Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/263

 CONFIRMATION

221

CONFIRMATION

the Church." (Pourrat, La theologie sacramen- taire, p. 3Ki.) That is to say, in the case of confirma- tion, (Christ bestowed upon the Apostles the power of giving the Holy Ghost, but He did not specify the ceremony by which this gift should be conferred ; the Apostles and the Church, acting under Divine guid- ance, fixed upon the imposition of hands, the anoint- ing, and the appropriate words. Further information on this important and difficult question will be found in the article S.\cr.\ments.

III. Confirmation in the British and Irish Churches. — In his famous "Confession" (ed. Whitley Stokes, Vita Tripartita, II, 372, 368; cf. p. clxxxiv) St. Patrick refers to himself as the first to administer confirmation in Ireland. The term here used (populi consummalio; cf. St. Cyprian, ut signaculo dominico consummcntur, Ep. Ixxiii, no. 9, ed. Hartel, p. 785) is rendered by nocosmad, cos7>mit {confirmabat, con- firmnlio) in a very ancient Irish homily on St. Patrick found in the fourteenth century, "Leabar Breac" (op. cit., II, 484). In the same work (II, 5.50-51) a Latin preface to an ancient Irish chronological tract says: Debemus scire quo tempore Patricius sarictus epi- scopus atque praceptor maximus Scotorum inchoaril . . . sanctificare et consecrare . . . et consummare, i. e. " we ought to know at what time Patrick, the holy bish- op and greatest teacher of the Irish, began to come to Ireland ... to sanctify and ordain and confirm". From the same "Leabar Breac" Sylvester Malone quotes the following account of confirmation which exhibits an accurate belief oh the part of the Irish Church: "Confirmation or chrism is the perfection of baptism, not that they are not distinct and different. Confirmation could not be given in the absence of bap- tism; nor do the effects of baptism depend on con- firmation, nor are they lost till death. Just as the natural birth takes place at once so does the spiritual regeneration in like manner, but it finds, however, its perfection in confirmation" (Church History of Ire- land, Dublin, 1880, I, p. 149). It is in the light of these venerable texts, which quite probably antedate the year 1000, that we must interpret the well-known reference of St. Bernard to the temporary disuse of confirmation in Ireland (Vita Malachia>), c. iv, in Acta SS., Nov., II, 145). He relates that St. Malachy (b. about 1095) introduced the practices of the Holy Ro- man Church into all the churches of Ireland, and men- tions especially "the most wholesome usage of confes- sion, the sacrament of confirmation and the contract of marriage, all of which were either unknown or ne- glected". These Malachy restored (de novo inalitnit). The Welsh laws of Hywcl Dda suppose for children of seven years and upwards a religious ceremony of lay- ing on of hands that can hardly be anything else than confirmation. Moreover, the Welsh term for this sac- rament, liedydd Esgob, i. e. bishop's baptism, implies th.at it was always perfonned by a bishop and was a complement {consummalio) of baptism (J. Williams, Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Cymri, London, 1844, p. 281). This writer also quotes (ibid.) his country- man Gerald Barry for the fact that the whole people of Wales were more eager than any other nation to ob- tain episcopal confirmation and the chrism by which the Spirit was given.

The practice in England has already been illustrated by facts from the life of St. Cuthbert. One of the old- est ordines, or proscriptions for administering the sac- rament, is found in the Pontifical of Egbert, Arch- bishop of York (d. 760). The rite is practically the same as that u.sed at present; the form, however, is: " receive the sign of the holy cross with the chrism of salvation in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting." Among the nibrics are: moilo ligandi sunt, i. e. the head of the person confirmed is to be bound with a fillet; and modo cnmmunirandi sunt de sacrificio, i. e. they are to receive Holy (ommunion (Mart^ne). It was espe- cially during the thirteenth century that vigorous

measures were taken to secure the proper administra- tion of the sacrament. In general, the councils and synods direct the priests to admonish the people re- garding the confirmation of their children. The age- limit, however, varies considerably. Thus the Synod of Worcester (1240) decreed that parents who neg- lected to have their child confirmed within a year after birth should be forbidden to enter the church. The Synod of Exeter (1287) enacted that children should be confirmed within three years from birth, otherwise the parents were to fast on bread and water until they complied with the law. At the Synod of Durham (1217? Cf. Wilkins, loc. cit. below) the time was extended to the seventh year. Other statutes were: that no one should be admitted to Holy Com- munion who had not been confirmed (Council of Lam- beth, 1281) ; that neither father nor mother nor step- parent should act as sponsor (London, 1200); that children to be confirmed must bring " fillets or bands of sufficient length and width ", and that they must be brought to the church the third day after confirma- tion to have their foreheads washed by the priest out of reverence for the holy chrism (Oxford, 1222); that a male sponsor should stand for the boys and a female sponsor for the girls (Provincial Synod of Scotland, 1225); that adults must confess before being con- firmed (Constitution of St. Edmund of Canterbury, about 1236). Several of the above-named synods emphasize the fact that confirmation produces spiri- tual cognation and that the sacrament cannot be re- ceived more than once. The legislation of the Synod of Exeter is especially full and detailed (see \Mlkins, Concilia Magn» Brittanniae et Hibernia;, London, 1734). Among the decrees issued in Ireland after the Reformation may be cited : no one other than a bishop should administer confirmation ; the Holy Sec had not delegated this episcopal function to any one (Synod of Armagh, 1014); the faithful should be taught that confirmation cannot be reiterated and that its recep- tion should be preceded by sacramental confession (Synod of Tuam, 1632).

IV. In the American Colonies.— Previous to the establishment of the hierarchy, many Catholics in North America died without having received con- firmation. In some portions of what is now the United States the sacrament was administered by bishops from the neighbouring French and ,Spanish possessions; in others, by missionary jiriests with del- egation from the Holy See. Bishop Cabezas de Alti- mirano of Santiago de Cuba, on his visitation of Flor- ida, confirmed Vlr> March, 1606) a large number, prob- ably the first administration of the sacrament in the United States territory (Shea, The Catholic Church in Colonial Daj's, New York, 1866). In 16.")5, Don Diego de Rebolledo, Governor of Florida, urged the King of Spain to ask the pope to make St. Augustine an epis- copal see, or to make Florida a vicariate Apostolic so that there might be a local superior and that the faith- ful might receive the Sacrament of Confirmation ; but nothing came of the petition. Bishop C'alderon of Santiago visited Florida in 1647 and confinned 13,152 persons, including Indians and whites. Other in- stances are the visitations of Bishop de Velasco (1735-6) and Bishop Morel (1763). Subsequently, Dr. Peter Camps, missionary Apostolic, received from Rome special faculties for confinnation. In New Mex- ico, during the seventeenth centurj', the custos of the Franciscans confirmed by delegation from Leo X and Adrian VI. In 1760, Bishop Tamaron of Durango visitril the missions of New Mexico and confirmed 11,- 271 persons. Bishop Tejada of Guadalajara adminis- tered (1759) confirmation at San Fernando, now San Antonio, Texa.s, and Bishop de Pontbriand at Ft. Pres- entation (Ogdensburg, N. Y.) in 17.')2. The need of a bishop to administer the sacrament in Maryland and Pennsylvania was urged by Bishop Challoiier in a re- port to the Propaganda, 2 Aug., 1763. Writing to his