Sacrament

Literally, “a military oath” taken by the Roman soldiers not to desert their standard, turn their back on the enemy, or abandon their general. We also, in the sacrament of baptism, take a military oath “to fight manfully under the banner of Christ.” The early Christians used the word to signify “a sacred mystery,” and hence its application to the Baptism and Eucharist, and in the Roman Catholic Church to marriage, confirmation, etc.

The five sacraments

are Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction. (See Thirty-nine Articles, Article xxxv.)

The seven sacraments

are Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction.

The two sacraments

of the Protestant Church are Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Sacramentarians

Sackerson