RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Conder Confession
Christian-social work, viz.: (1) confession, church law, and church policy; (2) popular evangelization; (3) social problems; (4) the press, art, and literature; (5)- apologetics; (6) education; (7) the womanquestion. The conference seeks particularly to overcome the enmity toward the Church common among the laboring classes, and to Christianize Social Democracy. Its purpose was outhned in resolutions adopted at tiie third general meeting held in Berlin Apr. 19-20, 1898, and its chief work has been to organize Evangelical unions among working people, both men and women. There are branches of the organization in most of the German states. Dr. Adolf Stocker, court preacher in Berlin, is president. The official organs are: Kirchlichsociale Blatter (Berlin, 1901 sqq.), a weekly, and Hejte der freien kirchlich-socialen Konferem (Berlin, 1900 sqq.), in which are printed the papers read at the various conferences. (R. Mumm.)
Bibliography: The gist of the proceedings is contained in Hefte der freien kirchlich-socialen Konferenz, Berlin, 1899 sqq. Statistical material is contained in the current Deutsch-evangelisches Jahrbuch, Berlin; and in J. Schneider, Kirchliches Jahrbuch, Gutersloh, 1907.
CONFESSION OF FAITH. See Symbolics. CONFESSION OF SINS.
Confession not General in the Early Church (§ 1). Its Earliest Forms (§ 2). Made a Law of the Church, 1215 (§ 3). Attitude of Luther (§4).
Confession as Retained by Lutherans and Reformed (§5). Opposition to Private Confession among Lutherans (§ 6). Its Place Taken by a General Confession (§ 7). Private Confession Revived in the 19th Century (§ 8). Usage of Different Churches (§ 9).
Confession of sins is an acknowledgment of sin, which may be made by a Christian either to God alone, to a fellow Christian, or to one who holds an ecclesiastical office. Confession as an act prescribed or recommended by the Church is made in accordance with the free decision of the individual (voluntary private confession), in compliance with special rules of church training and discipline (confession of catechumens and penitents), and in conformity with general regulations binding on all (a prescribed confession, either of individuals or the congregation as a whole). The present article is confined to the last-named form; its end is to attain absolution.
The New Testament knows nothing of confession as a formal institution, Jas. v. 16 referring to the close association with the I. Confes- brethren, although tlie words of Jesus sion not in Luke v. 20, vii. 48 may be corn- General in pared to ecclesiastical absolution, the Early Individual confession as a part of Church, ecclesiastical discipline was, of course, customary in ancient times, and also served as a voluntary act of a distressed sinner. The confession of sin and proclamation of pardon were likewise customary in the service of the ancient Church. But that confession existed in the earliest time as an established ecclesiastical institution is not proved by such isolated instances as are occasionally met with. The authorities desired and recommended con-
fession, but the laity opposed it. It was thus first enforced upon the monks and clergy, and afterward upon the laity as well. The Irish Columban, abbot of Luxeuil, endeavored to introduce the confession which existed in his country both for clergy and laity into the Prankish Church. This could not be accomplished at once, but by degrees the people were moved through the exhortations of the priests to adopt it. The general mode of procedure was as follows: the priest humbled himself in prayer
before God, asked the penitent con- 2. Its cerning his faith, his readiness to for- Earliest give others, and his sins, and gave him Forms. absolution in the form of a wish or
prayer. Since the priest spoke with the penitents in the vernacular, the formularies were translated. Connected with absolution was the obligation of Penance (q.v.). But as the penitents could be treated neither arbitrarily nor uniformly as to penance, the duration of the period of penitence was fixed according to individual sins, while the payment of a certain sum of money instead of doing penance was allowed at an early period.
After the laity had become accustomed to make confession at certain times, to specify gross offenses, and to be questioned by the confessor, the Lateran Council of 1215 made regular confession an absolute law of the Church: " The faithful of both sexes, after arriving at years of discretion, shall confess at least once annually to their own priests, reverently receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist at least at Easter, and faithfully acknowledging in private all their sins." The form of absolution was now changed to the judicial: " I absolve thee." The penitent was assured of the secrecy of the priest,
who was to be unfrocked and im-
3. Made a prisoned for life in a monastery if he Law of the violated the seal of the confessional.
Church, A second kind of confession, a gen- 121 5. eral confession, gained ground in the Middle Ages. During the service a confession was read in the vernacular and the congregation received absolution in the precatory form. This general confession existed in Italy, France, and Germany (see General Confession).
As early as 1519 Luther wrote: " There is nothing in the Church which needs reform so much as confession and penance," and in addition to occasional expressions he spoke of this reform of the confessional system in special writings: Kurze Unterweisung, wie man beichten soil, 1519; Von der Beichte, 1521; Sermon von der Beichte und dem Sakrament, 1524; Kurze Vermahnung
4. Attitude zur Beichte, 1529 (at the end of the of Luther. Larger Catechism). Luther controverted the existing confessional system
because it had become a source of pecuniary gain, because he disapproved the torture of the conscience in mentioning individual sins, and because the unworthy demeanor of the medieval friars who largely controlled the confessional system was offensive to him. He did not, however, reject confession itself, but, on the contrary, recognized no one as a Christian who withdrew from confession, though he sometimes takes it in the wider sense of confession of one's sins to God and prayer for mercy.