Confirmation

(-fur-mā'shun.) [From L. confirmo, I strengthen. ] (Theol.) The act or ceremony in the Christian Church of the laying-on of hands, by which baptized persons are confirmed in their baptismal vows. The ceremony is performed by the bishop; and the antiquity of it is, by all ancient writers, carried as high as the Apostles, upon whose example and practice it is founded. In the Roman Catholic Church, it is considered a sacrament. (Rhet.) The third part of an oration, in which the orator undertakes to prove the truth of the proposition advanced in his narration. [s. 217]