Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.44

c10.44

should cause the imposition of certain restrictions on admission into the Order. The reception of those afflicted with serious bodily deformities and sicknesses was, as a matter of course, forbidden; it was the same with confirmed criminals. Then there were above all several categories of persons excluded, whose entry into the spiritual status would have involved an interference with the rights of third parties: persons who were in the royal service, especially soldiers, could not be admitted, as that would have interfered with the rights of the king as commander of the forces; debtors and slaves could not, for this would have been an infringement of the rights of their creditors and owners; sons, whose parents had not given their consent were similarly excluded. Children, too, were considered unfit for admission into the Order: a person might be received as a novice at the earliest at the age of twelve years,* and as a fully-accredited member at twenty.†