This paper is limited in its main part to what August Vilmar had to say about the Sacraments and what he termed “sacramental actions ( sakramentale Handlungen). It is difficult, in a few words, to determine just what Vilmar included under these terms because in keeping with the Lutheran Symbols he did not categorically limit the Sacraments to a certain number and exclude all other acts of the Church. In certain contexts he spoke of seven and more Sacraments, and in other contexts, of only two Sacraments, placing the lesser acts of the Church into the category “sacramental” actions. In general, one might say that he thought of three Sacraments-Holy Baptism, the Holy Eucharist, and Holy ,Absolution-as genuinely Sacraments, and that he called some of the other actions of the Church, such as Holy Ordination, Holy Matrimony, Holy Confirmation, and Holy Unction, “sacramental actions. Vilmar’s- numbering or the Sacraments will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter V