CONFIRMATION in the Christian sense is one of the sacramental rites by which the catechumen is admitted to full membership in the Church. With rare exceptions it comes after baptism, and is specially connected with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The word "confirm" is not used in the New Testament in this technical sense, which cannot be traced back beyond the 5th cen tury, and is only found in the Western Churches and in their off shoots. But the rite itself in some form has been practised from the beginning, its chief names in primitive and later ages being laying on of hands, unction, sealing, all of which are Scriptural.
As in early times the three ceremonies, baptism, unction and im position of hands, were usually united in a single service, and the two last frequently duplicated in it, there is often doubt as to which precisely is intended in a given passage, and similarly as to what was believed to be the grace conferred in each case. Early practice has been summed up thus. There was great variety in detail, but all were agreed in the endeavour to follow the example of the Apostles (Acts viii. 14-17, xix. Heb. vi. 2) in provid ing a complement to baptism, in order to claim our Lord's promise to send the Holy Spirit to strengthen the Church.
When Christianity in the 4th century came to be tolerated and patronized by the state and numbers increased, the older rule that fixed certain days for baptism broke down, and it was impossible for bishops to attend every baptismal service. Thereupon East and West gradually came to adopt diffcrent methods of meeting the difficulty, which further increased as infant baptism became the rule. In the East the imposition of hands died out and the whole emphasis was laid on the anointing with oil: the oil was consecrated by the bishop, and the child anointed or "sealed" with it by the parish priest, and this was its confirmation. With its baptism thus completed, the infant was capable of receiving holy communion. And to this day in the Churches of the East the in fant is baptized, anointed and communicated by the parish priest in the course of a single service.
The West on the other hand was forced, if confirmation was to be administered only by bishops, to separate it from baptism. 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 week, nor con firmation beyond two, three or seven years. Henry VIII., reviv ing the practice of early centuries, had his daughter, afterwards Queen Elizabeth, both baptized and confirmed when she was only a few days old. And the rubrics of the English Prayer-Book still direct that the person who is baptized as an adult is to "be con firmed by the bishop so soon after his baptism as conveniently may be." But theologians in the West had elaborated a theory of the grace of confirmation, which made its severance from baptism seem natural. It brought no entirely fresh gift ; its purpose was little more than to strengthen that which the grace of baptism had begun. At the time of the Reformation, while neither side favoured the Eastern practice, the Reformers with their strong sense of the crucial importance of faith, emphasized the action of the individual in the service, and therefore laid it down as a rule that confirmation should be deferred till the child could learn a catechism on the fundamentals of the Christian faith. At the same time the Scriptural basis of the rite was denied by others, and so many of the Protestant bodies have abandoned the rite of laying on of hands; but it remains among the Lutherans (who, whether episcopal or not, attach great importance to it) and in the group of Churches in communion with the Church of England. Among Roman Catholics confirmation is reckoned one of the seven sacraments; it is not administered normally till the child is seven and can reason; in many cases less emphasis is laid on the confirmation than on the first communion which may either precede or follow it.
At the revision of the Book of Common Prayer in 1661 an addition was made to the service by prefixing to it a solemn re newal of their baptismal vows by the candidates, and this has in England often been wrongly taken to be the essential feature of confirmation.
Practically the preparation of candidates for confirmation is one of the most important duties of the Anglican parish priest, and, after a long period of neglect of this duty, is now generally discharged with great care : classes are formed and instruction is given for several weeks before the coming of the bishop to lay on hands "after the example of the holy Apostles" (prayer in the Confirmation Service).
Of late years there has been a controversy among Anglican theologians as to the exact nature of the gift conveyed through confirmation, and as to the relation of the gifts conferred in bap tism and confirmation respectively. The view that connects con firmation rather than baptism with the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit has had to contend against a long established tradi tion, but appeals to Scripture (Acts viii. 16) and to much patris tic teaching are made on its behalf.
(W O. B.)