^140:1 The Japanese and Chinese Vinaya sects afterwards adopted Vairoc'ana as their central deity, and it was for this reason that they were forced to join themselves with the Shingon. But Vairoc'ana and Amitabha are in idea identical. They both represent, in idea at least, the "Son of Righteousness with healing in His wings," preached to the Far East by Gnostics who used Buddhist terminology.

^142:1 In the popular Buukkyogimon Kaitoshu, vol. iii., there is an exposition of several of these short "spell-sutras."

^142:2 This I touch on again in my chapter on Heian Buddhism.

^143:1 The annexed quotation may possibly throw some light on these Buddhist ordinations. The reader will remember that the period with which we are now dealing was the period when Europe was being overrun by barbarian hordes from Central Asia. Eunapius, "Historia," pp. 82-83 (in "Scriptores Historiae Byzantinae"), has an interesting paragraph relating to this subject. It deals with the year 376, and speaks about the Goths. If these are to be identified with the Yuetchi, they may (must?) have been Buddhists before entering Europe. (See Flinders Petrie on "Migrations" in Journal of Anthropological Inst.)

In the above extract, note (i) that the religion is ta patria iera, a faith brought with them from Central Asia; (ii) that the institution of quasi-bishops seems to be spoken of as a recent innovation, and that it corresponds in point of time with what we know of Chinese ordinations'; (iii) that black (faios) suits what we know of Shinshu and Jodo monks; (iv) that it corresponds with what we know from other sources about the confusion between Buddhist arhats and Christian "saints." The object of the ruse was to deceive the Romans into believing that the barbarians were already Christians. The work of Ulfilas came later, at any rate in its influence, and his institutions could not be described as being "ancestral rites" of the Goths.