Confession

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Confession \Con*fes"sion\, n. [F. confession, L. confessio.]
     1. Acknowledgment; avowal, especially in a matter pertaining
        to one's self; the admission of a debt, obligation, or
        crime.
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              With a crafty madness keeps aloof,
              When we would bring him on to some confession
              Of his true state.                    --Shak.
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     2. Acknowledgment of belief; profession of one's faith.
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              With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
                                                    --Rom. x. 10.
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     3. (Eccl.) The act of disclosing sins or faults to a priest
        in order to obtain sacramental absolution.
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              Auricular confession . . . or the private and
              special confession of sins to a priest for the
              purpose of obtaining his absolution.  --Hallam.
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     4. A formulary in which the articles of faith are comprised;
        a creed to be assented to or signed, as a preliminary to
        admission to membership of a church; a confession of
        faith.
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     5. (Law) An admission by a party to whom an act is imputed,
        in relation to such act. A judicial confession settles the
        issue to which it applies; an extrajudical confession may
        be explained or rebutted. --Wharton.
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     {Confession and avoidance} (Law), a mode of pleading in which
        the party confesses the facts as stated by his adversary,
        but alleges some new matter by way of avoiding the legal
        effect claimed for them. --Mozley & W.
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     {Confession of faith}, a formulary containing the articles of
        faith; a creed.
  
     {General confession}, the confession of sins made by a number
        of persons in common, as in public prayer.
  
     {Westminster Confession}. See {Westminster Assembly}, under
        {Assembly}.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  confession
       n 1: an admission of misdeeds or faults
       2: a written document acknowledging an offense and signed by
          the guilty party
       3: (Roman Catholic Church) the act of a penitent disclosing his
          sinfulness before a priest in the sacrament of penance in
          the hope of absolution
       4: a public declaration of your faith
       5: a document that spells out the belief system of a given
          church (especially the Reformation churches of the 16th
          century)

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  69 Moby Thesaurus words for "confession":
     abject apology, acceptance, acknowledgment, adherents, admission,
     agape, allowance, apology, appreciation, asperges, aspersion,
     auricular confession, avowal, bar mitzvah, bas mitzvah,
     breast-beating, by-line, celebration, church, circumcision,
     citation, class, communion, concession, confession of faith,
     confirmation, contrition, credit line, declaration,
     declaration of faith, denomination, disciples, excuse, faith,
     followers, high celebration, incense, invocation,
     invocation of saints, ism, kiss of peace, lesser litany, litany,
     love feast, lustration, mea culpa, order, owning, owning up, pax,
     penitence, persuasion, processional, profession,
     reciting the rosary, recognition, reference, regrets,
     rite of confession, school, sect, shrift, signature,
     telling of beads, the confessional, the confessionary, trademark,
     tribute, unbosoming
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Confession
     (1) An open profession of faith (Luke 12:8). (2.) An
     acknowledment of sins to God (Lev. 16:21; Ezra 9:5-15; Dan.
     9:3-12), and to a neighbour whom we have wronged (James 5:16;
     Matt. 18:15).
     

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CONFESSION, crim. law, evidence. The voluntary declaration made by a person 
  who has committed a crime or misdemeanor, to another, of the agency or 
  participation which he had in the same. 
       2. When made without bias or improper influence, confessions are 
  admissible in evidence, as the highest and most satisfactory proof: because 
  it is fairly presumed that no man would make such a confession against 
  himself, if the facts confessed were not true but they are excluded, if 
  liable to the of having been unfairly obtained. 
       3. Confessions should be received with great caution, as they are 
  liable to many objections. There is danger of error from the misapprehension 
  of witnesses, the misuse of words, the failure of a party to express his own 
  meaning, the prisoner being oppressed by his unfortunate situation, and 
  influenced by hope, fear, and sometimes a worse motive, to male an untrue 
  confession. See the case of the two Boorns in Greenl. Ev. Sec. 214, note 1; 
  North American Review, vol. 10, p. 418; 6 Carr. & P. 451; Joy on Confess. s. 
  14, p. 100; and see 1 Chit. Cr. Law, 85. 
       4. A confession must be made voluntarily, by the party himself, to 
  another person. 1. It must be voluntary. A confession, forced from the mind 
  by the flattery of hope, or the torture of fear, comes in so questionable a 
  shape, when it is to be considered as evidence of guilt, that Lo credit 
  ought to be given to it. 1 Leach, 263. This is the principle, but what 
  amounts to a promise or a threat, is not so easily defined. Vide 2 East, P. 
  C. 659; 2 Russ. on Cr. 644 4 Carr. & Payne, 387; S. C. 19 Eng. Com. L. Rep. 
  434; 1 Southard, R. 231 1 Wend. R. 625; 6 Wend. R. 268 5 Halst. R. 163 
  Mina's Trial, 10; 5 Rogers' Rec. 177 2 Overton, R. 86 1 Hayw. (N. C.) R, 
  482; 1 Carr. & Marsh. 584. But it must be observed that a confession will be 
  considered as voluntarily made, although it was made after a promise of 
  favor or threat of punishment, by a person not in authority, over the 
  prisoner. If, however, a person having such authority over him be present at 
  the time, and he express no dissent, evidence of such confession cannot be 
  given. 8 Car. & Payne, 733. 
       5. - 2. The confession must be made by the party to be affected by it. 
  It is evidence only against him. In case of a conspiracy, the acts of one 
  conspirator are the acts of all, while active in the progress of the 
  conspiracy, but after it is over, the confession of one as to the part he 
  and others took in the crime, is not evidence against any but himself. Phil. 
  Ev. 76, 77; 2 Russ. on Cr. 653. 
       6. - 3. The confession must be to another person. It may be made to a 
  private individual, or under examination before a magistrate. The whole of 
  the confession must be taken, together with whatever conversation took place 
  at the time of the confession. Roscoe's Ev. N. P. 36; 1 Dall. R. 240 Id. 
  392; 3 Halst. 27 5 2 Penna. R. 27; 1 Rogers' Rec. 66; 3 Wheeler's C. C. 
  533; 2 Bailey's R. 569; 5 Rand. R. 701. 
       7. Confession, in another sense, is where a prisoner being arraigned 
  for an offence, confesses or admits the crime with which he is charged, 
  whereupon the plea of guilty is entered. Com Dig. Indictment, K; Id. 
  Justices, W 3; Arch. Cr. Pl. 1 2 1; Harr. Dig. b. t.; 20 Am. Jur. 68; Joy on 
  Confession. 
       8. Confessions are classed into judicial and extra judicial. Judicial 
  confessions are those made before a magistrate, or in court, in the due 
  course of legal proceedings; when made freely by the party, and with a full 
  and perfect knowledge of their nature and consequences, they are sufficient 
  to found a conviction. These confessions are such as are authorized by a 
  statute, as to take a preliminary examination in writing; or they are by 
  putting in the plea of guilty to an indictment. Extra judicial confessions 
  are those which are made by the part elsewhere than before a magistrate or 
  in open court. 1 Greenl. Ev. Sec. 216. See, generally, 3 Bouv. Inst. n. 
  3081-2.