52. What is beyond dispute should be stated: that in the Latin church, the sacrament of confirmation is conferred by the priest pronouncing the words of the sacramental form while he makes the sign of the Cross on the forehead of the candidate with holy chrism, that is olive oil mixed with balm and blessed by the bishop. In those areas where genuine balm is not be to found, the popes have readily allowed the use of a sweet-smelling juice or liquid, generally taken for real balm, in preparing chrism. This is clear from constitution 180 of St. Pius V which grants this privilege to the bishops of the Indies, and from constitution 97 of Sixtus V (in Bullario nova, vol. 4, pt. 3, Roman edition). Pope Sixtus explains that real balm is scarce chiefly because the Turks completely destroyed its main source, the trees which once flourished in Palestine and particularly in the Jericho valley. He accordingly gives permission to the Archbishops and Bishops of Portugal to use balm from Brazil and other areas of the New World in preparing holy chrism. In so doing the Pope asserts that he is following the example of his predecessors Pius IV and Gregory XIII. The prudence of these popes has been praised by Morinus in his posthumous work de Sacramento Confirmationis, p. 35.

Likewise in the Greek church the sacrament of confirmation is conferred by means of holy oil. This is made from olive oil and balm, but in addition twenty-three kinds of other herbs are used as well as a little wine. These herbs are carefully listed by Habert, in librum Pontificalem Ecclesiae Graecae, observation 5, on the rite of chrism; and by Berti, Theologia, vol. 7, bk. 32, chap. 5. The latter, however, thinks it practically impossible for the Greeks to add all the herbs mentioned by Habert since some of them are so unknown that they receive scant mention in dictionaries and specialized writings on plants and herbs. Whatever the truth of this question, the rite has been left unchanged in the admonition under discussion, since the practice of adding these herbs is an ancient one. The Greeks are merely advised that they should not consider these herbs essential for the matter of the sacrament; they should recognize the sacrament as valid when it is performed only with oil and balm blessed by the bishop, even though some of the herbs which they usually add in accordance with their rite are lacking. Wisely and with good cause did the fathers at the Synod of Zamoscia in 1720 affirm that whatever herbs were added to the balm, care should be taken "that the largest part of the chrism should always be oil mixed with balm" (sect. 2, de Confirmatione).