(oXKIHMATIOJf. 



'IE D'ESLIRE. 





of age, itudiw, character, Ac , required in a candidate for the office of 

 ooofeator, the solemn engagement* he enter* into, and the formalities 

 with which he is conaecratc.1 by the bishop, may be aeen in the profes- 

 sional works of discipline of the church of Rome, and. among others, 

 in the Bibliotheque Sacree ' dei Pert* Richard and Giraud, Paria, 

 1825, art. " Confeaakm " and " Confeaseur." 



The box in which the priest sita in the church to hear the penitent 

 is called the confessional. But the act of confession may be performed 

 out of church, in private bouses, in the field, in any place in abort, 

 provided it be not within hearing of any person except the priest and 

 the penitent 



The Greek Church retains the practice of auricular confession, but 

 differs from that of Rome in the form of the absolution. The Pro- 

 teaiant and Reformed Churches, including those of England and Soot- 

 land, do not admit the practice, but recommend every one to confess 

 his sins to Ood, and to repent in order to obtain forgiveness. 



Confession is also the name givi-n to the solemn profession of faith 

 of various Christian churches which dissent from that of Rome, such as 

 that of the reformed churches of France, in 40 articles, signed by 

 Henry, king of Navarre, the prince of Condi 1 , Coligiiy, and others, and 

 presented to Charles IX. in 15til ; that of the Helvetic reformed churches 

 proclaimed in 1566 [Zwixou, in Bioo. Drv.] ; that of the churches of the 

 Netherlands, consisting of 37 articles, published in 1562, afterwards 

 approved and signed by the members of the synod of Embden in 1571, 

 and lastly examined and confirmed in 1691 by the synod of Dordrecht, 

 or Dort, which condemned the five articles of Arminius. [ARUixirs, 

 in Bioo. Div.] ; and also that of the Protestant churches of Poland, 

 printo i in 1570 at Debrzin, and afterwards approved at the synod of 

 Sendomir. 



The most celebrated i the Cmfation of Augtkurfi, the name given to 

 the profession of faith of the Protestant Lutheran Church, which was 

 drawn up by Melancthon, with Luther's approbation, in order to be 

 laid before the Emperor Charles V. at the great Diet held at Augsburg 

 in June, 1530. It was on that occasion solemnly read in the German 

 language by the Chancellor of Saxony, after which two copies of the 

 Confession, one in German and the other in Latin, were delivered to 

 the Emperor, bearing the signatures of John Electui of Saxony, George 

 Marquis of Brandenburg, Ernest Duke of Luneberg, Philip Landgrave 

 of Hesse, and Wolfgang Prince of Anhalt ; besides those of the free 

 town of Nuremberg, and other cities. The Confession was immediately 

 afterwards printed, and, being translated into various languages, was 

 spread over Europe. It has ever since continued to be the rule of the 

 Lutheran Church in matters of faith. It consists of twenty-eight 

 articles, twenty-ona of which state the belief of the Lutherans on 

 the principal tenets of religion ; and the other seven consist of refu- 

 tations of certain points of either dogma or discipline as maintained by 

 the Roman Catholic Church, and on account of which the Lutherans 

 separated from the communion of Rome. ZwingH and the other Swiss 

 and French reformers did not subscribe to the Confession of Augsburg, 

 as they differed from it on several points, particularly about the Lord's 

 Supper. The style of the Confession is clear and fluent ; the matter 

 was chiefly supplied by Luther in the seventeen articles of Torgau, 

 which he had presented to the Elector of Saxony the year before. 

 Melancthon, while drawing up the Confession, had frequent conferences 

 with Luther, who was then staying at Coburg, not far from Augsburg. 

 The Papal theologians, headed by Faber, wrote a confutation of the 

 Augsburg confession, which was likewise read before the Diet in 

 August of the same year. Melancthon answered them in his ' Apolog 

 for the Augsburg Confession,' which was published in 1531, and whici 

 constitutes one of the books of authority of the Lutherans which were 

 published, including the Confession, at Dresden, in 1580. Ernest 

 Solomon Cyprian has written a good history of the Augsburg Con- 

 fession, and Webber a ' Critical History' of the same, Frankfurt, 1783. 

 (Schrceckh's ' Kirchengeschichte ;' Mosheim's ' Ecclesiastical History, 

 and Notes,' by Dr. Murdoch ; and Neander's ' Church History.') 



Some sepulchres of martyrs have been styled by antiquaries con- 

 fessions ; for instance, the subterraneous chapel, in which are the 

 sepulchres of St. Peter and St. Paul, under St. Peter's at Rome, is 

 called " the Confession of St. Peter." 



CONFIRMATION is, according to the Church of England, " the 

 rite of laying on of hands upon those who have been baptised, and are 

 come to years of discretion. Such only are qualified to be confirmed 

 as can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and 

 the Church Catechism ; to the end that children having leanu-il what 

 their godfathers and godmothers promised for them in baptism, they 

 may themselves ratify and confirm the same; acknowledging them- 

 selves " bound to believe and to do " all which those persons undertook 

 for them. It is affirmed in the sixtieth canon of the Anglican church, 

 that confirmation is " a solemn, ancient, and laudable custom in the 

 church of God, continued from the apostolic times." On the other 

 hand, among the Protestant Dissenters it is regarded merely as the 

 remnant of a Popish ceremony ; with the assertion, that there is no 

 more authority for that which is retained of it than for that which is 

 rejected. The passages of scripture which are always adduced in 

 support of this episcopal imposition of hands are the three following; 

 namely, Act* vtii 14-17; Act* xix. 6, and especially Heb. vi. 1, where 

 4r.9ian x"P", " t'.ie imposition of hands," appears to be mentioned as 

 an important rite of the Christian religion. But Dissenters disallow 



mmge 01 several nunuroas in inn 

 sins," because they can say th< 

 question , Towgoods 'Letters on 

 Nonconformist*,' Ac.) Dr. Whit 



Jiik mode of proving the propriety of the imposition of episcopal 

 lands. They deny it to be a legitimate inference from the miraculous 

 act of inspired Apostles to the act of modern bishops. What warrant, 

 :h*y ask, has a bishop to declare that God has given unto an assem- 

 blage of several hundreds of individuals " the forgiveness of all their 

 the Church Catechism 1 (See on this 

 on Dissent;' De Laune's ' Plea for the 

 Whttby observes that, unless the Apostles 



hands on all who were baptised, it makes nothing for confirma- 

 tion ; and that if they did, then Simon Magus received the I My 

 Ghost The early father* certainly believed the Holy Ghost to be 

 indeed conveyed by the imposition of hands. " When we come 

 out of the water, says Tertullian (' De Baptismo,' c. 7, 8), 'we 

 are anointed with the holy chrism (perunguimur benedicta unctione), 

 then we have the imposition of hands, which calls down the Holy 

 Ghost (tradit Spiritum Sanctum Paracletum)." ( De Resume. Car- 

 nis,' c. 8 ; Hieron. ' advent. Lucif.,' torn, it, p. 47 ; Cyprian, ' Epist.' 

 73-74 ad Jub., and 72 ad Steph.) Confirmation was originally thus 

 administered immediately after baptism, of which it formed the con- 

 cluding rite or complement, and was called fa&aiooit ; that i-. 

 Urination ; nor was there any exception to this time of administering 

 it in the case of baptism in infancy. In the Greek church, an 1 in 

 Asia, it still accompanies baptism. The remonstrance of the Pro- 

 testants at the Reformation caused the rite to be discontinued to 

 infants, and to be administered only to adults; and afterwards the 

 Council of Trent altered the time for confirmation to the seventh 

 year. 



The earliest mention, by the Fathers, of the use of chrism or sacred 

 ointment in confirmation is believed to be in the passage of Ter- 

 tullian ' de Baptismo,' already quoted (Bingham, b. xii., c. 3) ; but the 

 church of Rome adduces the authority of the Epistle of James v. 14. 

 The anointing the forehead with this holy unction, which was composed 

 of oil and balsam, constituted the first act of the ceremony of con- 

 firmation. The consignation, or signing with the sign of the cross, 

 was the second; and the third and last was the imposition of the 

 bishop's hands, with the invocation of the Holy Ghost The person 

 was then qualified to partake of the eucharist. Confirmation in tin- 

 Greek church is named puplir, " ointment ;" xpivpa, " unction ;" jiiyi* 

 ; <r<f>payli, " the seal ;" and iwia<fpdytafia. In the Roman 



church this rite is one of their seven sacraments, and it consists in 

 the bishop's anointing the forehead of the person, saying, " A. B., I 

 sign thee with the sign of the cross, and confirm thee with the 

 chrism of salvation, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 

 the Holy Ghost." The bishop then gives a slight blow on the cheek, 

 and concludes with pronouncing the words Pax tecum, " Peace be 

 with thee." 



Lord King, in his 'History of the Primitive Church, 1 p. 91, has 

 shown that confirmation was originally the same thing as absolution, 

 and that it was frequently repeated on the same individual. On the 

 reiteration of the rite, see also Morinus ' De Poeuitentia et Ordi- 

 natione,' 1. 9. 



The Puritan contempt for the hierarchy occasioned confirmation to 

 become greatly neglected after the Protestant Reformation in England 

 (Hooker, 1. 5, 66 ; Bishop Hall's x"fx>0t<rfa) ; but subsequent to that 

 period the Church of England has observed the rite with much more 

 strictness than the Lutheran or any other church. In Germany it was 

 not generally adopted till the middle of the 1 8th century. 



Du Pin (' Study of Divinity,' p. 216) gives a numerous list of 

 writers on the subject. (Bingham's ' Origines Ecclesiastics!,' vol. iii., 

 p. 286, tt teg. ; Hammond ' De Confirmatione ;' Bishop Parker ' on 

 Confirmation ;' Gear's ' Euchologia,' p. 368 ; Grntion, ' Concordantia 

 Discordantium,' part iii.) 



CONFIRMATION (in law). [DEED.] 



CONGfc D'ESLIRE (or D'ELIRE), a terrain Norman French, lite- 

 rally signifying " leave to elect," which is appropriated to the king's 

 writ or license to a dean and chapter to elect a bishop, at the time of 

 the vacancy of the see. The right of nominating to bishoprics was in 

 most countries of Europe enjoyed by the temporal sovereigns, with 

 little opposition from the ecclesiastical authorities, until the llth 

 century, when a contest began between the popes and the monarchs of 

 Europe, which, in the next century, ended in the latter being com- 

 pelled to surrender this important privilege to the clergy. Father 

 Paul ('Treatise of Benefices,' c. 24), says that between 1122 and 

 1145, it became a rule almost everywhere established, that > 

 .-li'iuM be chosen by the chapter. In England, by the constitutions of 

 Clarendon, in 1164, the election was vested in the cliapters, subject to 

 the king's approbation of the object of their choice. The right of 

 election was afterwards formally surrendered to the chapters by a 

 charter of King John, by which however he reserved to himself, 

 among other things, the right of granting a conge 7 d'eslire, and of con- 

 firming the choice of the chapter. This grant of freedom of election 

 was expressly recognised :n '> L. and also by a subsequent 



statute, 25 Ed. III., stat. 6, which was passed for the purpose of pre- 

 venting the popes from interfering with the elections to dignities and 

 benefices in Kn^lam!. 



So the law stood until the passing of 25 Henry VIII., c. 20, which, 

 tliou,-h repealed in Edward the Vl.th's reign, was afterwards revived, 

 and by which pniscopal elections are regulated at the present dny. By 



