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.
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Effects of Baptism and of Chrism.