cross, saying, "I confirm thee in the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." This order likewise enjoins, that infants, after they are baptized, shall not eat any food, nor even suck the breast, without the greatest necessity, till they communicate in the Sacrament of the Body of Christ *. This Roman Order our countryman ALCUIN, successively the scholar of BEDE and EGBERT, enlarged and improved; and afterward introduced the use of it into the Gallican Church, near the close of the eighth century, in the time of CHARLEMAGNE. Among the works of ALCUIN the book of Divine Offices has been classed; but that book, in its present state, was not written by him; for there is clear internal evidence, that it could not be composed before the beginning of the eleventh century. Whoever was the author, we learn from him, what was the practice of the age in which he lived. "The infant after Baptism, was cloathed

again and brought to the Bishop, if he was "present, to be confirmed, and to receive the Commu"nion t."

In the beginning of the twelfth century, it was still the practice to confirm children and to give them the

Ordo de Sabbato sancto-ubi de ritu baptismi-Oratio-Item Oratio post Confirmat.-See also the Writers of the middle ages on Divine Offices.

+ Si vero Episcopus adest, statim confirmari eum oportet chrismate, et postea communicare (De Sabbato sancti Pascha). Nos vero, præsente Episcopo, simul baptizamur, et per impositionem manus Episcopi Spiritum Sanctum accipimus. AMALAR. FORT. de Oct. Pent.

Sacrament,

Sacrament, immediately after they were baptized; but from this period, the latter custom began to fall into disuse in the Western Church; and in France, before the close of this century, it was entirely abolished.

The Greek Church, however, has been more tenacious of these ancient usages. In it Baptism is seldom deferred beyond the eighth or tenth day after the birth; and Confirmation, which consists only of the single rite of Chrismation, though a distinct ceremony from Baptism, is performed immediately after it, and regarded as a necessary appendage to it. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is administered in both kinds to children of one or two years of age, and in case of imminent danger to new born infants, after Baptism, and Confirmation. They, as AUSTIN and other ancients did, ground their belief of the absolute necessity of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, upon the declaration of our Lord, John vi. 53. and in defence of their practice, they plead the universal usage of the primitive Church.

To return to the Western Church; In England, in the thirteenth century, children were confirmed before they were five years old *, an age at which they could apprehend neither the nature of the Office, nor the duties it enjoined. AQUIN and BONAVENTURE (both of whom flourished soon after the middle of this century)

* Infra quinque annos ad ultimum postquam natus fuerit infans potest confirmari. EDMUND. Cantuar. in Speculo Ecclesiæ. A.D. 1230.

are

are of opinion, that children should be confirmed in their infancy, quia dolus non est, nec obicem ponunt, they are without guile, and do not impede the descent of the Holy Spirit. By our provincial Constitutions of 1322, the Clergy are directed "frequently to

admonish the people, that after Baptism the "Confirmation of little children is not to be delayed; "that they are not to wait long for the coming of the

Bishop, but when they hear that he is in the neighbourhood, they are to take the children to him, as

soon as may be*." After this period the Western Church was not disposed to admit children to be corrfirmed till they were of maturer age; and for this judicious regulation the following reason is assigned by CASSANDER, that their parents and sponsors, with the rulers of the Church, might have an opportunity of instructing them more diligently in the faith which they professed at Baptism t." A Synod at Milan,

* Frequenter etiam moneantur parentes per sacerdotes, ut parvulos Baptizatos ad Confirmationem ducant, nec diu expectent adventum Episcopi: sed pro Confirmatione pueros ad eum ducant, ubi eum propè adesse audierint, post baptismum, quam citius potorint. WALTER. A.D. 1322. (Gibson's Codex, p. 454.)Linwood remarks, that in this passage parvulos and pueros are indiscriminately used, and that puer properly signifies a child above seven and under fourteen. Yet here were probably meant children under seven.

In Ecclesiis potissimum Latinis non nisi adultiore ætate pueros admitti videmus, vel hanc certè ob causam, ut parentibus, susceptoribus et Ecclesiarum præfectis occasio detur pueros de fide, quam in Baptismo professi sunt, diligentius instituendi et admonendi. Cassandri consult.

in 1563, forbad Confirmation before seven years of age; and the Council of Trent, which with discontinuations, was continued from 1545 to 1563, appoints it to be administered between seven and twelve. But before the Milanese Synod was assembled, or the Council of Trent had made this decree, the reformed Church of England, upon which the eye of Europe was turned, had very much improved the ministration of this sacred rite. Our Reformers abolished some usages, which popery had incorporated into the Office, and rectified some erroneous notions, then existing, respecting the rite itself, which were warranted neither by Scripture nor antiquity; for Confirmation had been made a Sacrament in the strictest sense of the word. They likewise laid aside the ceremony of anointing with chrism* the person confirmed; because the chrism had been irregularly applied by those, who were not authorized to administer Confirmation; and because they that were authorized, joins ed to the use of the chrism superstitious ceremonies unknown to the ancients: And what was perhaps the greatest improvement of all, they required that children should arrive at years of discretion, before they were presented to the Bishop to be confirmed.

THE BISHOP THE ORDINARY MINISTER OF

CONFIRMATION.

It has been already remarked, that in the days of the Apostles, inferior Ministers baptized, and many

* Yet EDWARD's First Book directed the Bishop to cross them on the forehead.

of

of them had the power of working miracles: but the ministration of conferring the Holy Ghost upon those who had been baptized, by the imposition of hands and by prayer, was committed to the Apostles only. "Not that any Apostle," as AUSTIN has well remarked, "gave the Holy Ghost;" for Christ alone, as he is God, could do this. The Apostles prayed, that the Holy Ghost might come on those, upon whom they laid hands; but they did not give it themselves. "This custom," continues AUSTIN, "the Bishops of the "Church still observe *.

CHRYSOSTOM asks, "Why could not the Samaritans "receive the Holy Ghost, as well as Baptism, from "the hands of Philip ?" And he answers, that "Per

66

haps this was done for the honour of the Apostles, "to distinguish their super-eminent dignity from in"ferior ministrations." What he thinks a better reason is, that St. Philip, in his opinion, one of the seven Deacons, and next to St. Stephen, "did not give the Holy Ghost, because he had no power to "do it, this gift being peculiar to the Apostles. "Hence it is that at present we see the heads † of the Church, and no other, do this."

INNOCENT I, who was made Bishop of Rome, A.D. 402, is full and explicit on this subject. "With re

gard to the Confirmation of children it is clear, that none but the Bishop is authorized to administer it:

* De Trinitat. Lib. xv. C. 26.

+ Tas xofupaius, a term often used to denote the society of the Apostles, and, in the singular number, St. Peter in particular. See Suicerus.