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, which is still the custom iu the Greek and African churches. 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 13 to 16 years; and in the English church, from 14 to 18 years. There is, however, in the latter church no limit to the period. C. may be administered at an earlier period, if a family is about to emigrate; and persons are con firmed up to 60 or 70. 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 English churches, the ceremony is made the occasion of requiring from those who have been baptized in infancy, a renewal in their own persons of the baptismal vow made for them by their godfathers and god mothers, who are thereby released from their responsibility. None cau partake of the
Lord's supper, in these churches, unless they have been confirmed. In the Roman Catholic church, C. is held to be one of the seven sacraments, and in its administration, unction and the sign of the cross are used; and instead of the imposition of hands, the person confirmed receives a little blow on the cheek, to remind him that he must in future suffer affronts for the name of Christ. In the English thirty-nine articles, C. is declared not to be one of the sacraments, and the above ceremonies have been discon tinued since the reformation.