Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c10.75

c10.75

∗ That the Order was allowed to have any kind of possession whatever, which was forbidden to the individual brethren, has been often asserted, but, as far I can see, quite groundlessly. The more important items of property which belonged to the Order, could not indeed by gift or division pass into the possession of individual monks ("Cullavagga," vi, 15, 16), but it was not unallowable for a monk to possess things of this description ("Mahâvagga," viii, 27, 5). Then after his death they fell into the property of the "Church of the four quarters of the world, the present and the absent," while smaller articles of a deceased monk were divided among the brethren with a special regard for those who had attended to him during his sickness. Mention, however, is made of death-bed bequests: "A nun said when dying: after my death my property is to go to the Order" ("Cull.," x, ii). Whether any other heirs but the Order of the monks or of the nuns could be nominated, is not known.