INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. xxxiii 



especially that of the so-called * incarnate Buddhas.' Preje- 

 valsky's allusions to the subject are somewhat crude and 

 loose, insomuch that, hard matter as it is to grasp, and 

 especially to put briefly, I must make the attempt, by aid 

 of Koeppen's admirable book. 



' Lamaism,' says Koeppen, ' is the Romanism of the 

 Buddhist Church. The thorough-going development of 

 the priestly power, both in itself and in its relations to- 

 wards the laity, and, closely bound up with that, the 

 erection of an outward, visible, and sovereign Church 

 and ecclesiastical State, exercising rule over people and 

 provinces ; — these form the essential character by which 

 Romanism is distinguished from the older Christianity, 

 and by which Lamaism is distinguished from the old 

 Buddhism of India. Wherever these have in other respects 

 departed from the earlier forms, whether in religious prac- 

 tice, in discipline, or in worship, these departures have 

 been, in the one case as in the other, but as means to 

 an end.' 



The similarities between Lamaism and Roman Catho- 

 licism, moreover, extend so far beyond general character- 

 istics of this kind, run into so many particulars, are often 

 so striking, and sometimes so grotesque, that they have 

 been contemplated with some dismay and perplexity by 

 zealous missionaries of the Roman Church, from the Middle 

 Ages downwards to our own. Indeed, it has been alleged, 

 — but, be it said, it is an allegation which I have en- 

 deavoured to verify without success, — that Pere Hue him- 

 self, who had noted some of the superficial resemblances 

 with his usual neatness of expression, was, on his return to 

 Europe, astonished to find his book in consequence regis- 

 tered in the Index ProJiibitornm of an ungrateful Congre- 

 gation. 



The details of resemblance between those peculiari- 

 ties of Roman Catholicism which seem to persons out- 

 side of its pale to have so little in common with the 

 spirit of the New Testament, and the peculiarities of this 

 other system, which, perhaps under analogous influences, 

 VOL. I. b 



