Chapter XX. The Sacrament Of Confirmation. 273 In violation of the practice of all antiquity it mutilates the rite by omitting the sacred unction. It retains the shadow without the substance. It raises, indeed, its hands over the candidates; but they are not the anointed hands of Peter or John, or Cyprian or Augustine, to whom it is said: "Whatsoever thou shalt bless, let it be blessed; whatsoever thou shalt sanctify, let it be sanctified."365 Their hands were lifted up with authority and clothed with supernatural power; but the hands of the Episcopal Bishops are spiritually paralyzed by the suicidal act of the Reformers, and [286] they expressly disclaim any sacramental efficacy in the rite which they administer. [287]