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=Later History of Buddhism.=--Thus was established about 500 years
before Christ a religion of an entirely new sort. It is a religion
without a god and without rites; it ordains only that one shall love
his neighbor and become better; annihilation is offered as supreme
recompense. But, for the first time in the history of the world, it
preaches self-renunciation, the love of others, equality of mankind,
charity and tolerance. The Brahmans made bitter war upon it and
extirpated it in India. Missionaries carried it to the barbarians in
Ceylon, in Indo-China, Thibet, China, and Japan. It is today the
religion of about 500,000,000[26] people.
=Changes in Buddhism.=--During these twenty centuries Buddhism has
undergone change. Buddha had himself formed communities of monks.
Those who entered these renounced their family, took the vow of
poverty and chastity; they had to wear filthy rags and beg their
living. These religious rapidly multiplied; they founded convents in
all Eastern Asia, gathered in councils to fix the doctrine, proclaimed
dogmas and rules. As they became powerful they, like the Brahmans,
came to esteem themselves as above the rest of the faithful.
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