Confirmation.

Confirmation. A Latin word which signifies 'strengthening.' In the ancient church, the rite so named was administered immediately after baptism, if the bishop happened to be present at the solemnity; and in the Greek Church it is still made part of the baptismal rite, being administered then by the priest by means of unction with chrism preconsecrated by a bishop. In the Roman Catholic Church, for the last 300 or 400 years, the bishops have interposed a delay of seven years after infant baptism; in the Lutheran Church, the rite is usually delayed for from thirteen to sixteen years; and in the English Church, from fourteen to eighteen years. There is, however, in the latter church no limitation of age, other than such as is indirectly implied by the exaction of a specified amount of religious knowledge as a qualification for the rite. Confirmation may be administered at an earlier period, if a family is about to emigrate; and persons are confirmed up to sixty or seventy, if they choose. The ceremony consists in the imposition of hands by the bishop, accompanied by an invocation of the Holy Ghost as the comforter and strengthener. But both in the Lutheran and in the English Church, the ceremony is made the occasion of requiring from those who have been baptised in infancy, a renewal in their own persons of the baptismal vow made for them by their godfathers and godmothers, who are thereby released from their responsibility. Properly, none can partake of the Lord's Supper, in these churches, unless they have been confirmed. In the Roman Catholic Church, confirmation is held to be one of the seven sacraments, and in its administration chrism and the sign of the cross are used; and instead of the imposition of hands, the person confirmed receives a slight blow on the cheek, to remind him that he must in future suffer affronts for the name of Christ. Catholics usually take a new name at confirmation, which should be the name of some saint whom they choose for their special patron. In the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, confirmation is declared not to be one of the sacraments, and the above ceremonies have been discontinued since the Reformation.