the act of confirming or establishing. In an ecclesiastical sense, it denotes the ceremony of laying on of hands, in the admission of baptized persons to the enjoyment of Christian privileges. The antiquity of this ceremony is, by all the older writers, carried as high as the apostles, and founded upon their example and practice. In the primitive church, the ceremony was performed immediately after baptism, if the bishop were present at the solemnity. Among the Greeks, and throughout the East, it still accompanies baptism; but the Roman Catholics make it a distinct and independent sacrament. Seven years is the stated age for confirmation; however, persons are confirmed sometimes before and sometimes after that age. The person confirmed releases his godfather and godmother, by taking upon himself the baptismal vows in their place. The order of confirmation in the church of England does not determine the precise age of the persons to be confirmed.