CONFESSION

From Agepedia

CONFESSION. This term is sometime* applied to a profession of faith; for instance, the confession of Augsburg. (See Augsburg, and Reformation.) It sometimes also signifies a religious sect; as the three Christian confessionsthe Roman Catholic, the Lutheran and the Calvinistic. Confiteor (I acknowledge) is the confession which the Catholic priests make before the altar, when beginning mass or public worship. Confession, in law, is when a prisoner, after being arraigned, and hearing the indictment against him read, confesses the offence of which he is charged. Such confession is the most satisfactory ground of conviction.In the German states, the confession of the prisoner, to be conclusive, must not only be made in open court, but must be accompanied by a disclosure, on his part, of the circumstances under which the crime was committed.By the revised laws of New York, a prisoner, instead of being asked whether he is guilty or not guilty, is asked whether he will be tried by the jury. Confession, Auricular, in the Roman church; the disclosure of sins to the priest at the confessional, with a view to obtain absolution from them. The father confessor inquires of the person confessing concerning the circumstances of the sins confessed, and proportions his admonition, and the severity of the penance, which he enjoins, to the degree of the transgression. The person confessing is allowed to conceal no sin of consequence which he remembers to have committed, and the father confessor is bound to perpetual secrecy. The absolution granted thereupon has, according to the doctrines of the Catholic and Greek churches, sacramental efficacy. But the holy Scripture does not contain an express decision on this point, and the custom of confession before taking the Lord's supper was not es tablished in the oldest Christian congre gations. Whoever was guilty of great sins, made a public acknowledgment of them, and a profession of repentance before the assembled congregation. This was usually committed to writing, and read by the penitents. Pope Leo the Great, in 450, altered this public confession into a secret one before the priest. The fourth Lateran council (can. 21) ordains, "that every one of the faithful, of both sexes, on coming to years of discretion, shall, in private, faithfully confess all their sins, at least once a year, to their own pastor, and fulfil, to the best of their power, the penance enjoined them, receiving, reverently, at least at Easter, the sacrament of the eucharist, unless, by the advice of their pastor, for some reasonable cause, they judge it proper to abstain from it for a time; otherwise, they are to be excluded from the church while living, and, when they die, to be deprived of Christian burial." While the Catholic church thus requires from the penitent the avowal of his single crimes, the Lutheran church requires only a general acknowledgment, leaving it, however, at the option of its members, to reveal their particular sins to the confessor, and to relieve the guilty conscience by such an avowal; for which reason, the Protestant priests are bound, as well as the Catholic, to keep under the seal of secrecy whatever has been intrusted to them in the confessional, (q. v.) The confession, in the Lutheran church, is sometimes special, when the penitents separately acknowledge their sins; sometimes general, when it is done by many, who are assembled for the purpose, and confess according to a certain formula. Where the priest is well acquainted with the different members of his congregation, the special confession seems to be most suitable, because it gives the confessor an opportunity of adapting his reproofs, exhortations and consolations to the wants of each individual, and thus of producing a stronger impression. The opportunity which the confession gives the priest of directing selfexamination, of rousing, warning, exhorting and consoling the penitent, becomes a means of adding to the effect of the public religious services. But, at the same time, it affords a dangerous opportunity to the priest of abusing the confidence reposed in him, of which the history both of nations and individuals exhibits fearful examples. The practice of confession is grounded on the imperfection of human virtue. The Lutherans therefore retained this custom, although they knew that it was not ordainedby Christ, but was only a part of the ancient church discipline: they did not, however, maintain its absolute necessity. (See Penitence.) The title of confessors was anciently given to those who had endured torments in defence of the Christian re ligion. It was often used for martyrs, but was subsequently confined to those who, having been tortured, were set free. Saints are also called confessors. So are the priests, in the Roman Catholic church, who absolve sinners. (For an account of the intrigues of confessors in political affairs, see Gregoire, Histoire des Coiifesseurs des Empereurs, des Rois, &c.; Paris, 1824.)