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CONFESSION (Lat. confessio, from conf...
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See also:CONFESSION (See also:Lat. confessio, from confiteor, acknowledge, confess)
, a See also:term meaning in See also:general the See also:admission and See also:acknowledgment that one has done something which otherwise might remain undisclosed, especially the acknowledgment of See also:guilt or wrong-doing, either in public or to somebody specially entitled to such knowledge
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The term has a See also:special importance (I) in See also:religion, (2) in See also:law
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1
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Religion.—Among the See also:Jews it was ordered that on the See also:Day of See also:Atonement the high See also:priest should make See also:confession of sins in the name of the whole See also:people, and the day is still kept by the Jews with See also:fasting and confession of sins
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The Jews were also enjoined to confess their sins individually to See also:God, and in certain cases to See also:man
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In the Gospels confession is scarcely mentioned
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But much is said about forgiveness, and the See also:
But what was to be done with the baptized See also:Christian who See also:fell into grievous sin
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On the one See also:hand the See also:Epistle to the See also:Hebrews (vi
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4-6) declared that renewals of the lapsed are impossible
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On the other, the confession of sins was ordered in See also: Hermas rejects both the extreme opinions, viz, that to the baptized Christian there is either no such thing as sin, or no such thing as further forgiveness . He represents the church as a woman who offers sinful Christians a unique opportunity for See also:conversion and restoration, which must be seized at once or lost for ever . But while he insists on repentance and See also:mortification, he says nothing about public confession or discipline . Soon See also:bitter controversies arose, especially in the See also:West, where questionsof discipline have always been to the fore (see See also:MoNTANISM; See also:NOVATIANUS; See also:DONATISTS) . Speaking broadly the development was from rigour to See also:indulgence, and the three schisms referred to voiced the protests of the puritan minority . At the beginning of the 3rd See also:century something like a definite See also:system had been established at See also:Carthage and elsewhere . Three See also:groups of sins, classified as (I) See also:idolatry, which included See also:apostasy, (2) See also:adultery or fornication, and (3) See also:murder, were held to exclude the guilty See also:person from sharing in the See also:eucharist until See also:death, that is to say, if he had committed the sin after baptism . Not that it was asserted that he, therefore, could not be forgiven by God; indeed he was urged to pray and fast and undergo church discipline; but the church refused to venture on any anticipation of the divine decision . For other See also:grave sins the baptized person was allowed to undergo discipline once, but only once in his See also:life; if he relapsed again, he must remain excommunicate like the adulterer . Baptism was the first See also:plank thrown out to See also:save the drowning man, "confession " the second, and there was no third See also:chance . It was largely due to the rigour of this See also:rule that men so frequently deferred baptism till See also:late in life . Less serious sins, again, were held to be adequately dealt with by See also:ordinary prayers, such as the Lord's See also:Prayer, or by the public prayers of the church . Public but general confession of sins and inter-cession for penitent sinners have from early times formed a normal See also:part of public See also:worship in the Christian church . The See also:process of public confession or See also:penance (exomologesis, See also:Greek for public confession) was as follows (see See also:Tertullian, De paenitentia IX., and other writers) . The sinner was admitted to it as to a See also:privilege by laying on of hands . He wore sackcloth, made his See also:bed in ashes, and fasted or used only the very plainest fare . In See also:secret he gave himself up to ceaseless prayer; in public he threw himself at the brethren's feet to entreat their inter-cessions . This went on for a See also:time proportionate to the gravity of the offence, perhaps for years; then, if his sin allowed it, he was readmitted by the See also:bishop and See also:clergy with further laying on of hands . He must still (at least according to later rules) live in strict See also:abstinence, forgoing, e.g., the use of See also:marriage . And if he fell away, he could never be restored again . One can hardly be surprised that Tertullian says that few faced such an See also:ordeal . In this See also:account nothing is said of confession; but it would appear that in early days the sins were made known to the See also:congregation, and in notorious cases they would take the initiative and expel the offender . It was also See also:common for a penitent to take See also:advice as to the See also:necessity in his See also:case of under-going exomologesis, and this, of course, involved confession . See also:Origen implies that in his days the penitent might choose his own spiritual physician . It is to be noticed that the clergy were never admitted to this public discipline; but a cleric might be deposed and then admitted as a layman . Ordinarily the sinful cleric prayed and fasted at his own discretion, and nothing is said of his confessing his sins . In fact far more importance was attached to the discipline than to confession . Church practice was not the same everywhere at the same time; just because Scripture only gave the ruling principles, therefore the different churches worked out their application in different ways . It is, therefore, natural that we should trace the stages of development through the See also:friction they caused . Thus See also:Calixtus, bishop of Rome 219-223, decided to admit adulterers to exomologesis and so to communion; and Tertullian, now become a Montanist, pours out his scorn on him . See also:Thirty years later, first at Carthage, then at Rome, the same step has been taken with regard to penitent apostates, at least the less guilty of them . But the church was thereby involved in a See also:double conflict; for while on the one hand the Novatianist See also:schism represents the puritan outcry against such laxity, on the other the martyrs (not indeed for the first time) claimed a position above church law, and gave trouble by issuing libelli pacis, i.e. See also:requests or even orders that so-and-so, and sometimes the name was not inserted, should be readmitted to communion forthwith without undergoing the discipline of exomologesis . It was out of this practice that later on Indulgences See also:grew up . A further relaxation appears about the same time . Those under discipline were allowed to receive the eucharist when in articulo mortis . As this was sometimes effected by means of the reserved See also:sacrament without any formal reconciliation, even without the presence of bishop or priest, it affords further See also:evidence of the emphasis being laid on contrition and submission to discipline rather than on See also:absolution . See also:Cyprian, Epist. xviii., sanctions a dying man's making confession (exomologesis) of his sin before a See also:deacon in case of necessity, and being reconciled by laying on of hands . At the beginning of the 4th century a system came into use by which penitents undergoing discipline were divided into four grades, the lowest being the mourners, then the hearers, the kneelers and the consistentes (See also:standing) . Thus by the 11th See also:canon of See also:Nicaea certain who had been guilty of apostasy were to be three years among the hearers, seven among the kneelers, and two among the consistentes . These grades were distinguished by their admission to or exclusion from parts of the church and of divine service; none of them were allowed to communicate until their penance was See also:complete, except in articulo mortis . In the same century at Rome and at See also:Constantinople we hear of " penitentiaries," that is priests appointed to See also:act for the bishop in See also:hearing the confession of sins, and deciding whether public discipline was necessary and, if it was, on its duration; in other words they prepared the penitents for See also:solemn reconciliation by the bishop . A See also:scandal at Constantinople in 391 led to the suppression in that See also:city not only of the See also:office of See also:penitentiary, but practically of public exomologesis also, and that seemingly in Eastern Christendom generally, so that the individual was See also:left to assess his own penance, and to See also:present himself for communion at his own discretion . This inevitably led on to the reiteration of confession after repeated lapses, and See also:Chrysostom (bishop of Constantinople, 398-4o7) was attacked for allowing such a departure from See also:ancient rule . But in the West public discipline continued, though under less and less rigorous conditions . Persecution having ceased, the question of apostasy had lost its See also:chief significance, and as church life became public and influential the evils of scandal were intensified . Penitents, therefore (as a rule), were excused the painful ordeal of public humiliation, but performed their penances in secret; only at the end they were publicly reconciled by the bishop . This was at Rome and See also:Milan appointed to be done on the See also:Thursday before See also:Easter, and gradually became a See also:regular practice, the same penitent See also:year after year doing penance during See also:Lent, and being publicly restored to communion in See also:Holy See also:Week . Towards the end of the 4th century priests began to be allowed to take the bishop's See also:place in the re-admission of penitents and to do it privately . 
And with this step the See also:evolution of the system was completed . The See also:abandonment of plenary penitence (i.e. the full rigour of exomologesis), the See also:extension of the system in which there was nothing public about the penitence except the solemn reconciliation on Maundy Thursday, the allowing of repeated recourse to this reconciliation, the delegation to priests of the See also:power to reconcile penitents in private; such were the successive stages in the development . The irruptions of the barbarians revolutionized the whole system of daily life . The various tribes were indeed converted to the faith one after another; but it took centuries to break them in to anything like obedience to Christian principles of morality . In consequence the Christian See also:world tended to be divided into two classes . The first, the religious, including See also:women and laymen as well as clergy, still maintained the old ideals of purity and mutual responsibility . Thus in the See also:chapter-See also:house of a monastery there constantly took place acts of discipline that depended on the theory that the sin of the individual is the concern of the society; open confession was made, open penance exacted . On the other hand, the still See also:half-See also:heathen world outside See also:broke every moral law with indifference; and in the effort to restrain men's vices church discipline became See also:mechanical instead of sympathetic, penal rather than paternal . The penance was regarded (not without precedent in earlier times) as the See also:discharge of a liability due to God or the Church; and so much sin was reckoned to involve so much See also:debt . Thus we reach what has beencalled la penitence tarifee . Penitentials or codes defined (even invented) different degrees of guilt, and assessed the liability involved much as if a sin gave rise to an See also:action to recover See also:damages . The Greek penitentials date from about 600; the Latin are a little later; the mostinfluential was that of See also:Theodore of See also:Tarsus, who was See also:archbishop of See also:Canterbury from 668 to 690 .
Two disastrous results not infrequently arose: a See also:money See also:payment was often allowed in lieu of acts of penance, and the prayers and merits of others were held to See also:supply the inadequacy of the sinner's own repentance (see INDULGENCE)
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Meanwhile the See also:constant repetition of confession and reconciliation, together with the fact that the most See also:tender consciences would be the most anxious for the assurance of forgiveness, led to the practice being considered a normal part of the Christian life
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It came to be allowed to be used by priests as well as by laymen
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Absolu tion was reckoned one of the sacraments, one of the seven when that mystic number was generally adopted; but there was no agreement as to what constituted the essential parts of the sacrament, whether the confession, the laying on of hands, the penance, or the words of dismissal
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It was more and more regarded as the special See also:function of the priest to administer absolution, though as late as the 16th century we hear of laymen confessing to and absolving one another on the battlefield because no priest was at hand
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Moreover, the See also:idea of corporate responsibility and discipline was overshadowed by that of See also:medicine for the individual soul, though public penance was still often exacted, especially in cases of notorious See also:crime, as when See also: It is common to go to confession, even though there are only venial sins to be confessed; and in See also:order to excite contrition people are sometimes advised to confess over again some mortal sin from which they have been previously absolved . No priest may hear confessions without See also:licence from the bishop . Certain special sins are " reserved," that is, the ordinary priest cannot give absolution for them; the matter must be referred to the bishop, or even the See also:pope . See also:Children begin to go to confession at about the See also:age of seven . In the Greek Church confession has become obligatory and habitual . Among the See also:Lutherans auricular confession survived the See also:Reformation, but the general confession and absolution before communion were soon allowed by authority to serve as a substitute; in See also:Wurttemberg as early as the 16th century, in See also:Saxony after 1657, and in See also:Brandenburg by See also:decree of the elector in 1698 . Private confession and absolution were, however, still permitted; though as may be seen from See also:Goethe's experience, related in his Dichtung and Wahrheit, it tended to become a See also:mere form, a process encouraged by the fact that the fees payable for absolution formed part of the pastor's regular See also:stipend . Since the beginning of the 19th century the practice of auricular confession has been to a certain extent revived among orthodox Lutherans (see See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopddie s . " Beichte ") . To come to See also:England, See also:Wesley provided for spiritual discipline (r) through the class-See also:meeting, whose See also:leader has to advise, comfort or exhort as occasion may arise; and (2) through the ministers, who have to See also:bear the chief responsibility in the reproof, suspension or See also:expulsion from communion of erring brethren . In the Salvation See also:Army people are continually invited to come forward to the " penitent form," and admissions of past evil living are publicly made . Among the Calvinistic bodies in the See also:British Isles and abroad See also:kirk-discipline has been a stern reality; but in none of them is there private confession or priestly absolution . The Church of England holds in this matter as in others a central position . The method of confession adopted in the public services of the Church of England, with which the See also:Book of Common Prayer is primarily concerned, may be described as one of general confession to God in the face of the church, to be in secret used by each member of the congregation for the confession of his own particular sins, and to be followed by public absolution . But three other methods of confession for private use are mentioned in the exhortations in the communion service, which constitute the See also:principal See also:directory for private devotions among the authoritative documents of the See also:English Church . First, all men are urged to practise secret confession to God alone, and in it the sins are to be acknowledged in detail . Secondly, where the nature of the offence admits of it, the sinner is to acknowledge his wrongdoing to the See also:neighbour he has aggrieved . And, thirdly, the sinner who cannot satisfy his See also:conscience by these other methods is invited to open his grief to a miiiister of God's word . Similarly, the sick man is to be moved. to make a special confession of his sins if he feels his conscience troubled with any weighty matter . The priest is bound, under the most stringent penalties, never to divulge what he has thus learnt . See the 113th canon of 1604, which, however, excepts crimes " such as by the See also:laws of this See also:realm the priest's own life may be called into question for concealing the same." It is, however, maintained by some that, except in the case of the sick, the only legitimate method of receiving absolution in the Church of England is in the public services of the congregation; and the Church of See also:Ireland has recently made important alterations even in the passages that concern the sick, while the See also:Protestant Episcopal Church of the See also:United States has omitted that part of the visitation service altogether . It is probable that auricular confession never altogether died out in the Church of England, but it is obvious that evidence on the subject must always be hard to find . Certainly there has been a See also:great increase and development of the practice since the See also:Oxford See also:movement in the early part of the 19th century . Two chief difficulties have attended this revival .
In the first place, owing to the general disuse of such ministrations, there were none among the English clergy who had experience in delicate questions of conscience; and there had been no treatment of See also:casuistry since See also:Sanderson and See also:Jeremy See also: This method was carried to ruthless extremes by the See also:Inquisition (q.v.), but was by no means unknown in countries in which this institution never gained a foothold; as in England, where torture was practised, though never legalized, for this purpose . In spite of a general tendency to relinquish the inquisitorial method, it is still prevalent in certain countries, notably in See also:France, where the efforts of the See also:prosecution, especially during the preliminary investigations, are directed to extracting a confession from the accused . In English law, on the other hand, the confession of an incriminated person can be received in evidence against him only if it has been See also:free and voluntary . Any See also:threat or inducement held out to a person to make a confession renders the confession inadmissible, even if afterwards made to another person, it having been held that the second confession is likely to be induced by the promise held out by the person to whom the first confession was made . Any inducement to a person to make a confession must refer to some temporal benefit to be gained from it . In conformity with the principle of English law that a person ought not to be made to incriminate himself, it is usual, when a person in custody wishes to make a statement or confession, to caution him that what he says will be used in evidence against him . Particular facts may have an important bearing on the admissibility or otherwise of a confession—innumerable decisions will be found in Archbold's Criminal See also:Pleading (23rd ed.) . In See also:divorce law, the confession of a wife charged with adultery is always treated with circumspection and caution, for fear of See also:collusion between the parties to a suit . Where, however, such a confession is clear and distinct, the See also:court will usually receive it as evidence against the wife, but not against a co-See also:respondent . In a case where a wife's confession was obtained by falsely stating to her that the suspected co-respondent had confessed, such confession was held admissible . (T . A .
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