The Tomb of Jesus — Page 45
45 fathers, Grueber and Dorville, who returned from. China by that route in A. D. 1661, just four hundred years after Marco Polo's journey westward. They were the first Christians of. Europe who are known to have penetrated into the populous parts of Tibet; for Marco Polo's journey was, as we have stated, to the north-west, by the sources of the Oxus. Father Grueber was much struck with the extraordinary similitude he found, as well in the doctrine, as in the rituals, of. Booddhists of Lassa to those of his own Romish faith. He noticed 1st, that the dress of Lamas corresponded with that handed down to us in ancient paintings, as the dress of the Apostles. 2nd. . That the discipline of the monasteries, and of the different orders of Lamas or priests, bore the same resemblance to that of the Romish church. 3rd. . That the notion of an incarnation was common to both, so also the belief in paradise and purgatory. 4th. He remarked that they made suffrages, alms, prayers and sacrifices for the dead, like the. Roman Catholics. 5th. That they had convents, filled with monks and friars, to the number of 30,000, near Lassa, who all made three vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity, like Roman monks, besides other vows. And 6 th, they had confessors, licensed by the superior Lamas, or