competed for dominance in the medieval church, the Council of Trent (1545) finally assigned the term “sacrament” to seven central rites: baptism, confirmation, holy Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony.2 John Calvin and most other Protestant leaders rejected the Roman Catholic sacramental system but retained its vocabulary, applying the term “sacrament” only to ordinances instituted by God himself (cf. Westminster Confession of Faith 27; Belgic Confession 33). They insisted