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ligation, or crime. With a crafty madness keeps aloof, When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true state. Shak.

The recess, seat, or inclosed place, where a priest sits to hear confessions; often a small structure furnished with a seat for the priest and with a window or aperture so that the penitent who is outside may whisper into the priest's ear without being seen by him or heard by others.

An exaggerated estimate of the importance of giving full assent to any particular formula of the Christian faith. Shaff.

A priest hearing, or sitting to hear, confession. [R.] Boucher

A confessional. [Obs.] Johnson.

One professing a certain faith. Bp. Montagu.

The act of acknowledging; admission; avowal; owning; confession. "An acknowledgment of fault." Froude.

Acquiescence or concurrence in a statement made by another, and distinguishable from a confession in that an admission presupposes prior inquiry by another, but a confession may be made without such inquiry.

a confession of guilt by a prisoner charged with treason or felony, together with an accusation of his accomplish and a giving evidence against them in order to obtain his own pardon. The term is no longer in use; it corresponded to what is now known as turning king's (or queen's) evidence in England, and state's evide…

ng to Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria in the 4th century. Athanasian creed, a formulary, confession, or exposition of faith, formerly supposed to have been drawn up by Athanasius; but this opinion is now rejected, and the composition is ascribed by some to Hilary, bishop of Arles (5th century). It is a summary of what…

re, and that of Queen Anne (b. 1664) the Augustan age of English literature. -- Augustan confession (Eccl. Hist.), or confession of Augsburg, drawn up at Augusta Vindelicorum, or Augsburg, by Luther and Melanchthon, in 1530, contains the principles of the Protestants, and their reasons for separating from the Roman Ca…

Told in the ear, i. e., told privately; as, auricular confession to the priest. This next chapter is a penitent confession of the king, and the strangest . . . that ever was auricular. Milton.

An instrument of torture for the leg, formerly used to extort confessions, particularly in Scotland. So he was put to the torture, which in Scotland they call the boots; for they put a pair of iron boots close on the leg, and drive wedges between them and the leg. Bp. Burnet.

a. -- To make a clean breast, to disclose the secrets which weigh upon one; to make full confession.

An acknowledgment of a fine of lands and tenements or confession of a thing done. [Eng.]

To hear or receive such confession; -- said of a priest. He . . . heard mass, and the prince, his son, with him, and the most part of his company were confessed. Ld. Berners.

One who makes a confession. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

By confession; without denial. [Written also confessly.]

One who makes a confession.

A priest who hears the confessions of others and is authorized to grant them absolution.