confess 
confess (kon-fes'), '; pret. and p-p. confessed 
(formerly, arid still sometimes, confest), ppr. 
confessing. [< ME. confcssen, < OF. (and P.) 
confesser = Pr. confessar, cofessar = Sp. confesar 
= Pg. confessar = It. confessare, < ML. confessare, 
freq. of L. confiteri, pp. conj'mmus, confess, own, 
avow, < com-, together, + futcri, acknowledge, 
akin to fart, speak, ~> fabula, tale, fable, fama, 
report, ta,me,fatum, fate: see fable, fame, fate. 
Ci. profess.} I. trans. 1. To make avowal or 
admission of, as of a fault, a crime, a charge, a 
debt, or something that is against one's inter- 
est or reputation ; own ; acknowledge ; avow. 
Do you confess the bond? Shak., M. of V., iv. 1. 
What better can we do, than, to the place 
Repairing where lie judged us, prostrate fall 
Before him reverent ; and there confess 
Humbly our faults, and pardon beg? 
Milton, P. L., x. 1088. 
He that confesses his sin, and prays for pardon, hath 
punished his fault. Jer. Taylor. 
2. Reflexively, to make an admission or an in- 
culpatory statement concerning; acknowledge 
to be; specifically, acknowledge the sins or 
moral faults of, as in auricular confession to a 
priest : as, I confess myself in error or at fault. 
I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts, 
wherein I confess me much guilty to deny so fair and ex- 
cellent ladies anything. Shak., As you Like it, i. 2. 
He hath confessed himself io Morgan, whom he supposes 
to be a friar. Shak., All's Well, iv. 3. 
Our beautiful votary took the opportunity of confessing 
herself to this celebrated father. Addison, Spectator. 
3. Eccles., to receive the confession of; act as 
a confessor to. 
I have confess'/! her, and I know her virtue. 
Shak., M. for M., v. i. 
4. To acknowledge as having a certain charac- 
ter or certain claims ; recognize ; own ; avow ; 
declare belief in. 
Whosoever therefore shall confess me Iwfore men, him 
will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 
Hat. x. 32. 
Some deny there is any God, some confess, yet believe it 
not. Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 638. 
5. To grant; admit; concede. 
If that the king 
Have any way your good deserts forgot, 
Which he confesselh to be manifold, 
He bids you name your griefs. 
Shak., 1 Hen. IV., Iv. 3. 
You have the nobler soul, I must confess It, 
And are the greater master of your goodness. 
Fletcher, Pilgrim, iv. 2. 
6. To reveal by circumstances; show by ef- 
fect ; disclose ; prove ; attest. [Poetical.] 
Nor more a Mortal, but her self appears : 
Her Face refulgent, and Majestick Mien, 
Confess'd the Goddess. Congreve, Hymn to Venus. 
Tall thriving trees confess' the fruitful mould. 
Pope, Odyssey. 
The lovely stranger stands confessed 
A maid in all her charms. 
Goldsmith, The Hermit. 
= Syn. 1. Admit, Avow, etc. See acknowledge. 
II. intrans. 1. Toinakeconfessionoravowal; 
disclose or admit a crime, fault, debt, etc. 
Bring me unto my trial when you will. 
Died he not in his bed? where should he die? 
Can I make men live, whe'r they will or no? 
O ! torture me no more, I will confess. 
Shak., 2 Hen. VI., ill. 3. 
2. Eccles., to make known one's sins or the state 
of one's conscience to a priest. 
The mendicant priests of Buddha are bound to confess 
twice a month, at the new and full moon. 
J. F. Clarke, Ten Great Religions, I. iv. 6. 
confessantt (kon-fes'ant), n. [< F. confessant, 
ppr. of confesser, confess : see confess and -ant 1 .] 
One who confesses to a priest. 
The confessant kneels down before the priest sitting on 
a raised chair above him. Bacon, Apophthegms. 
confessaryt (kon-fes'a-ri), . [< ML. confessa- 
rius, one who confesses, or receives a confes- 
sion, < L. confcssus, pp. of confiteri, confess : see 
confess."] One who makes a confession. 
Treacherous confessaries. Bp. Hall, Works, II. 289. 
confessed (kon-fesf), p. a. [Pp. of confess, i>.] 
Admitted; avowed; undeniable; evident. 
Good great and confessed good. Locke. 
confessedly (kon-fes'ed-li), adv. By confession 
or admission ; admittedly, (a) By one's own con- 
fession or acknowledgment ; avowedly. 
These prelusive hymns were often the composition con- 
fessedly of the chanters. De Quincey, Homer, ii. 
(b) By general consent or admission. 
His noble, fine horses, the best confessedly in England. 
Pepys, Diary, II. 813. 
Labour is confessedly a great part of the curse, and there- 
lore no wonder if men fly from it. South. 
1182 
confession (kon-fesh'on), n. [< ME. confession, 
-ioun 1). Konfesgie == G. confession = Dan. Sw. 
/confession, < OF. (and F.) confession = Sp. con- 
fesion = Pg. confissao = It. confessionc, < L. 
confessio(n-), confession, < confiteri, pp. cvnfes- 
sus, confess: see confess.'] 1. The act of con- 
fessing, (a) The acknowledgment of a fault or wrong, 
or of any act or obligation adverse to one's reputation or 
interest. 
Nor do we find him forward to be sounded ; 
But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof, 
When we would bring Mm on to some confession 
Of his true state. Shak., Hamlet, iii. L 
Giving one the torture, and then asking his cmtfession, 
which is hard usuage. Sir W. Temple. 
(b) The act of making an avowal ; profession. 
I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth 
all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius 
Pilate witnessed a good confession. 1 Tim. vi. 13. 
(c) Eccles., a disclosing of sins or faults to a priest; the 
disburdening of the conscience privately to a confessor: 
often called auricular confession. In both the Eastern 
and the Western Church confession is one of the four parts 
of the sacrament of penance, viz., contrition, confession, 
absolution, and satisfaction. See sacramental confession. 
Of hys fader say, 
Which to Rome to the holy fader came 
Hys confession to declare alway. 
Rom. ofPartenay (E. E. T. S.), 1. 5120. 
Auricular confession, as commonly called, or the pri- 
vate and special confession of sins to a priest for the pur- 
pose of obtaining his absolution, an imperative duty in 
the Church of Rome, . . . was left to each man's discre- 
tion, llallam. 
(d) In common law, an admission or acknowledgment of 
guilt. A judicial confession is a confession made in court, 
or before an examining magistrate. An extra-judicial con- 
fession is one made not in the course of legal prosecution 
for the offense, but out of court, whether made to an offi- 
cial or a non-official person, (e) In Rom. law, the ad- 
mission by the defendant of the plaintiff's claim. It was 
either in jure (that is, before the pretor, and before the 
case had been referred to a judge to be tried) or in 
judicio (that is, made after the case had been so referred). 
2. In liturgies ; (a) In many Oriental and early 
liturgies, a form of prayer acknowledging sin- 
fulness and unworthiness, said by the priest 
before the celebration of the eucharist: also 
called the apologia. (6) In the Roman and 
other Latin masses, the Conflteor, or form of 
general acknowledgment of sins, said first by 
the celebrant and then by the assistants, and 
followed by the Misereatur and Indulgentiam 
before the priest ascends to the altar and pro- 
ceeds to the Introit. (c) In the Anglican com- 
munion office, the form of general acknowledg- 
ment of sins made by the celebrant and the com- 
municants, (d) In the liturgy of St. Chrysos- 
tom, and in the Alexandrine and other Oriental 
liturgies, the profession of faith, made before 
communicating, that the consecrated elements 
are really and truly the body and blood of Christ. 
3. A formulary which comprises articles of re- 
ligious faith ; a creed to be assented to or signed 
as a preliminary to admission to the member- 
ship of a church, or to certain offices of authori- 
ty in the church : usually called a confession of 
faith. The great confessions of faith of the Protestant 
Christian church are : the Augsburg Confession (1530), 
a part of the symbol of the Lutheran Church ; the first 
and second Helvetic confessions (1636 and 1566), symbols 
of the Reformed churches of Switzerland, the latter being 
approved by nearly all the Reformed churches of the Con- 
tinent and of England and Scotland ; the Galilean Confes- 
sion (1559), also called the Confession of Rochelle, prepared 
by Calvin and his pupil De Chandieu, the symbol of the 
French Protestant church ; the Belgic Confession (1561. re- 
vised 1619), the symbol of the Reformed churches in Belgium 
and the Netherlands, and of the Reformed (Dutch) Church 
in the United States ; the first Scotch Confession (1560) and 
the second Scotch Confession or the National Covenant 
(1581), the symbols of the Scotch church before the adop- 
tion of the Westminster Confession ; the Thirty-nine Arti- 
cles of the Church of England (1563 and 1571) ; the Ameri- 
can revision of the same (1801), the symbol of the Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church in the United States ; the Irish 
Article (1615) and the Lambeth Articles (1595), the symbols 
of the Church of Ireland ; the Canons of the Synod of 
Dort (1619), at present recognized by the Dutch Church, 
and by the Reformed (Dutch) Church in the United States ; 
the Westminster Confession (1647), the symbol of the Pres- 
byterian Church in England, and of Scotland (taking the 
place in Scotland of the so-called Scotch confessions), and, 
with some alterations, of the Presbyterian Church of Ameri- 
ca ; the Savoy Confession (1658), adopted by the Indepen- 
dents at the Savoy palace, London ; the declaration of the 
Congregational Union of England and Wales (1833), of the 
Boston (United States) National Council (1865), and of the 
Oberlin National Council (1871), symbols of Congregational 
churches ; the Articles of Religion (1784) of the Methodist 
Church ; the Confession of 1688, and the New Hampshire 
Confession (1833), symbols of the Baptist Church. See cate- 
chism., creed. 
4. [ML. confessio(n-).'] The tomb of a martyr or 
confessor. If an altar was erected over the grave, the 
name was extended also to the altar and to the subter- 
ranean chamber in which it stood. In later times a ba- 
silica was sometimes erected over the chamber ; the high 
altar was placed over the altar on the tomb below, and so 
this high altar also, and subsequently the entire buiMiiiL', 
was called a confession. Also called confessional, and in the 
confessionalist 
fJreek Church cafahfisis or catabasion.- Auricular con- 
fession. See sacramental confession, below. Confes- 
sion and avoidance, in law, the substance of a pleading 
by which the party admits the allegation of his adver- 
sary's pleading to be true, lint states some new matter by 
way of avoiding its legal etfect.- Confession of faith. 
See 3, above. Confession of judgment, the ai know- 
ledginentof a debt by a debtor hefure a court or a justice of 
the peace, etc., on which judgment may be entered and exe- 
cution issued. General confession. () A confession 
made to a priest of sins committed by the penitent since 
baptism or since infancy, so far as those sins can be re- 
membered ; a confession made in preparation for baptism 
by one baptized after coming to years of discretion, also 
before admission to a monastic order, (b) [cap. | In the 
Book of Common Prayer : (1) The form of acknowledgment 
of sins to be said by the minister and the whole congre- 
gation at the beginning of Morning Prayer and Evening 
Prayer. (2) The form of confession in the Communion 
office. Judgment by confession, a judgment obtained 
on a confession made to a court or a magistrate, or by 
the withdrawal of the defense, or against a plaintiff by 
nolle prosequi. Sacramental or auricular confes- 
sion, the act or practice of confessing sins to a priest, for 
the purpose of receiving absolution. At a very early period, 
for gross apostasy or other public sins, public confession 
was required as a condition precedent to partaking of the 
communion. Public confession was gradually abolished 
in order to prevent scandal and social and legal complica- 
tions. Auricular confession was first made universally 
obligatory in the West as a condition of admission to 
communion by the fourth Lateran Council in A. D. 1215. 
It is now required in the Roman Catholic Church from all 
who are conscious of mortal sins, and is regarded as es- 
sential to absolution and divine pardon, and a necessary 
prerequisite to partaking of the communion. Priests are 
bound in the strongest manner never to disclose a secret 
thus confided to them. Confession is obligatory in the 
Orthodox Greek and in the Armenian Church. The Angli- 
can Church differs from the Roman Catholic and the East- 
ern Church in not making it obligatory, but leaving it to 
the conscience of the individual. Seal of confession, 
in the Rom. Cath. and in the Or. Ch., absolute secrecy in- 
cumbent on a priest with regard to all private confessions 
of sins made to him. A similar secrecy is enjoined by the 
113th canon of the Church of England. Also called the 
seal, and the sacramental seal. 
confessional (kon-fesh'on-al), a. and n. [I. a. : 
= F. confcssionnel = It. confessionale, < ML. 
confessionalis, adj., < L. confessio(n-), confes- 
sion. II. n. : = F. confessionnal = It. confes- 
sionale, confessional (seat), =: Sp. confesional 
(obs.), a confessional tract, = Pg. confessional, 
one who confesses, < ML. confessionale, a con- 
fessional, prop, neut. of confessionalis, adj.: see 
above.] I. a. 1. Of or pertaining to a confes- 
sion or creed. 
The old confessional barriers of the Scottish faith. 
Tulloch. 
2. Of or pertaining to the act or practice of 
confessing to a priest. See sacramental confes- 
sion, under confession. 
II. n. 1. A small cabinet, stall, or box in a 
Roman Catholic church in which the priest sits 
to hear confessions. It usually has a door in front 
by which the priest enters, and a small window on one or 
Confessional. Church of St. tienne du Mont, Paris. 
both sides, through which the penitent speaks. Confes- 
sionals are often constructed in three divisions, the cen- 
tral one having a seat for the priest, and some are elabo- 
rately carved. Also called confession-chair, confessionary, 
and shrivinrf-pew. 
2. Same as confession, 4. 
confessionalism (kon-fesh'ou-al-izm), n. [< 
confessional + -ism.~] Devotion to the main- 
tenance of a creed or church confession; the 
tendency to construct confessions or creeds. 
[Rare.] 
The seventeenth century is the period of scholastic or- 
thodoxy, polemic eonftssionalirm, and comparative stag- 
nation. Schaff, Hist. Christ. Church, I. 4. 
Confessionalist (kon-fesh'on-al-ist), n. [< fon- 
fessional + -ist.] A priest who hears confes- 
sions ; a confessor. 
