IV. SESSION church, did baptize N. and so on as above, signing his name at the bottom; which book shall be always kept in the church, and the vicars shall be obliged to give an account thereof, and at every visitation to shew it to the prelate, out of which the curates are to give certificates of the age of such as are to be married, or to receive holy orders, that so their age may be certainly known; and that such matters may not be so in the dark, as they have been formerly, when there was no certain way of coming to the knowledge of people's age, which must needs create great scruples in the minds of such as were to be married or ordained. The Doctrine of the Sacrament of Confirmation. The second sacrament is Confirmation, which our Lord Christ instituted, in order to the confirming and establishing of Christians in the Faith, so that nothing might be able to separate them from it through the power of the Holy Ghost which is given therein, particularly to that effect; besides the sanctifying grace which it gives in common with the other divine sacraments; the matter of this sacrament is the holy oil of chrism, made of the oil of the olive-tree, signifying the light and purity of the conscience; and of balsam, which signifies the sweet smell of a good name, both mixed together, and blessed by the hand of the bishop; the form are the words spoke by the bishop when he dips his thumb into the said chrism, making therewith the sign of the cross on the forehead of the person that is confirmed, saying, 'I sign thee with the sign of the cross, and do confirm thee with the chrism of health, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;' to which the bishop subjoins three holy and wholesome prayers, wherein he beseeches God to fill those that are confirmed with his Divine Spirit. The ordinary minister of confirmation is the bishop, for though simple priests may perform several other unctions, this can be done only by a bishop, the bishops being the successors of the Apostles, by the imposition of whose hands the Holy Ghost was given; in the place of which imposition of hands the church gives confirmation, Christ having so ordained it, wherein the Holy Ghost is given likewise; nevertheless, by a dispensation from the holy see, and by no other way, when there is any very urgent occasion, or when it happens to be necessary for the good of the faithful, simple priests may confirm with chrism, that has been consecrated by a bishop in the forementioned form; the effect of this sacrament is, that therein the Holy Ghost is given, to the strengthening and IV. fortifying of the soul, as it was given to the Apostles on the SESSION day of Pentecost, that Christians may with boldness confess the name of Christ and his catholic faith, for which reason the person confirmed is anointed on the forehead with the sign of the cross, that being the most open place of the body, and the seat of shame and confusion, which is very different from what is done to people when they are baptized, who are anointed on the head; people are confirmed on the forehead, that they may not be ashamed to confess the name of Jesus Christ and his cross, which as the Apostle saith, is "to the Jews an offence, and to the heathens foolishness; this sacrament differs much from that of baptism, for as by baptism we are born into the faith, so by this we are confirmed therein; for as in the natural life, to be born is different from growing, so in the spiritual life it is one thing to be born to grace and faith, which is done in baptism, and another to increase and grow stronger therein, which is done in confirmation, and so in baptism we are born to a spiritual life, and are afterwards prepared and confirmed for our warfare, and do receive so much strength, that no dangers or terrors of punishments, or losses, or torments, or deaths are able to separate us from the confession of the name of Christ, and of the true faith we profess. DECREE I. ALL PEOPLE COMMANDED TO BE CONFIRMED. Forasmuch as hitherto there has been no use, nor so much as knowledge of the holy sacrament of Confirmation among the Christians of this bishopric, the heretical prelates that governed it, having neglected to feed the people in a great many cases with wholesome catholic food; therefore the Synod doth declare, that all persons who are come to the use of reason, ought to receive this holy sacrament, having the opportunity of receiving it at the hands of a bishop, and that all masters of families, and others having the charge of children, are in duty bound to command their children and slaves to receive the said sacrament, and that all who out of contumacy or contempt shall refuse to receive it, or to order such as belong to them to go to it, are guilty of a mortal sin, and if they neglect it out of a conceit of its not being a sacrament, they are heretics and aliens from the true catholic faith; wherefore the Synod doth command, that in the visitation that is to be made speedily by the most illustrious Metropolitan in the churches of this bishopric, all men and women that IV. SESSION are above seven years old do come to be christened or confirmed, those only excepted who were confirmed by the said lord in his former visitation, or at some other, or on some other occasion, by some other bishop; this sacrament as well as that of baptism being never to be repeated, insomuch, that all that receive it a second time wittingly, are guilty of a great piece of sacrilege, besides, that they receive no sacrament thereby but in case any are doubtful whether they have ever been confirmed or not, or should not remember that they were ever, they shall declare so much to the said lord, or to the bishop that is to confirm them, that they may order the matter according to the merit of their doubts: but if any, which God forbid, should sacrilegiously and obstinately despise the said sacrament, it being proved upon them, they shall be declared excommunicate until such time as they have done condign penance, and shall be punished at the pleasure of the prelate. DECREE II. ALL THAT TREAT CONFIRMATION WITH CONTEMPT TO BE EX COMMUNICATED. The Synod, to its great sorrow, having been informed, that some ignorant persons in sacred matters and the doctrine of the holy sacraments of the church, being instigated by the devil to persist in their cursed schism, did in several places resist the most illustrious Metropolitan in his former visitation of these churches, so far as not only to refuse to receive the holy sacrament of Confirmation from him, but did also oppose him publicly in the churches, and that many did absent themselves, some whereof excused themselves by pretending, that it was an unnecessary thing, and that they had never seen nor heard of it before, and others that they should be affronted by the holy ceremony of the prelates touching their cheek, scurrilously upbraiding those that had received it, with base provoking words, telling them that they had suffered themselves to be affronted and buffeted, with other such sacrilegious expressions, full of infidelity and heresy, arising from the schism wherein they have been brought up: whole towns conspiring together so far in this mutiny, that the despising or receiving this holy sacrament, became the test of their obedience or disobedience to the said Metropolitan, doth therefore (notwithstanding it knows they have all in common, and every one in particular repented of this, and being sensible of the greatness of the error they IV. committed therein, have begged pardon for it, and upon their SESSION having confessed their ignorance, have been graciously received by the said lord Metropolitan, and having submitted themselves to the obedience of the holy Roman Church, are ready to do all that shall be enjoined them, to prevent the like however, that none for the time coming may commit the like faults or sacrileges) command, That if any (which God forbid) shall dare to do or say any such thing against this sacrament or the holy ceremonies and rites wherewith it is administered to the faithful, that they be declared excommunicate, and be separated from the church and the communion of the faithful, until such time as they have undergone condign penance at the pleasure of the prelate, and shall demonstrate their due subjection to the obedience of the holy church, and have taken the oath of the faith contained in this Synod, and declared that all that reject and despise the rites and ceremonies approved of, and received in the church, in the solemn administration of this and the other sacraments, are heretics and apostates from our holy catholic faith, as was determined in the holy council of Trent, and ought to be proceeded against and punished as such, according to the sacred canons. DECREE III. SPONSORS APPOINTED IN CONFIRMATION. The Synod doth declare, That in the sacrament of Confirmation or Chrism, there must be a godfather and godmother as well as in baptism, to present such as are to be confirmed according to the ancient custom of holy mother church, but there shall be but only one godfather and godmother, who must themselves have been confirmed; it being very indecent, that any person should present one to have that done to him, which they have not had done to themselves; and that the man shall be above fourteen, and the woman above twelve years old, or one of them at least shall be of that age; and in this case the godfathers and godmothers do contract the same spiritual affinities and the same impediments that the others do in baptism, the said spiritual affinity being equally contracted in both these sacraments. SESSION SESSION V. OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST, AND OF THE The Doctrine of the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. The third sacrament in the order of the spiritual life, is the holy Eucharist, though in veneration, sanctity and dignity, it is the first and most excellent, for containing in it the true, real and substantial body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, true God, and true Man, our Saviour and Redeemer; which was instituted by him the day before he suffered for us, as the most sweet remate, or conclusion of all his works, and a memorial of his passion, the fulfilling of all the ancient figures, the greatest of all the miracles that ever he wrought, and for the singular consolation of the faithful in his absence. The matter of this sacrament is bread of wheat, and wine of the grape only; so that all that consecrate in bread made of rice, or of any thing else but the flour of wheat, or of wine that was not pressed out of the ripe grape of the vine do not make the sacrament; there must also be water mixed with the wine before it is consecrated, but in a much smaller quantity than the wine, that so it may easily turn itself into wine before the consecration: which mixture is therefore made, because from the testimony of holy fathers, holy mother church believes that our Lord Christ himself did so, whose having mixed water with the wine that he consecrated, makes it a great sin to omit to do it. It is also agreeable to the representation of the mystery of what passed on the cross, and of our Lord Christ, out of whose precious side flowed water and blood; as also to signify the effect of this sacrament, which is the union of the faithful with Christ, the water signifying the faithful, and the wine our Lord Christ, and the conversion of the water into the wine, the union of our souls with Christ by means of this divine sacrament, according to what our Lord said; "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." The form of this sacrament is the words of our Saviour, by which the sacrament is made; for though the priest pronounceth many and divers words in the mass, and makes many prayers and petitions to God, yet when he comes to consecrate, he useth only the words of Christ, none others belonging to the substance of consecration; so the priest speaking in the person of Christ makes |