Knowledge is thus definitely brought into the intellectual category, following S. Paul,[1] as savoir not connaître, wissen not kennen, and placed next to wisdom and understanding. The Reformers, in the first English Prayer Book, 1549, rather unfortunately altered the order back to that of the original, while they did not venture so far as to revert to the original six gifts: they also translated paraclitus by the weaker word 'Comforter',[2] and rather unnecessarily prefixed 'ghostly' to 'strength'; but they reinforced the prayer in 1552 with the words 'strengthen', and with the substitution also of 'daily increase in them' for 'send into them', thus securing the grace of Confirmation from being regarded as an act of instantaneous magic:
- ↑ 'To one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge': 1 Cor. 12 8.
- ↑ The force of the prayer would be improved if it were brought nearer to the true meaning, thus: 'Strengthen them with the holy Spirit, thy Paraclete; and daily increase in them the manifold gifts of grace: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of counsel and might; and make their delight to be in thee, O Lord, now and for ever.'
intellectus. Amen. Spiritum scientiae et pietatis. Amen. Spiritum consilii et fortitudinis. Amen.' Et imple eos vel eas spiritu timoris domini. Amen.' This is altered from the original prayer as it stands in the Gelasian Sacramentary (ed. H. A. Wilson, Oxford, 1894), which has scientia and pietas, in the order of the Vulgate, immediately before timor domini, and is without septiformem.
