56. The subtlety of scholars has been fully deployed to solve this problem. Some assert that the decree in question was not issued by St. Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople in 842, but by a different Methodius, the schismatic Patriarch of Constantinople, in 1240. But Goarius states that he saw several documents anterior to the latter Methodius which assign the decree to St. Methodius the Patriarch (in notis ad ipsum Decretum in his elucidation of the Euchologion, p. 698). That is enough to deprive this solution of its weight.

Others grant that the words "the sign of the gift of the Holy Spirit" are the form of the sacrament of confirmation, and recognize that the same words are to be said during the anointing of repentant apostates who are being received back into the Church in accordance with the decree of St. Methodius. They think, however, that this does not give grounds for saying that the sacrament of confirmation has been conferred on men who have already received it, since the intention of the minister is necessary for the conferring of the sacraments. In this case it is quite clear that the intention of the minister is not to confer the sacrament but to reconcile a returned apostate to the Church. This solution is embraced by the following writers: Du Hamel, Theologiae, vol. 6, p. 383, Paris 1605; Goarius, in notis ad Eucholog., p. 598; Tournely, in Tractatu de Confirmatione, p. 612f; and Assemanus the Younger, Codex Liturgicus, bk. 3, De Confirmatione, p. 63.

However, many others are dissatisfied with this solution. Juveninus, in particular, raises two objections. In the first place he notices that there is no Greek evidence to suggest that it is not the minister's intention to confer the sacrament of confirmation when he reconciles an apostate by anointing him with holy oil and using words which contain the form of the sacrament. He suggests secondly that if a minister applies the matter and form of a sacrament to one who is not capable of receiving it, his act is wrong and sinful, even if his intention is not to confer the sacrament.

Finally, others point out that evidence from the early centuries establishes that apostates in the Western church were sometimes reconciled by an imposition of hands. They admit that it is now forbidden to confer the sacrament of confirmation a second time on those who have already validly received it, but they claim that it was not so in the early days of the Church. Hence, they conclude that it should not seem so strange that the decree of St. Methodius, which relates to the Eastern church, requires returned apostates to be confirmed a second time despite their first valid confirmation.

But this argument is fragile. For some of the early evidence states plainly that apostates were received back by the imposition of hands alone. If this is to be understood as the conferring of confirmation, it will have to be shown that this sacrament was then conferred by the imposition of hands alone without any anointing. If it is said, and there is some evidence to this effect, that holy oil as well as the imposition of hands was used in reconciling this type of penitent, it will still have to be shown what form of words if any was used by the minister who imposed hands and anointed with chrism in order to establish that the sacrament was repeated. Marcus Rehmensis describes many types of imposition of hands in his treatise on in Tractatu de variis Capitibus Ecclesiae, chap. 18. The author of the Gloss on the Can. Manus impositio, 1, quest. 1, also gives a careful account of this matter. Sirmondus and Morinus, both illustrious, consider that the imposition of hands, which is now in question, imparted Confirmation (Sirm., in suo Antirbetico secundo, chap. 5; Mor. de Sacram. Confir., chap. 12, p. 56 and in Tract. de Poenitentia, bk. 9, chap. 9-10). But Peter Aurelius argues that the imposition of hands given when receiving heretics back was purely ceremonial and did not confer the sacrament. This opinion is shared by Lupus in Can. 7. Constanti nopolitanum, vol. 2, p. 46f; Arcudius, bk. 2, chap. 18; Suarez, in 3. part. Divi Thomae, vol. 3, quest. 72, disp. 34, sect. 1, resp. 3, and disp. 36, art. 11, sect. 3. Accordingly Witasse, after reviewing all the evidence for both views, finally judges both possible and leaves the matter there (Tract. de Sacram. Confirmat., esp. p. 63). The author of the additions to Estius in bk. 4. Sentent., dist. 5, sect. 16, lit. B. p. 87, behaves with similar caution.