§ 93. CONFniMATION. 487
of Christ; and, at least in Africa, the givi.ig of salt, as tlit^ em blem of the divine word, according to Marie ix. 50 ; Matt. v. 13 ; Col. iv. 6. Proselytes generally took also a new name, accord iug to Rev. ii. lY.
In the act of baptism itself, the candidate first, with his face coward the west, renounced Satan and all his pomp and service ; ' then, facing the east, he vowed fidelity to Christ,^ and confessed his faith in the triune God, either by rehearsing the Creed, or in answer to questions.^ Thereupon followed the threefold or the single immersion in the name of the triune God, with the calling of the name of the candidate, the deacons and deaconesses assisting. After the second anointing with the consecrated oil (confii^mation), the veil was removed, with which the heads of catechumens, in token of their spiritual minority, were covered during divine worship, and the baptized person was clothed in white garments, representing the state of regeneration, purity, and freedom. In the Western church the baptized person received at the same time a mixture of milk and honey, as a symbol of childlike innocence and as a foretaste of the communion.
§ 93. Confirmation.
Comp. the Literature of Baptism, especially Hoflino, and Zezsohavitz : Der Katecliumenat (first vol. of his System der Katechetik). Leipzig, 1863.
Confirmation, in the first centuries, was closely connected with the act of baptism as the completion of that act, especially in adults. After the cessation of proselyte baptism and the increase of infant baptism, it gradually came to be regarded a£ an independent sacrament. Even by Augustine, Leo I., and others, it is expressly called sacramenUim!' This independ-
' This was the awoTayv, or ahrenunciatio diaboli, with the words : 'Airord<Taoi;.al aoi, 'Sarava, Ka\ iraari tjJ iroyUTrj) aov Koi irdoT) t^ \aTpeia ffov. The ApOStohc Constitutions add toTs epyo is. In Tertullian : "Renunciare diabolo et pompae et angelis ejus."
" 'XvvTo.aaojj.ai ffoi, Kpiffre.
' 'OnoAoynai^, professio.
' Aug. Contra Hter. Petil. 1. ii. c. 104 (torn. ix. p. 199); Leo, Epist. 156, c. 5, Confirmation is called confirmatio from its nature ; sigillum or consignado, from it» design; chrisma or vnciio, from its matter; and impositio manumn, from its form.
438 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-5i)0.
ence wus promoted by the liierarcliical interest, especiullj \i the Latin church, where the performance of this rite is an episcopal function.
The catholic theory of confirmation is, that it seals and completes the grace of baptism, and at the same time forms in Bome sense a subjective complement to infant baptism, in which the baptized person, now grown to years of discretion, renews the vows made by his parents or sponsors in his name at his baptism, and makes himself personally responsible fur them. The latter, however, is more properly a later Protestant (Lutheran and Anglican) view. Baptism, according to the doctrine of the ancient church, admits the man into the rank of the soldiers of Christ ; confirmation endows him witli strength and courage for the spiritual warfare.
The outward form of confirmation consists in the anointing of the forehead, the nose, the ear, and the breast with the consecrated oil, or a mixture of balsam,' which symbolizes the consecration of the whole man to the spiritual priesthood ; and in the laying on of the hands of the clergyman,'' which signifies and effects the communication of the Holy Ghost for the general Christian calling.* The anointing takes precedence of the imposition of hands, in agreement with the Old Testament sacerdotal view; while in the Protestant church, wherever confirmation continues, it is entirely abandoned, and only the imposition of hands is retained.
In other respects considerable diversity prevailed in the different parts of the ancient church in regard to the usage of confirmation and the time of performing it.
In tlie Greek church every priest may administer confirmation or holy unction, and that immediately after baptism ; Init
' Xpi<Tfj.a. This was afterward, in the Latin church, the second anoiiitiny;, in distinction from that which tooii place at baptism. The Greek church, howc\ t r, which always conjoins confirmation with baptism, stopped with one anointiiic;. Comp. llahn, 1. c. p. 91 f.
' Impodtio manuum. This, however, subsequently became less prominent thai; the anointing; hence confirmation is also called simply chrisma, or sacramentum chrkmads, unctionis.
' The formula now used v: the Roman church in the act of confirmation, which is not older, however, than the twelfth century, runs : " Signo te signo crucis et con grmo t-e chrismate salutis, in nomine Patris et Filii ct Spiritus Suncti."