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BUDDHISM, ITS INFLUENCE ON WESTERN
LITERATURE AND ART.

ABSTRACT OF THE REV. S. BEAL'S PAPER.

(Read February 12th, 1874.)

THE lecturer remarked that Buddhism as a religious system embraced more adherents than any other form of religious belief. It was therefore deserving of study and attention. In China the Buddhist literature was translated from Sanscrit, and was of entirely foreign growth. Buddhism might be regarded as a religion. Under this aspect it taught a pure morality, and enforced strict rules of self-government. It regarded the world as full of sorrow, and endeavoured to find a remedy and escape. By a life of purity Buddhism taught its believers that they might obtain peace, and find rest. This was the simplest form of Nirvâna. As a philosophy Buddhism taught that it was possible to put ourselves en rapport with a force which it calls Bôdhe. This was psychic force. By union with this a man transcended the laws which trammel his

body and mind. He was able to rise in the air; a miraculous light shone from his head, and he could, whilst in the ecstatic state, apprehend truth and know what his senses could never reveal. This was pure spiritualism. In the highest, or last development, Buddhism asserted that all life should be finally absorbed or rejoined to the one life, and all around return to its true or normal condition of pure essence or entity. Its influence on the West was perceived in its presence at Alexandria among the NeoPlatonists, and also in the spirit of asceticism which at an early period filled the Thebaid with hermits; also in the tales and stories which reached the West probably through Palmyra; and finally, in the Gothic architecture, which undoubtedly was allied to the architecture of Buddhist Châitya Caver and Toper. The subject (Mr. Beal contended) at least deserved study, and would soon command the attention of wise and candid men throughout the world.

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Archway, Franciscan Convent in Woolster Street, Plymouth.

THE PARISH AND VICARS OF ST. ANDREW,
PLYMOUTH.

BY J. BROOKING ROWE, F.L.S.,

Member of the Royal Archæological Institute.

(Read February 19th, 1874.)

THE

paper I am about to read is in continuation of a former one on the "Ecclesiastical History of Old Plymouth." In that paper I traced the history of the church and parish of Sutton up to the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, and gave an account of the various religious orders established in the town.

To refer briefly to the origin of the parish of Sutton. Although two Suttons are mentioned in Doomsday Book, we cannot be certain that these, which are said to be held by the king and by William Hostiarius, are in the same neighbourhood. Indeed, it is probable they were not; for in the reign of Henry I. the crown granted to the Valletort family "Sutton," without mentioning it as a part, or giving it any distinctive name. It was in 1121 that Warelwast founded the Augustinian house at Plympton, and we find the Valletorts benefactors to the priory soon after. Mr. Worth appears to consider that the old collegiate lands passed to the new foundation, but I can find no evidence of this; and as the grant to the Valletorts, just mentioned, refers to the whole of Sutton, it appears as if the possessions of the priory came by gift from them. But still it would seem that the monastery must have had some interest in the place; for in the dispute as to the presentation to the vicarage of Sutton, between Prior Geoffry and his successors and the then representatives of the family of Valletort, the former were able to establish their claim by proving the previous exercise of the right, implying that they had an interest in the locality of some kind. Later on the division of Sutton into three is found — Sutton Valletort, Sutton Prior, and Sutton Ralf, but all forming one parish. Whether the name of the parish was St. Andrew or

* Hist. Plym. p. 143.

not, we do not know. The church, in the Bishops' Registers and in early documents, is always mentioned as Sutton; but that it was originally dedicated to St. Andrew we may safely assume, as we find it so called in 1291 in the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV.

The parish in which that church was situated, whether called after the town, Sutton, or after the church, St. Andrew, had not the restricted limits which the present ecclesiastical district of St. Andrew has. Stretching far away on the north to the boundaries of the parishes of Tamerton and Egg Buckland, it comprised the greater portion of the country enclosed by the sea on the south, and the rivers Plym and Tamar on the east and west. The spiritual care of the people of this large area fell upon the priest of Sutton. To the Church of St. Andrew the people in the outlying parts resorted for the provision of their religious wants. From the most distant parts of the parish the inhabitants were obliged to bring their children for baptism, their daughters for marriage, and their dead for burial, to the mother church, although chapels, served from it, were provided in their own immediate localities.

*

Up to 1482 those parishioners living in that part of the parish called St. Budox, now St. Budeaux, were compelled so to resort to St. Andrew. In that year, however, under the circumstances before detailed, and therefore to be only briefly referred to here, special privileges were obtained. A petition, signed by many inhabitants, was presented to Bishop Courtenay at his visitation, and on which he afterwards issued a decree granting the required benefits under certain conditions. The parishioners carried out their part of the decree. They enclosed the cemetery, and built the house for their priest. The position of the old church and cemetery we know, but nothing more. They were situated close down to the river (nearer to it then than now, on account of the recent reclamation of foreshore), close to the present farm of Lower Ernesettle. Some of the foundations of the present farm-buildings rest on walls unquestionably those of the ancient chapel. The site was known as the Churchyard; but the hedges around have been altered of late years, and no clue whatever as to the extent either of the church or chapel, or churchyard, can now, I am afraid, be obtained. Remains of old build

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