CONFIRMATION
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CONFIRMATION
the first to distinguish clearly the three acts of initia-
tion: "After having come out of the laver, we are
anointed thoroughly with a blessed unction [periingi-
muT benedictA unctione] according to the ancient rule.
. . . The unction runs bodily over us, but profits spir-
itually. . . . Next to this, the hand is laid upon us
through the blessing, calling upon and inviting the
Holy Spirit [dehinc manus imponitur per henedictionem
advocans et invitans Spiritum Sanctum]." Again (De
resurr. carnis, n. 8): "The flesh is washed that the
soul may be made stainless. The flesh is anointed
[urujitiir] that the soul may be consecrated. The flesh
is sealed [signatur] that the soul may be fortified. The
flesh is overshadowed by the imposition of hands that
the soul may be illuminated by the Spirit. The flesh
is fed by the Body and Blood of Christ that the soul
may be fattened of God." And (.Adv. Marcion., i, n.
14): "But He [Chri.st], indeed even at the present
time, neither rejected the water of the Creator with
which He washes clean His own, nor the oil with which
He anoints His own; . . . nor the bread with which He
makes present [reprwsentat] His own very body, needing
even in His own sacraments the beggarly elements of
the Creator. " TertuUian also tells how the devil, imi-
tating the rites of Christian initiation, sprinkles some
and signs them as his soldiers on the forehead {signal
illic in jronlibus milites suos — De Prtescript., xl).
Another great African Father speaks with equal clearness of confirmation. " Two sacraments ", says St. Cyprian, "preside over the perfect birth of a Chris- tian, the one regenerating the man, which is baptism, the other communicating to him the Holy Spirit" (Epist. lx.xii). " Anointed also must he be who is bap- tized, in order that having received the chrism, that is the unction, he may be anointed of God" (Epist. Ixx). " It was not fitting that [the Samaritans] should be baptized again, but only what was wanting, that was done by Peter and John ; that prayer being made for them and hands imposed, the Holy Ghost should be invoked and poured forth upon them. Which also is now done among us; so that they who are baptized in the Church are presented to the bishops [prelates] of the Church, and by our prayer and imposition of hands, they receive the Holy Ghost and are perfected T\ith the seal [signaculo] of the Lord" (Epist. Ixxiii). "More- over, a person is not born by the imposition of hands, when he receives the Holy Ghost, but in baptism ; that being already bom he may receive the Spirit, as was done in the first man Adam. For God first formed him and breathed into his face the breath of life. For the Spirit cannot be received except there is first one to receive it. But the birth of Christians is in bap- tism" (Epist. Ixxiv). Pope St. Cornelius complains that Novatus, after having been baptized on his sick- bed, "did not receive the other things which ought to be partaken of according to the rule of the Church — to be sealed, that is, by the bishop [(TcppayurB^vai. Wh toO {ttih KhTTov] and not having received this, how did he receive the Holy Ghost?" (Euseb., H. E., vi. xliii). In the fourth and fifth centuries the te.'stinionifs are naturally more frequent and clear. St. Hilary s]>raks of "the sacraments of baptism and of the S|)ii-it; and he says that " the favour and gift of the Holy Spirit were, when the work of the Law ceased, to be given by the imposition of hands and prayer" (In Matt., c. iv, c. xiv). St. Cyril of Jerusalem is the great Eastern au- thority on the subject, and his testimony is all the more important because he devoted several of his "Ca- techcses" to the instruction of catechumens in the three sacraments which they were to receive on being initiated into the Christian mysteries. Nothing could be clearer than his language: "To you also afteryou had come tip from the pool of the sacred streams, was given the chrism [unction], the embl(>m of that where- with Christ was anointed ; and this is the Holy Ghost. . . . This holy ointment is no longer plain ointment nor so to say common, after the invocation, but
Christ's gift; and by the presence of His Godhead, it
causes in us the Holy Ghost. This symbolically
anoints thy forehead, and thy other senses; and the
body indeed is anointed with visible ointment, but the
soul is sanctified by the Holy and life-givmg Spirit. . . .
To you not in figure but in truth, because ye were in
truth anointed by the Spirit" (Cat. Myst., iii). And in
the seventeenth catechesis on the Holy Ghost, he
speaks of the visit of Peter and John to communicate to
the Samaritans the gift of the Holy Ghost by prayer
and the imposition of hands. " Forget not the Holy
Ghost", he says to the catechumens, "at the moment
of your enlightenment; He is ready to mark your soul
with His seal [atppaylaai] ... He will give you the
heavenly and divine seal [(Kppa-yh] which makes the
devils tremble ; He will arm you for the fight ; He will
give you strength." Christ, says St. Optatus of Mi-
leve, " went down into the water, not that there was
what could be cleansed in God, but the water ought to
go before the oil that was to supervene, in order to ini-
tiate and in order to fill up the mysteries of baptism ;
having been washed whilst He was held in John's
hands, the order of the mystery is followed. . . . Heaven
is opened whilst the Father anoints; the spiritual oil in
the image of the Dove immediately descended and
rested on His head, and poured on it ofl, whence He
took the name of Christ, when He was anointed by
God the Father ; to whom that the imposition of hands
might not seem to have been wanting, the voice of God
is heard from a cloud, saying. This is my Son, of whom
I have thought well ; hear ye him " (De schism. Donat.,
I, iv, n. 7).
St. Ephraem Syrus speaks of "the Sacraments of Chrism and Baptism" (Serm. xxvii); "oil also for a most sweet unguent, wherewith they who already have been initiated by baptism are sealed, and put on the armour of the Holy Spirit" (In Joel.) St. Ambrose addressing the catechumens who had already been baptized and anointed, says : " Thou hast received the spiritual seal, the Spirit of wisdom and of understand- ing. . . . Keep what thou hast received. God the Fa- ther has sealed thee; Christ the Lord has confirmed thee; and the Spirit has given the pledge in thy heart, as thou hast learned from what is read in the Apostle" (De myst. , c. vii, n. 42). The writer of the " De Sacra- mentis" (Inter Op. Ambros., lib. Ill, c. ii, n. 8) says that after the baptismal immersion " the spiritual seal {signuculum] follows . . . when at the invocation of the bishop [.sr((cr(/o;is] the Holy Ghost is infused". The Coinicil of Elvira decreed that those who had been baptized privately in case of necessity should after- wards be taken to the bishop " to be made perfect by the imposition of hands" (can. xxxviii, Labbe, I, 974). And the Council of Laodicea: "Those who have been converted from the heresies . . . are not to be received before they anathematize every heresy . . . and then after that, those who were called faithful among them, having learned the creeds of the faith, and having been anointed with the holy chrism, shall so communicate of the holy mystery" (can. vii). "Those who are en- lightened must after baptism be anointed with the heavenly chrism, and be partakers of the kingdom of Christ " (can. xlviii, Labbe, I, col. 1497). The Council of Constantinople (381): "We receive the .Arians, and Macedonians . . . upon their giving in written state- ments and anathematizing every heresy. . . . Having first sealed them with the holy ointment upon the fore- head, and eyes, and nostrils, and mouth, and ears, and sealing theni we say, 'The seal of the gift of the Holy Ghost'" (can. vii, Labbe, II, col. 952). St. Augustine explains how the coming of the Holy Ghost was ac- companied with the gift of tongues in the first ages of the Church. "These were miracles suited to the times. ... Is it now expected that they upon whom hands are laid, should speak with tongues? Or when we imposed our hand upon these chiUiren, did each of you wait to see whether they would speak with ton-
