[Footnote 503: 'For Christ is named of chrism, and meaneth the Anointed One. For it was commanded the Jews to make a holy unguent for such as were called unto the priesthood or the kingdom: and as now the vestment of purple is unto kings the mark of kingly power, so upon these did the unction with sacred unguent bestow the name and kingly power: and hence were they called Christi, from chrism, which is unction. For chrisma in Greek is unctio in Latin. And this unction did aptly give this name unto our Lord, because He was anointed of the Father by the Spirit, as is said in the Acts of the Apostles, "Against Thy Holy Child Jesus, Whom Thou hast anointed, were they gathered together": not, that is, with visible oil, but with the gift of grace, which is denoted by the visible oil.' S. Isidore of Seville, Orig. vii, 2. See also Orig. vii, 4, and De Off. Ecc. i, 1.]
[Footnote 504: 'Christians be named from Christ, and Christ from chrism, being anointed. For He was anointed by God from the beginning "with the oil of gladness above His fellows." In the Old Testament priests and kings be called Christs (or Anointed), because they were anointed with a temporal unction. As it is written, "Touch not my Christs" (i.e. mine anointed). Wherefore, Christ is not a peculiar name of our Saviour, but is a common appellation of dignity. But the name Jesus is peculiar to the person of our Saviour alone, and was given Him, as the Evangelist doth testify by the angel, Gabriel, at the Conception, and by men at His Circumcision.'—Durand. loco cit. This will explain the reason, to many persons so puzzling, why it is only to the name of Jesus that our Church, after the Apostle, commands due obeisance to be made: and will reprove the erroneous, though pious, zeal which makes so many of the poor even now bow at the other names of our Blessed Lord.]
8. Again, according to Augustine, the first unction with oil showeth us to be prepared fully to hear the faith, and called to the sweet odour of Christ, and warned to renounce the devil. The second unction, according to Rabanus, is upon the breast and between the shoulders, that we may be fortified on both sides by faith, and confirmed by the grace of God for the performance of good works. For by the breast is rightly understood the virtue of faith: but by the shoulders—upon which any burden is borne—the strength and working of a man: according to that saying, 'They bind heavy burdens and lay them on the shoulders of men,' etc. [Footnote 505] A man is anointed therefore on the breast and between the shoulders, that both in thought and deed he may relinquish the works of the devil, and become capable of understanding the Word of God, and strong enough to bear its yoke and the burden of the law.
[Footnote 505: S. Matthew xxiii, 4.]
9. But the unction upon the crown, that is the top part of the head over the brain, is performed according to the same authority in order that he who is so anointed may become a partaker of the heavenly kingdom: and because the soul of the baptised person is espoused unto the Head, that is Christ, therefore this unction is made with chrism, compounded of oil and balsam, in order that we may know that the Holy Ghost, Who worketh invisibly, is given unto him: for oil, as we said above, cherisheth the wearied limbs and affordeth light. [{139}] But balsam giveth it a sweet odour. If so be the limbs of the soul be wearied, when it repenteth of having acted in opposition to God, the Holy Ghost cometh to it, giving light to its understanding and showing it that its sins are, or may be, forgiven, and bestowing on it good works which breathe out a sweet odour amongst others: all which is denoted by the fragrant balsam. Also because the seat of high-mindedness, which according to the name is always seeking higher things, appears to exist in the head, therefore the unction on this part is rightly performed in the form of the cross and in token of humility.
10. Pope Sylvester appointed that this unction might be administered by priests upon occasion of death: whence it is likely that before his time [Footnote 506] the anointing both of the crown of the head and of the forehead was reserved for the bishop. For when the bosom of the Church was extended, and bishops could no longer be at hand for each individual in confirmation, he then ordered, lest any should perish without the unction of chrism, that all should be anointed on the crown of the head over the brain, which is the seat of wisdom, at the hands of a priest, for the increasing of strength and grace. Whence if afterwards they should have died, saith Richard (of Cremona), they shall receive an increase of grace and glory.
[Footnote 506: S. Sylvester was the contemporary of Constantine. Circa A.D. 325.]
11. Yet nevertheless we believe that a man may be saved by baptism alone even without the unction, and that the Holy Ghost is given without the laying on of hands to such as God may will, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles.
12. Yet the faithless heretics, the Arnaldistae, [Footnote 507] assert that men never receive the Holy Ghost through the baptism of water; and that Samaritans who were baptised did not receive Him until they received the laying on of hands. Both these unctions are administered, according to Rabanus, in the form of the cross, that the devil, whose vessel the person is, recognising the sign of his own discomfiture, the sign of the Holy Cross, may know that from that moment the vessel is Another's, being alienated from him.