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See also:CONFIRMATION (See also:Lat. confirmatio, from confirmare, to establish, make See also:firm)
, in the See also:Christian sense, the initiatory rite of laying on of hands, supplementary to and completing See also:baptism, and especially connected with the See also:gift of the See also:Holy See also:Ghost to the See also:candidate
.
The words " confirm " and " See also:confirmation " are not used in the See also:Bible in this technical sense, which has only grown up since the 5th See also:century, and only in the Western churches of Christendom and in. their offshoots, but the rite itself has been practised in the See also:
See also:Augustine of See also:Hippo
.
Later, when the Church had come to be tolerated and patronized by the See also:state, her See also:numbers increased, the rule that fixed certain days for baptism See also:broke down, and it was impossible for bishops to attend every baptismal service
.
Thereupon See also:East and See also:West adopted different methods of See also:meeting the difficulty
.
In the East greater emphasis was laid on the See also:anointing with oil, which had See also:long been an See also:adjunct of the laying on of hands: the oil was consecrated by the bishop, and the See also:child anointed or " sealed " with it by the See also:parish See also:priest, and this was reckoned as its confirmation
.
With its baptism thus completed, the See also:infant was held to be capable of receiving holy communion
.
And to this See also:day in the Eastern Church the infant is baptized, anointed and communicated by the parish priest in the course of a single service; and thus the bishop and the laying on of hands have disappeared from the See also:ordinary service of confirmation
.
The West, on the other See also:hand, deferred confirmation, not at first till the child had reached years of discretion, though that afterwards became the theory, but from the necessities of the See also:case
.
The child was baptized at once, that it might be admitted to the Church, while the completion of its baptism was put off till it could be brought to a bishop
.
Western canons insist on both points at once; baptism is not to be deferred beyond a See also:week,
nor confirmation beyond seven years
.
And to give an See also:historical example, See also: In the See also:Catholic Apostolic Church (" Irvingites ") confirmation is called " sealing," and is administered by the "'angels." Among the See also:Roman Catholics it is reckoned one of the seven sacraments, and administered at about the age of eight: in many cases less emphasis is laid on the confirmation than on the first communion, which follows it . At the last revision of the Book of See also:Common Prayer an addition was made to the service by prefixing to it a See also:solemn renewal of their baptismal vows by the candidates; and, in the See also:teeth of history and the wording of the service, this has often been taken to be the essential feature of confirmation . Practically, the preparation of candidates for confirmation is the most important and exacting See also:duty of the See also:Anglican parish priest, as the See also:administration of the rite is the most arduous of a bishop's tasks; and after a long See also:period of slovenly neglect these duties are now generally discharged with great care: classes are formed and instruction is given for several See also:weeks before the coming of the bishop to See also:lay on hands " after the example of the Holy Apostles " (prayer in the Confirmation Service) . Of See also:late years there has been a controversy among Anglican theologians as to the exact nature of the gift conveyed through confirmation, or, in other words, whether the Holy Spirit can be said to have come to dwell in those who have been baptized but not confirmed . The view that identifies confirmation rather than baptism with the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit on the Church has had to contend against a long-established tradition, but appeals to Scripture (Acts viii . 16) and to patristic teaching . |
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