monastery constituted a little town inhabited by thousands of monks. Living practically beyond the pale of the civil authority, these communities of priests soon began to form military organisations, which were used at first for purposes of self-protection, but ultimately for all kinds of lawlessness and aggression. Formidable bands of halberdiers would issue from one monastery to attack another, or even to raid and burn 184