1 See Dr. David Philipson: Confirmation in the Synagogue, Cincinnati, 1890, and Rabbi I. M. Wise: Essence of Judaism.
264 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE man's duty to confess, obey, and love him; the immortality of the soul, and duties to our fellow-men, to self, and country.
Confirmation classes are formed, a few months before the cere- mony, of children whose mental and moral maturity is deemed suffi- cient. Here, besides a general review, the higher meaning of the chief movements of Scripture is impressed, and also the nature of Abraham's call, the significance of Moses's life and legation, the mes- sage of the prophets, the idea of revelation, the meaning of the Jewish idea, its relation to its future, the festivities and the Ten Command- ments; passages of Scripture and ritual are memorized, and then, sometimes after a special examination, the postulants are ready for the ceremonial. These months are a season of probation, and any serious misconduct is followed by relegation to the next lower class.
The day set apart for the ceremony of confirmation is the Feast of Pentecost, on which the synagogue commemorates the revelation of the law on Sinai, and also the establishment of the covenant of Israel with God to be his chosen people. Confirmation is treated as a re- newal of that covenant. The children come and sit with their parents during a special service, considerably varied in different synagogues. Later they pass to the vestry and file in with the rabbi and school officers, to music. The sacred scroll of the law is taken from the taber- nacle and read. Then follow impressive responses, prayers, exhorta- tions, and sermon, and sometimes flower offerings, symbolic of those of slain victims upon the altars of old; and then, with benediction and chant, the purpose of which is to confirm the ancient vow of Horeb to serve God alone, the children are returned, past the open ark one by one, to their parents, who are told to lay on their heads, in sacred blessing, the hands that toiled for, guarded, and nursed them through infancy and illness. This, in the services where it occurs, is perhaps the most touching and impressive ceremony of the year. The afternoon is sometimes spent with orphans in the asylum, for one or more of whom each class had perhaps assumed the responsibility, where they are en- couraged to express the first fruits of the new life and feelings of the day in some act of charity, perhaps making presents of dresses like their own, so that the difference between poor and rich is no longer seen, etc.
These ceremonials have occasionally of late suggested to some the dangers of pomp and display, and have evoked protests that this is not an entertainment or exhibition, with brilliant receptions, vulgar display of presents, and extravagant dress. Such perversions seem, however, to be exceptional, and the predominant purpose is to work on the inner and not the outer sense, to appeal to the heart, and to start religious currents in the life and mind. Vows at this tender age are generally disapproved. No creed is formulated, for Judaism is the " least dogmatic of all religions," but the higher vocation of man is to be felt and striven toward as a dim and distant goal. While this ceremony is not passed even by all the children of the congregation, CHURCH CONFIRMATION 265 it is earnestly advocated for every Jew by birth who has not apos- tatized by deliberate choice.
In recent years post-confirmation classes for further work are often formed for still older children. It is felt that while childhood is re- ceptive and credulous, and puberty is a period of doubt and reaction, that there is a higher and later standpoint of ripe, reasoned, and set- tled conviction beyond cult and form, and that it is a mistake to leave children in the " Flegeljahre" when not only doubt but temptation is strongest. Such classes already exist in some places as an integral but kind of post-graduate department of the Sabbath-school. Here the history of other ancient Oriental nations is studied, with some- thing about antiquities and excavation, some philosophy of religion and comparative religion, Milton, and modern Jewish literature, with a view to counteract the crude infidelity which in our age is so often rankly rife in callow adolescents.1 (B) Confirmation is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, by which the Holy Ghost is received, which it is a sin for any parent to neglect, and in which, some think, centers the very heart and soul of the best that is in Catholi- cism.
It is also often called a mission, and its inspiration in most Catho- lic treatises on the subject is directly traced to the sayings of Jesus: " Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God "; " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise "; " Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven "; "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast re- vealed them unto babes "; " Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me "; " Whoso shall offend one of these little 1 In a curious and learned book, Leopold Low (Die Lebensalter in der Jiidi- schen Literatur; Szegedin, 1875, p. 457) compiles from ancient Talmudic and other sources an account of how the Jews regarded and treated each stage of life, and gives quite a full account of how the Katan or boy became a Gadol or attained a kind of preliminary majority at puberty. The ages of six, thirteen or fourteen, twenty and thirty-six were especially marked stadia toward maturity. In early times puberty was determined by individual signs of ripeness, but legalistic tenden- cies later tended to fix an age and were attracted to fourteen as twice the sacred number seven. The Mishna and Gemara differed somewhat, but in general the boy of this age began to acquire property rights, could make contracts, not, how- ever, unannullable, and the goods he could own were indicated. He could give testimony as a witness but was not fully responsible at law till twenty. The ritual college prescribed new functions in the synagogue, and full religious accountability was slowly developed as a progressive emancipation. 56 266 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea "; " Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." The divinity of childhood as sug- gested in such passages is interpreted by the Church to imply a some- what mystic power of deep internal appropriation of symbols, rites, and even dogma, more akin to Wordsworth than to the modern meth- ods of secular pedagogy.
The age of confirmation differs. In Italy, where the mind develops very early, the lowest age at which it may be received is fixed at seven. In France and Belgium children can not be confirmed before ten. In this country eleven or twelve may be called the minimum age. There must be no time lost with the children. Early impressions sink deepest. As soon as they are able to receive the eucharist with a fair degree of appreciation the sacrament should be administered. Indeed, the priest, who alone has the power to admit, while having some discretion, is generally thought negligent if children of sixteen or seventeen in his parish are not confirmed, except for special cause. Stated preparation is prescribed for deaf-mutes and even for the feeble-minded, for whom a so-called " fool's catechism " of the simplest and most essential truths is provided. Those who do not honor their parents, refuse to attend mass, eat flesh-meat on Friday, steal or are unchaste, should be kept waiting, lest they profane the holy table. Childish lies, obstinacy, or lack of devotion should not bar them from the chief source of help against their faults, which might be aug- mented by delay.
The essential preparation for first communion and confirmation is a knowledge of the catechism. In insisting upon this as basal, the voice of the Church has been practically unanimous from the time of Origen and the famous catechetical school of Alexandria, and from Augustine, who consecrated the first years of his episcopate to com- posing his treatises on catechizing, down to Fenelon and Bossuet, and even to the present time. While there have been periods of decline, and eminent prelates have sometimes failed to see its dignity and im- portance, men like Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, found in catechizing children the chief source of comfort in their de- clining years, and by a decree of the Council of Trent every pastor was ordered to administer the catechism for children with care, at least on Sundays and other holy-days. This was speedily ratified and detailed by provincial councils and synods throughout the world. Car- dinal Bellarmine devoted himself with ardor to this work in person. St. Ignatius bound himself with a vow to this office, and each Jesuit priest still acts for forty days as catechist when he begins his charge. Xavier, too, thus began his great mission, and Romilion and the found- er of the Ursulines devoted themselves to it. The work was reformed in the seventeenth and in part recreated in the nineteenth century, but the catechetical traditions have been strong and constant, and there CHURCH CONFIRMATION 267 has always been a body, never so large as now, of devoted nuns and priests who, as Plato's Republic first suggested, renouncing family ties, have turned that same rich and deep tide of affection, which most spend on spouse and offspring, to this holy apostolate of childhood and youth, as their sweetest and dearest life-work in a way that has not only supplemented, but quickened, instructed, and elevated parental love, and helped to build up the holy city of " Man-Soul " in the heart. It is to this long-circuiting and sublimation of the sexual and parental instinct that I ascribe the entirely unique character that pervades the labor and writings of the great child-lovers in Catholic Christendom, and which merits the reverent and prolonged attention of all who study other systems than their own, to realize ideals, to learn their strength and their virtue rather than to conform old prejudices by listing the more superficial defects, perversions, and failures.
The catechism must be learned with great verbal accuracy, be- cause it is the standard of religious knowledge. It contains sublime answers, that children can be made to feel the sense of, " to every question of interest to man." It is a high philosophy of life, so fit and admirable that not one syllable of it must be changed, although it is seasoned with much of explanation and illustration. It is often begun festively, and the work is interposed with song and story. By the " billet " system children sometimes appear dressed as angels, and recite the answers as if they were just revealed from heaven. The best catechetical tradition of the Church has been carefully preserved, and is even now being developed more vigorously than for some cen- turies. There are several Catholic catechisms, but they differ only in the amount of matter included, ranging from elementary work, containing a few topics, to those of Deharbe, Jouin, Gaume, and Schouppe, which are for the last year of study or for the post-con- firmation classes, now strongly advocated, and often formed. The catechism of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore is the American standard, and is a pocket volume of seventy-two pages. First are ten chief prayers, to which some would devote the entire primary year. The chief topics in order, taught by questions and answers, are: the end of man, God, unity and trinity, creation, first parents, the fall, sin, incarnation, redemption, the passion, death, and ascension, the Holy Ghost, the Church and its marks, and each of the sacraments in detail, viz., baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, unction, holy orders, and matrimony. Then follow mass, prayers, each of the Ten Commandments in detail, the last judgment, hell, purgatory, and heaven. Sometimes the catechumens are stimulated by marks, rank, prizes, examinations and charts, the bell and blackboard, and the vast repertory of the many thousand lives of the saints, those arsenals of virtue, the best of which are often calendared one or more for each day in the year, is sometimes utilized. The central theme of cate- chetical inculcation and also of early influences of the Church is sin and the divine and human instrumentalities by which its results are removed. Confirmation is a renewal by children of the vows made for 268 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE them by others in infancy at baptism, which meant purification from ancestral sin.1 This work is done less comprehensively than in countries where there are no parochial schools, and it must be limited to Sunday. Often the work is more or less graded. When the work of the regu- lar teachers approaches completion, special confirmation classes are formed of those thought fit, and the priest takes the children for a few months of review, and more intensive and extensive instruction, often twice a week. Just preceding the rite itself as a special prep- aration for first communion, comes the retreat, by which children are withdrawn into the sanctuary of the soul, and which seeks for a sea- son of from two to four or five days to snatch them from the outward life and from association with other children, to bring them face to face with God and self, and to impress them with the sense that some- thing serious and momentous is transpiring within. The catechism has been learned, and the soul is tender and ripe for the deepest im- pressions as never before or after. It has many varieties, but in a true retreat, by a good leader, the children devote the best part of the morning, afternoon, and evening to receiving the strongest impres- sions of sin, death, salvation, and judgment, but without undue fatigue or fear. Prayers, admonition, meditation, and sometimes the noting of their impressions and experiences in individual books (a method said to be full of suggestion for the instructors and of great present and even greater subsequent value to the child, in keeping alive the freshness and purity of first religious emotion), special hymns, the sentiments of which are impressed and explained beforehand, care- fully selected and told stories of saintly heroes of virtue, and alle- gories, are all directed to produce a silent revolution of the soul or a veritable conversion. They are told that Jesus is now passing, knock- ing at their hearts, nearer than ever before or after; that they must choose between good and evil, and declare in their hearts eternal war with sin. The exercises begin Sunday, and last till confirmation day, which is Thursday. The battle with sin in the soul becomes most in- tense on Tuesday, especially in the afternoon, when sometimes the crucifix is draped in black and death is impressed as the doom of all; there are tears and warnings, lest each child may not make a true communion, and the sermonettes to them are most austere and penitential. The suffering and death of Christ is made objective, vivid, and impressive, and the sentiment of pity which, deepened to pathos, is one of the most powerful sentiments of the soul, which after Emperor Otho's death prompted many to slay themselves for sheer compassion, the Church knows best how to utilize for good. The 1 I have corresponded with many eminent American Catholic prelates, to whom I am much indebted, and have examined many manuals in several languages, espe- cially those by Rev. T. L. Kinkead, M. Noel, Mons. Dupenloup, Rev. D. J. Scholt, I. Reuter, S. I. Ratistinae, Father Thurston; and other works by Rev. A G. Mortimer, L'Abbe Laden, M. J. Lavelle, etc.
CHURCH CONFIRMATION 269 director is sad and overwhelmed, lest their hearts be not really hum- bled, broken, and contrite. Eternal salvation is at stake, and the hor- ror of a sacrilegious communion must be deeply felt. Each child files up and kisses the crucifix, but at the evening service, after all have received absolution, all is joy, and the service is beautiful and grand. Past sins are pardoned, and they then and there begin a new life. Something divine has passed over the soul, and each is restored to goodness.
Just before the ceremony of confirmation every child must make a general confession, covering all it can recall of its past life. Con- fession is usually the Catholic child's first personal contact with the Church, and is commonly advised as early as seven or eight, because he can then sin and repent. While he must rather die than betray the secrets of adults, a good confessor must keep the confidences of this tender age also strictly inviolate, and may be a beneficent spir- itual father of childhood if he has the rare gift of keeping in sym- pathetic rapport with it. Always, and of course especially now, at this chief confession of a lifetime, he will strive, first of all, while exerting the utmost care to ask no questions that may suggest error or sin not previously known, to encourage each child to unburden his conscience as honestly and unreservedly as possible. To acknowledge a fault is to get it outside the better, inmost self, to begin to loosen a burden, and to molt the old ego. If frank, the besetting sins are seen, and the process of alienation begins. Real regret is almost sure to follow, and care is taken that it be poignant, but not excessive or morbid, for remorse, always a feeling of doubtful utility, is not for this age. Wrong is deplored, because not only odious to a sinless heavenly Father, but as in the face of infinite goodness and love toward each person. After dealing discreetly and tenderly with the nascent conscience, judging considerately causes and occasions of er- ror, and generating not only repentance but good resolution, penances are imposed. These are sometimes a given number of repetitions of prayers, learning hymns, refraining from dessert for a time, a brief daily season of self-communion, acts of self-sacrifice or service, that the fresh impulses to right may find some expression before they fade. Penance, too, must be administered with great wisdom and adapta- tion to the nature, needs, and surroundings of the individual child. Lastly comes the priestly absolution from past sins, and the candi- date, pure and white of soul indeed, is ready for the ceremonial sac- rament.
The day of first communion and confirmation, on which children are to receive God in the eucharist, and to first taste the bread of angels at the divine banquet of paschal communion, marks the epoch when God takes possession of their chastened souls. The ceremonial is a very special one for Church and family. It must be brilliant, and with much outer pomp. Synods have declared that it must be " cele- brated with all possible solemnity," for children's senses are at their keenest, and they need external show. After final instruction con- THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE cerning their part and bearing during the ceremonial, they enter the church in solemn procession and kneel in a line, the girls in white, as a symbol of their new sinlessness, on the left of the sanctuary, and the boys, in their best and darkest clothes, on the right. There are sometimes certificates of confession. There are veils suggesting be- trothal to Christ and the Church, candles reminiscent of the catacombs where the Church was cradled, and symbols of the true light of truth, their very wax, according to some liturgists, being an allegory of the virginity of bees and of flowers, and the flame, of both the glory and suffering of Christ, and the altar, which has always been a table on a tomb.
Only a bishop can administer confirmation, and he makes episcopal visitations for this purpose to each parish, at intervals varying some- what with its size. The pontifical vestments are the miter or duplex crown, the mozetta, symbolizing the light on Moses's brow when he came from Sinai, the amice or allegorical shield, the tunic, which re- calls the seamless robe woven for Jesus by his mother Mary, that was not rent by the earthquake of the crucifixion, and for which the sol- diers cast lots, the cincture of continence and self-control, the stole, since the eighth century representing immortality, and always to be put on with a stated prayer, and the cope, the significance of which has been lost; he carries the crozier or pastoral staff, the symbol of his authority. He lays aside his miter, and turning from the altar raises his hands in benediction. He then explains the nature of the sacrament, invokes all to make good use of its graces, and prays from the ritual that the Holy Ghost, the descent of which is the chief and central end of the ceremony, may rest upon the confirmed, as at Pen- tecost, with all its fulness of gifts. Then, approaching the first boy in the line, he dips his right thumb in a golden vessel held by a ministrant and containing chrism of oil and balm, the consecration of which by the bishop forms one of the ceremonies of Holy Thursday, and anoints each, in the form of a cross, on the forehead, to indi- cate that he must openly profess and practise the faith, never be ashamed of it, and die rather than deny it, saying, Signo te signo crucis et confirmo te chrismate salutis in nomine Patris et Filii et Spir- itus Sancti. Then, making the sign of the cross over the person, he gives him a slight blow on the cheek to suggest that he must be ever ready to suffer all things for the sake of Christ, saying at the same time, Pax tecum. The assistant wipes the oil, while the bishop passes to the next. Like baptism, confirmation calls for sponsors, but of late in America it is customary to have but two, a male adult for all the boys and a female for the girls. The sponsor stands behind and lays his hand on the right shoulder of each during this rite. While this cere- mony is often performed with low mass and hymns, it is better with the choir and organ of high mass, and comes after the three Kyries, the Gloria in excelsis Deo, and Credo, with the offertory and preface; sometimes the Veni Creator Spiritus is here sung, and then, after the Sanctus, and the elevation of the sacred Host and the consum- CHURCH CONFIRMATION 271 mation of the eternal miracle of transubstantiation, the acts of con- firmation are recited by the children, who at the supreme moment go forward and partake of the blessed eucharist, receiving God into their hearts entire, although under but the one form of bread, when the Agnus Dei is sung. Sometimes another mass of thanksgiving is cele- brated immediately afterward by another priest. The catechists then lead the children out of the church, where their parents await and em- brace them with tears, while priests and teachers return sadly to pray alone before the deserted and silent altar. Often they are sent out later in the day to do works of charity while the dew of consecration is fresh on their souls.
Many accessories are modified, and in large places supplementary services are held in the evening. Vespers and often the Magnificat are intoned with responsions, a sermon is addressed to the children, admonishing them to renew their baptismal vows, perhaps the for- mula of consecration is recited by boys selected beforehand, and all are formally recommitted to their parents, who are charged to keep them as pure and religious as at that moment. Souvenirs and often symbolic presents are given, very tastefully illustrated diplomas or certificates picturing the ceremonies of baptism, first communion, and confirmation, and there may be supplementary services next day.
The young communicant has now received the baptism of fire, as formerly of water, and is under renewed and greatly increased obliga- tion to observe fasts and festivals, to frequent confessions, which every good Catholic must attend at least annually, and is in a position to receive by grace the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are wis- dom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God, that he may bear in their due season the twelve fruits of the spirit, which are charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, longanimity, goodness, mildness, fidelity, modesty, continency, and chastity, the names of which have been memorized in early childhood, illustrated later in Bible stories and lives of the saints, and if the proper stage of higher scholastic study is reached are found still later to be the basis of instruction in the systematic theological ethics of Aquinas.
To receive the sacrament with the consciousness of unforgiven sin would be a sacrilege, and for its worthy and fruitful reception the subject must be in a state of grace. Although confirmation and the work of the Sunday-school, all of which leads up to it, is the palla- dium of the faith which no child of Catholic parents must omit, there is a growing sentiment, especially in this country, that effective as all this is, the children must not be left at the dawn of adolescence without further guidance, and hence in many places societies of per- severance have been instituted, where studies of the ecclesiastical year, Church history, selected points of canon law, hymnology, written ac- counts of festivals, and a better understanding of the orders, insti- tutions, and rites of the Church are imparted, and each engages in works of beneficence and additional retreats. Some have lately advo- cated so great an innovation as Sunday-school libraries, and urged THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE that whereas the Church has hitherto been far more prominent than the Scriptures, a graded course be conducted in first-hand study of both the Old and New Testaments, which are usually reserved from direct use by children, at least till these post-communion classes, which should be attended till marriage. The age of temptation to sin, it is well said, is not ended but just beginning, and the influence of re- ligion so wrell inaugurated should be sustained till character is set- tled. Sometimes these are called Christian academies, and there are first aspirants, then candidates, then auditors, and then full acade- micians, a title especially prized in France; there are conferences, debates, and honors, and various confraternities, sodalities, and clubs. Precedents of these abound, for St. Sulpice, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Vincent de Paul, and many others, were devoted to this work in the past, and young people attended up to the age of twenty or even twen- ty-five.