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CONFESSION 



CONFESSIONS OF FAITH 



of course the church claimed to hold it by divine 

 commission (Matt. xvi. 19, xviii. 18; John, xx. 22, 

 23), and insisted on the serious consequences which 

 it involved. We can trace the faint beginnings of 

 the modern system in the practice which prevailed 

 in monasteries and nunneries of confessing breaches 

 of the rule to the superiors ( Jerome, De Reg. Mona- 

 chorum ; Basil, Reg. Brev. ), and in the growing habit 

 of seeking advice from priests by secret confession. 

 The thirty-third canon of the Council of Chalons, 

 which was held 813 A.D., throws great light on the 

 state of things then existing. Some, the council 

 says, maintain that ' sins should be confessed to 

 God alone,' others to God and to the priest. The 

 council finds no fault with either view, and remarks 

 that confession to God purges the conscience from 

 sin, while confession to the priest teaches the peni- 

 tent ' how his sins are to be purged. ' Even Peter 

 Lombard, the great theological authority of the 12th 

 century (In Sentent. lib. iv. ), occupies the same 

 ground as the Council of Chalons; and Aquinas 

 ( Supplement to theSumma ) admits that in Lombard's 

 time the necessity of confessing all mortal sins to the 



Eriest was an open question. Meantime, the fourth 

 ateran Council in 1215 (can. xxi. ) had required 

 all the faithful who have come to the years of 

 discretion to confess their sins at least once a year 

 to their parish priest, or with his leave to another 

 priest. The doctrine received its final form in the 

 Council of Trent (Sess. xiv.). The council explains 

 ' mortal sins ' to mean all sins, ' even sins of 

 thought' which separate the soul from God. It 

 declares that for mortal sin after baptism, confes- 

 sion to an approved priest, in act if possible, in 

 desire if a priest cannot be had, is by divine in- 

 stitution the one and only remedy. This confes- 

 sion must embrace every mortal sin which can be 

 recalled after careful self-examination. Further, 

 it declares that the secret confession of mortal sins 

 has always been practised in the church, and 

 whereas in Peter Lombard's time Roman Catholics 

 were free to hold that absolution was no more than 

 a declaration of forgiveness by God, the council 

 condemns this opinion under anathema. But it is 

 careful to add that confession and absolution, in 

 order to avail, must be accompanied by sincere 

 sorrow before God for sin past, and a firm purpose 

 of amendment. By the present canon law, Roman 

 Catholics living in the world may choose any priest 

 approved by the bishop as their confessor. The 

 confession of slight or venial sins remains a matter 

 of counsel and not of precept. 



Confession to a priest is prescribed by the Greek 

 and most of the Oriental churches, and the Church 

 of England recommends private confession in the 

 case of the sick, though it has never enforced the 

 use of it. In 1873, 483 Anglican clergymen pre- 

 sented a petition to Convocation for the education, 

 selection, and licensing of duly qualified confessors. 

 That petition fell flat ; but confession is regularly 

 practised among a considerable section of the 

 English communion. The Lutherans at first were 

 inclined to retain some sort of private confession, 

 but they were content with confession of a general 

 kind, and have allowed it to fall into disuse. It 

 is entirely rejected by Presbyterians, Methodists, 

 Congregationalists, Baptists, &c. 



The ' seal of confession ' is the obligation which 

 binds the priest to make no use whatever outside 

 s)f the confessional of the knowledge acquired there. 

 It is imposed under severe penalties by the fourth 

 Lateran Council. See CONFIDENTIALITY, and Lea's 

 History of Auricular Confession (3 vols. 1896). 



Confession, in civil procedure by English law, 

 is a formal admission or avowal of a fact, as when 

 a defendant alleges a ground of defence which has 

 arisen since the commencement of an action, and 

 the plaintiff confesses the defence i.e. admits the 



truth of the defendant's allegation. In Scotland, a. 

 party to an ordinary civil action may be called on 

 to confess or deny any relevant matter of fact, and 

 if he refuse, he will be held as confessed. Where a, 

 statement within the opposite party's knowledge is 

 averred upon one side, it is held as confessed by 

 the other unless specifically denied. In criminal 

 law, a confession is an admission of guilt. In 

 England, a confession by a criminal made in the 

 course of a judicial proceeding is sufficient, if 

 plenary, to found a conviction, as where a prisoner 

 pleads guilty. An extra-judicial confession, if 

 freely made, may be admitted as evidence. In 

 Scotland, a confession made by a criminal in pres- 

 ence of a judge will be admitted as evidence ; butj 

 is not held as equivalent to a confession by the 

 panel in presence of a jury, which is conclusive 

 evidence against him. In the United States also 

 confession is evidence, if voluntary and made 

 without promise of reward or threat of punish- 

 ment, and that whether made before or after 

 apprehension and commitment ; generally confes- 

 sion without corroboration is insufficient, but in one 

 or two states the jury may convict without cor- 

 roboration. As to confession on trial, see PLEAD- 

 ING, TRIAL ; as to confession before the examining 

 magistrate, see DECLARATION ; and for Judgment 

 by Confession, see COGNOVIT. 



CONFESSION AND AVOIDANCE, in pleading at 

 common law, in England, is the admission of the 

 allegation of the opposite party, but with the 

 addition of some circumstance which deprives it of 

 legal effect, as, for instance, the admitting that an 

 assault was committed in self-defence. Since the 

 passing of the Judicature Acts of 1873 and 1875, 

 pleas in confession and avoidance have technically 

 fallen into desuetude. See (under Plea) PLEADING, 



Confessional, the seat or recess in which the 

 priest sits to hear confession in a Roman Catholic 

 church. It is probable that the confessionals in 

 English churches, previous to the Reformation, like 

 those still often found in Catholic use, were slight 

 wooden erections, because they have so entirely 

 disappeared that their form is a matter of dispute 

 among ecclesiologists. It would seem that con- 

 fessionals were not always used, as in an old paint- 

 ing on the walls of St Mary's Chapel, Winchester, 

 a woman is represented kneeling to a priest, who 

 is seated in his stall. The confessional commonly 

 has a door in front for the priest to enter by, and 

 an opening on one or both sides, like a small 

 window, with a grating of wire or zinc, for the 

 penitents to speak through. 



Confessions Of Faith are generically iden- 

 tical with Creeds (q.v.). If any distinction be 

 made, it is the merely accidental differentiation 

 that creeds are shorter, and that confessions of 

 faith are generally polemical as well as didactic 

 in their character and aim. Such a distinction, it 

 is found, actually obtains in practice, and confes- 

 sions of faith, as thus distinguished from creeds, 

 are so numerous and varied as to call for separate 

 attention. 



Confessions of faith may be defined as authorised 

 summaries of a church's belief, and standards of its 

 faith and doctrine. In all Protestant churches, 

 however, they are regarded as subordinate stand- 

 ards, ranking under the Scriptures, which are 

 recognised as the only supreme ' rule of faith and 

 life.' Their object is to present the cardinal 

 truths of revelation in a connected and logical 

 form, especially if these be controverted ; while 

 at the same time they afford a basis of association 

 and a bond of unity for Christians. As they are 

 the result of the conflicts of a church with error, 

 confessions of faith vary in their doctrinal com- 

 prehensiveness, are more or less gradual in their 



