'0;aoA.d7r)ori!r, professio. ' Aug. Contra Uter. Petil. 1. ii. c. 10-1 (torn. ix. p. 199); Leo, Epist. 156, c. 6. Confirmation is called conjirniatio from its nature ; sigillum. or consignatio, from its design ; chrisma or unctio, from its matter ; and impositio manuum, from its form. 488 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. ence was promoted by the liierarcliical interest, especially in the Latin church, where the performance of this rite is an epis- copal function. The catholic theory of confirmation is, that it seals and completes the grace of baptism, and at the same time forms in some sense a subjective complement to infant baptism, in which the baptized person, now grown to years of discretion, renews the TOWS made by his parents or sponsors in his name at his baptism, and makes himself personally responsible for them. The latter, however, is more properly a later Protest- ant (Lutheran and Anglican) view. Baptism, according to the doctrine of the ancient church, admits the man into the rank of the soldiers of Christ ; confirmation endows him with strength and courage for the spiritual warfare. The outward form of confirmation consists in the anointing of the forehead, the nose, the ear, and the breast with the con- secrated oil, or a mixture of balsam,' which symbolizes the consecration of the whole man to the spiritual priesthood ; and in the laying on of the hands of the clergyman,'' which signi- fies and effects the communication of the Holy Ghost for the general Christian calling.^ The anointing takes precedence of the imposition of hands, in agreement with the Old Testament sacerdotal view ; while in the Protestant chm'ch, wherever confirmation continues, it is entirely abandoned, and only the imposition of hands is retained. In other respects considerable diversity prevailed in the dif- ferent parts of the ancient church in regard to the usage of confirmation and the time of performing it. In the Greek church every priest may administer confirma- tion or holy unction, and that immediately after baptism ; but ' XpiiT na. This was afterward, in the Latin church, the second anointing, in distinction from that which took place at baptism. The Greek church, however, whioh alwajs conjoins confirmation with baptism, stopped with one anointing. Comp. Halm, 1. c. p. 91 f. * Impositio manuum. This, however, subsequently became less prominent than the anointing; hence confirmation is also called simply chrisma, or sacramentum chrlsmatls, mictionis. ^ The formula now used in the Roman church in the act of confirmation, which is not older, however, than the twelfth century, runs : " Signo te signo crucis et con- firmo te chrismate salutis, in nomine Patris et FUii et Spiritus Sancti." § 94. ORDINATION. 489 in tlie Latin cliiireh after the time of Jerome (as now in the Anglican) this function, like the power of ordination, was con- sidered a prerogative of the bishops, who made periodical tours in their dioceses to confirm the baptized. Thus the two acts were often