“ CONFIRMATION OF BISHOPS. In canon law confirmation is the act by which the election of a new bishop receives the assent of the proper ecclesiastical authority. In the early centuries of the history of the Church the election or appointment of a suffragan bishop was confirmed and approved by the metropolitan and his suffragans assembled in synod. By the 4th canon of the first council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) , however, it was decreed that the right of confirmation should belong to the metropolitan bishop of each province, a rule confirmed by the 12th canon of the council of Laodicaea. ”

“ When Martin V. was elected pope in 1417 he resumed the practice of providing bishops, and from this time until the Reformation the canonical election and confirmation of a bishop in England was a rare exception.
In Roman Catholic countries the complete control of the papacy over the election and appointment of bishops has since the Reformation become firmly established, in spite of the efforts of Gallicans and “Febronians” to reassert what they held to be the more Catholic usage (see Gallicanism; Febronianism; Bishop) . ”

“ Without deciding that objections (e.g. to the identity of the elect, or the genuineness of documents) could never be investigated by the vicar-general or the archbishop, it held that they could not even entertain objections of the kind alleged. ”