Barlam and Iosaphat

Barlam and Iosaphat is a 15th-century Middle English prose version of the popular Latin vita of Barlaam et Josaphat, a Christianized account of an idolatrous Latin king who was led to the faith by his mentor, Barlam. In addition to the traditional accounts associated with Buddha’s life–the prediction at birth, the four encounters, the temptation by women, the great renunciation–this Middle English text includes the ten apologues generally associated with the Western versions.