ABSTRACT

We find as early as St. Jerome a tendency to compare the life of Buddha with the Gospel story. The heretic Jovinian had been rash enough to assert that virginity was a state no higher than that of marriage, and St. Jerome to show how greatly virginity was esteemed among the Pagans refers to some of their fables of virgin births, and one of his instances is that of Buddha. Nothing is known of the source of this statement, but the attempt has been made to support it from the much later Mongol books. Senart repeats it, and says, “ le dogme, cher surtout aux Mongols, de la virginité de la mère du Bouddha, dogme dont l’existence est expressément constaté par saint Jérome, est contenu en germe dans toutes les versions de la légende”. 1