Among minor works of this class we name Stuart, The Scr^ftural Unity qf Protestant Churches, exhibited in ihar pubUAed Corfessions (Dublin, 1835, 12mo) ; contahis the XXXIX Articles, the Irish Articles, the Confession of th# Church of Scotland, and a Declara- tion of Faith of the Congregational dissenters. Also Cumming, Unity qf Protestantism, being Articles of ReHgion from the Creeds of the Reformed Churches (Lond. 1837, 8vo), which contains extracts ftx>m nine Confessions, arranged under heads. See Hall, Har- mony of Protestant CoftfessUms (Lond. 1842, 8vo). For the three oscumenical Confessions, see Cbbbd, Apos- tles' ; Cbbbd, Athamasian ; Cbbbd, Nigbnb.
ConfesBional, the cell in which tiie Romish con- fessor sits to hear confessions. It is erected within the church, with a boarded back against the wall, or against a pillar or pier, and is divided into three niches, llie centre, which is intended for the priest, is closed
half-way up by a dwarf door, and has a seat wtfUn it There is a small grated apeitnre in each of the parti- tions between the priest and the aide-cdls, which an for those who come to confess. The earliest lavi which give a prescr^tion oonceming the place when confession (q. v.) is to be made, provide that so^ plaeei shall be open so that they may be seen by alL Koxa, accOTding to a decree of the Sjmod of Paris of 82S, must confiBSS before the altar in the preaenoe of wit- nesses not standing off very fsx. The first tzaou of confessionals as they are now in use in the Cfaor^ cf Rome are found in the second half of the 16th centmy, when several synods (Cosenza, 1579 ; Halfi, 1691) en- joined that every church should have as many conlei- sionals and confessors (priests hearing confeanoos) aa were necessary, which, however, should be ao ooo^ncH- ous that both the priest and the confessing person coold be seen without difficulty by every one in the dhndL — Herzog, Real-EncykL U, 786.
Confessor. (1.) In early ecdesiaaticalhistoiy^ word is ftwquendy used for mart3rr (q. v.), bmt iti proper application was to those who, after having bees tormented, were permitted to live and die in peace. At length it indicated those who, after having Hvcd a good life, died under the reputation of sanctity. Ac- cording to Cyprian, he who presented himself to tor- ture, or even to martyrdom, without being called to it, was not designated a confessor, but s professor; and if any through want of courage abandoned his coimtzy, and became a voluntary ezUe for the sake of the fiJth, he was called ex terris. Later the title Confoesar was applied to persons of eminently pious life as ** witness- ing a good confession." Edward of England was mads '* Confessor'* by a bull of Alexander III. ^.) In the Romish Church, a confessor is an ordained priest who has power to hear sinners in the so-called saeruDcot of penance, and to give them " absolutioa.** He m generally designated confessarius, to distinguish him horn confessor. The confessors of the kings of Fkance, fh>m the time of Henry IV, were constantly Jesuits; before them, the Dominicans and Cordeliers shared the office between them. The confessors of the house of Austria have also ordinarily been Dominicans and Cordeliers, but the later emperors have taken Jesuits. —Hend. Buck ; Moshehn, Ch. Hist, i, 54. See Aqbio
ULAB.
Confinnation, a rite by which, in some ChristisB churches, baptized persons are fully admitted into the Church by the imposition of hands and prayer. The Churches which practise this ceremony profess to do it in imitation of apostolic example recorded in the New Testament. (1.) It appears from the Acts that the apostles laid hands only on baptized persons, as in the case of the converted Samaritans, Acts viii, 12-17, and the disciples at Ephesus, Acts xix, 5, 6. It n, however, evident that in those passages allnsion is made to the miraculous gifts imparted by the apostles. It is said that " when S&en saw that through lajing on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was gi?«n, he o£ftoed them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands he may rs- oeive the Holy Ghost." Nothing is said of the li^ng on of hands in the baptism of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost (Acto ii, 88-42). Nor does the ceremony appear to have taken place at the baptism of Lydia and her household, Acts xvi, 15 ; or the Phi- lippUn J^er and his family. Acts xvi, Zl-SS. In Heb. vi, 2, mention is made of ** the doctrine of the layii^ on of hands" immediately after that of " the doctiioe of baptisms," but there is no intimation that the two transactions were connected. The journey of St Pkol through Syria and COida to confirm the churches does not necessarily imply the rite of confirmation as pnc^ tised by the Churdi of England. Theee churches had been probably planted by himself at an earlier period, and he now gives them such regnlationo as are necas-
CONFIRMATION
469
CONFIRMATION