confession
(kənˈfɛʃən)
Also 4–7 with usual interchange of i and y, o and ou, (5 -fescione).
[a. F. confession (12th c. in Littré), early ad. L. confessiōn-em, n. of action f. confitērī to confess.]
I. The action of confessing.
1. a. The disclosing of something the knowledge of which by others is considered humiliating or prejudicial to the person confessing; a making known or acknowledging of one's fault, wrong, crime, weakness, etc.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 9 When we would bring him on to some Confession Of his true state. 1611 Dekker Roaring Girl Wks. 1873 III. 173 Confession is but poore amends for wrong, Vnlesse a rope would follow. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. III. 240 Tortures, to force from their prisoners the confession of hidden treasure. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. vi, Isabel..did not forsee her own impulse to confession. |
b. Law. Acknowledgement before the proper authority of the truth of a statement or charge; acknowledgement by a culprit of the offence charged against him, when he is asked to plead to the indictment. confession and avoidance: admission of the truth of an adverse allegation, with the allegation of some new matter tending to avoid its legal effect.
| 1574 tr. Littleton's Tenures 37 b, Eyther he is villaine by prescripcion..or he is villain by his own confession in court of recorde. 1641 Termes de la Ley 74 Which confession of the prisoner himselfe is the most certaine answer and best satisfaction that may bee given to the Judge to condemne the offendor. Mod. The prisoner has made a full confession. |
2. a. As a religious act: The acknowledging of sin or sinfulness; esp. such acknowledgement made in set form in public worship.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 27 He smote upon his breest, to figure true confessioun. c 1440 Gesta Rom. i. 4 (Harl. MS.) Putte downe..thyne old lif of synne, and entre yn to the bathe of confessione. 1549 Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion, Make your humble confession to almightie God, and to his holy church here gathered together in hys name, mekely knelyng upon your knees. a 1600 Hooker Eccl. Pol. ii. iv. §6 Public confession they thought necessary by way of discipline, not private confession, as in the nature of a sacrament, necessary. 1720 Wheatley Illust. Bk. Com. Prayer (1839) 113 Such as would pray effectually have always begun with confession. 1884 Blunt Annot. Bk. Com. Prayer 181 To place a public Confession and Absolution within the reach of all, day by day. |
b. spec. The confessing of sins to a priest, as a religious duty; more fully, sacramental confession or auricular confession.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xii. 176 How contricioun with-oute confessioun conforteth þe soule. c 1394 P. Pl. Crede 468 Þei coueten confessions to kachen some hire, And sepultures also some wayten to cacchen. c 1500 Lancelot 2083 If that thow at confessioune hath ben, And makith the of al thi synnis clen. 1549 1st Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion, Requiryng suche as shalbe satisfied with a generall confession, not to be offended with them that doe use..the auriculer and secret confession to the Priest. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. v. ii. 41 Besides she did intend Confession At Patrick's Cell this euen. 1713 Steele Englishm. No. 49. 314, I..have not for some months been at Confession. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet ch. xv, A lovely lass to a friar came, To confession a-morning early. 1865 Union Rev. III. 614 Confession, again, as it is ordinarily administered among us, is another stumbling-block. |
3. Acknowledgement of a statement, claim, etc.; admission, concession.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wycket (1828) p. xiii, By youre owne confession muste it nedes be that we worshyppen a false god in the chalyce. 1605 Bp. Hall Medit. & Vows ii. §49 There are three grounds of friendship..and by all confessions, that is the surest which is upon vertue. 1628 Hobbes Thucyd. (1822) 99 This year, by confession of all men, was of all other..most free and healthful. 1838–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. I. iv. i. §19 There were two, who had by common confession reached a consummate elegance of style. |
4. The recognizing or acknowledging (of a person or thing) as having a certain character or certain claims; declaration of belief in or adhesion to; acknowledgement, profession, avowal when asked; spec. the testimony rendered by a Confessor (sense 2).
| 1382 Wyclif 2 Macc. x. 38 Thei blessiden the Lord in ympnys and confessiouns. 1549 Bk. Com. Prayer, Collect Trin. Sunday, By the confession of a true fayth to acknowlege the glorye of the eternall trinitie. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iv. vii. 96 Hee mad confession of you, And gaue you such a Masterly report, for Art. 1681 O. Heywood Diary 23 Aug. 21, Then Mr. Jo. Heyw'd made his Confession, etc. Then they proceeded to Imposition of Hands. 1795 J. Macknight Epistles, Rom. x. 10 There is a difference between the profession, and the confession of our faith. 1833 Cruse Eusebius v. i. 172 But this blessed saint..in the midst of her confession itself renewed her strength. |
II. That which is confessed, its matter or form.
5. That which is made known in confessing; the matter confessed.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 167 Seynte Austyn seythe in his booke of confessiones. a 1536 Tindale Wks. 180 (R.) The bishop knoweth the confession of whom he lusteth throughout all his dioces. 1601 Shakes. All's Well iv. iii. 130 His confession is taken, and it shall bee read to his face. 1603 B. Jonson Panegyre Entr. James, And this confession flew from every voice, Never had land more reason to rejoice. 1632 Lithgow Trav. (1682) x. 432 The Governer commanded me to subscribe my Confession, which I voluntarily obeyed. Ibid. 437 And now after long and new Examinations..they finding my first and second Confession so run in one, that the Governer swore, I had learned the Art of Memery. 1833 G. Waddington Hist. Ch. 126 To proclaim.. the nature of the confessions which they had received. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet I. 155 Kitty should enter these confessions in a book, said Esther. |
6. A formulary containing a general acknowledgement of sinfulness, such as frequently forms part of public Christian worship.
| 1535 Marshall's Primer in 3 Primers Hen. VIII (1848) 45 A General Confession for every sinner. 1552 Bk. Com. Prayer, Morning, A general Confession, to be said of the whole Congregation. Ibid., Communion Service, Then shall this general confession be made. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 147 ¶2 The Confession was read with such a resigned Humility. 1815 Horsley Bk. of Psalms (1821) I. 292 Psalm li, The Penitential Confession of the converted Jews. 1884 Blunt Annot. Bk. Com. Prayer 182 The general Confession appears to be an original composition of some of the revisers of 1552. |
7. a. (More fully Confession of Faith.) A formulary in which a church or body of Christians sets forth the religious doctrines which it considers essential; an authoritative declaration of the articles of belief; a creed.
Sometimes applied to the ancient œcumenical creeds; but more usually to the formulated statements of doctrine put forth by the various Reformed churches in the 16th and 17th c., of which that of Augsburg (1530) was the earliest, and the first (1560) and second (1580–1) Confession of Faith of the Church of Scotland, and the Westminster Confession (1643–7), are most noted in the history of Great Britain.
| 1536 Taverner (title) The Confession of the Faith of the Germans, exhibited at Augusta; to which is added The Apology of Melancthon defending the said Confession. 1549 Bk. Com. Prayer, Rubric to Athanasian Creed, Upon Trinitie Sonday, shalbe song or sayd..this confession of our christian fayth. 1561 (title) The Confessione of the fayth and doctrin beleved and professed by the Protestantes of the Realme of Scotland exhibited to the estates of the sam in Parliament. 1571 J. Northbrooke (title) A Breefe and Pithie Summe of the Christian Faith, made in Fourme of a Confession. 1580 (title) The Confession of Faith of the Kirk of Scotland or the National Covenant. 1612 Brerewood Lang. & Relig. Pref. 22 The Confessions themselves are these, the Angelicane, the Scotiane, French, Helvetian former and later, the Belgick, Polonick, Argentine, Augustane, Saxonick, Wirtenbergick, Palatine, Bohemick or Waldensian Confession. 1632 J. Lee Short Survey Sweden 76 To professe the reformed religion, according to the confession of Ausbourg or Augustane confession. 1643 Acts Gen. Assembly Edinb. 19 Aug., Sess. 14 The union of this Island in one Form of Kirk-government, one Confession of Faith, one Catechism. 1827 Whately Logic (1837) 371 The correctness of a formal and deliberate confession of Faith, is not always of itself, a sufficient safeguard against error. 1861 Stanley East. Ch. iv. (1869) 149 The Nicene Creed remained the one public confession. 1874 Morley Compromise (1886) 170 We see the same men..uttering assents to confessions of which they really reject every syllable—and who do not know they are acting a part, and making a mock both of their own reason and their own probity. |
b. The religious body or church united by one Confession of Faith; a communion.
| a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) Those right learned..Clerks of his owne Confession. |
III. 8. A tomb in which a martyr or confessor is buried, and, by extension, the whole structure erected over it; also, the crypt or shrine under the high-altar, or the part of the altar, in which the relics are placed. Called also confessionary and † confessional.
| 1670–98 R. Lassels Voy. Italy II. 24 This place, as it conserves the body of St. Peter, is called the Confession of Peter. Ibid. II. 26 Near the Confession of S. Peter is an old brazen statue of S. Peter. 1844 Lingard Anglo Sax. Ch. (1858) II. i. 36 A chest of oak or stone, sometimes called the confession, sometimes the sepulchre, had been prepared; in it he deposited three portions of the eucharist, together with the relics; the slab was then placed over it, and the masonry of the altar, if it were built of stone, hastily completed. 1847 Ld. Lindsay Chr. Art I. 66 (S. Mark's) The confession, or ciborium, within the sanctuary, is also highly curious. 1885 Arnold Cath. Dict. 207/1 s.v., If an altar was erected over the grave, then the name ‘confession’ was given to the tomb, the altar, and the cubiculum. |
9. attrib., as confession-chair, confession-money, confession-seat; confession album, book, a book of questions to be answered on personal likes and dislikes; also a book in which a visitor records a favourite poem, etc.; confession box = confessional-box; confession magazine, a magazine that purports to contain people's true confessions, life-stories, etc.
| 1674 Blount Glossogr., Confessionary..also, a Confession-seat. 1691 tr. Emillianne's Obs. Journ. Naples 319 Walking in their Churches about their Confession-chairs from Morning to Night. 1709 De Foe Life Rozelli (1713) I. 29, I had sat myself down in a Confession-Chair. 1844 Syd. Smith Wks. (1867) II. 338 Twice a year the holy man collects confession money, under the denomination of Christmas and Easter offerings. 1865 Union Rev. III. 614 The confession-bell at the London oratory. 1906 Daily Chron. 27 Sept. 4/7 ‘If not yourself, who would you rather be?’ was a favourite question of the confession album of the seventies. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 357 She got a keepsake from Bertha Supple of that lovely confession album with the coralpink cover to write her thoughts in. Ibid. 80 Old fellow asleep near that confession box. 1931 F. L. Allen Only Yesterday v. 100 Sex magazines, confession magazines, and lurid motion pictures. 1932 S. Chase Mexico i. 17 Nobody [in Tepoztlan] sends copy to confession magazines. 1958 S. Ellin Eighth Circle (1959) ii. ii. 36 Miss Whiteside had..a passion for confession magazines. |