Testimonia

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Chapter VI.—Effects of Baptism and of Chrism. § 1.  Baptism.  When we try to ascertain the exact relation between Baptism and the Unction or Chrism which immediately followed, we find that Cyril’s teaching on the subject has been understood in very different senses.  By some he is thought to regard the Unction as being merely an accessory rite of the one great Sacrament of Baptism; to others he seems to draw a clear distinction between them, assigning to each its proper grace and efficacy. The former view is stated by the Oxford editor, Milles, in his note on the words:  “And in like manner to you also, after you had come up from the pool of the sacred waters, there was given an unction, a figure (ἀντίτυπον ) of that with which Christ was anointed; and that is the Holy Ghost250.”  “It is evident,” says Milles, “from his words here, that the Chrism of which Cyril treats in this Lecture is not to be referred to the Unction which is administered by the Romanists in Confirmation.  For every one sees that by Unction in this passage a ceremony of Baptism is indicated.  The ancients employed two Unctions in Baptism, the first before the immersion in the water, of which he spoke in the preceding Lecture; the second immediately upon ascending from the water, of which he speaks in this Lecture.” This opinion is elaborately discussed by the Benedictine editor, Touttée, Dissertatio iii. c. 7, who argues that the Unction described by Cyril is a Sacrament distinct from Baptism, that it has for its proper grace the gift of the Holy Spirit, and further that this gift is not conferred in Baptism.  Of these assertions the first and second appear to represent Cyril’s view correctly:  the last is an exaggeration and a mistake, the tendency of which is to identify the Chrism of the Eastern Church with that which is used in Confirmation by the Roman Church, and to exalt the rite of Confirmation as a proper Sacrament distinct from Baptism, and even superior to it.  A view differing in some respects from both of these has been recently put forward by a learned and devout writer of our own Church, who has fully discussed the teaching of Cyril and other Eastern Fathers, and gives the result of his invest- igation in the following “Summary251:”  “For very many centuries the Christians of the East have never been forced to define to themselves at all clearly the position of a person baptized but unconfirmed.  Their mode of administering Confirmation (Chrism?) by the hands of the baptizing Presbyter—though among the Greeks and some others with chrism prepared by the Bishop—relieves them from the necessity which weighs upon us Westerns, of teaching Christian children what their status is between the two rites.  Confirmation (Chrism?) is for 250 Mystag. iii. § 1. 251 A. J. Mason, D.D., The Relation of Confirmation to Baptism, p. 389.  Though I find myself compelled to differ widely from my friend Canon Mason in the interpretation of Cyril’s teaching on this subject, I cannot refrain from expressing my sincere admiration of the tone and purpose of his treatise, and of the learning and research which it exhibits. Effects of Baptism and of Chrism. 51 Effects of Baptism and of Chrism.

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