Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/196

 that no priest should be promoted unless he had given evidence of erudition by passing an examination and unless he had led a life consistent with the tenets he taught. Further, in order to qualify for establishing a new or an independent temple, a priest must have devoted at least thirty years to investigation of the doctrine he undertook to propagate, and twenty years' study was declared an essential preliminary to public preaching, which also was forbidden to a priest if his conduct showed any lapse from strict morality. A novice had to be of approved ability and aptitude; no man might remain in a monastery unless he spent his time in study and strictly observed the moral law; a branch temple was required under all circumstances to obey the instructions of its principal temple; disputes among priests must be referred to the head of the sect, and might thereafter be carried to Yedo on appeal; radical changes in the denomination of a sect were forbidden, and though an abbot might pass over to a different sect, it was illegal for him to transfer his whole congregation without the sanction of his feudal chief or of the Yedo authorities, — a veto sufficient in itself to prove how little importance the people attached to sectarian questions. Buddhism further became at that epoch an openly recognised instrument in the State's campaign against Christianity. To be borne on a temple register was considered necessary evidence of non-adherence to the alien creed.