Confessor, Christian who openly and publicly professed faith in Jesus Christ, who endured torment in order to defend it entirely until death, and who willingly suffered death.

One gives the name confessor to a saint to distinguish him from apostles, evangelists, martyrs, etc. See Saint, Martyr.

In ecclesiastical history, one often finds the word confessor to signify martyr . This name was subsequently given to those who, after having been tormented by tyrants, lived and died in peace. Finally, confessors came to mean those who, after having led good lives, were regarded as saints at their death.

According to Saint Cyprian one did not call one who volunteered himself for martyrdom, and without recognition, a confessor , though one called him a professor . If someone for fear of lacking courage and of renouncing the faith gave up his wealth, his country, etc., and voluntarily went into exile, one called him extorris , exiled .

Confessor is also a religious or secular priest, who has the power to hear sinners in the sacrament of penitence, and to give them absolution.

The Church calls this confessarius in Latin to distinguish it from confessor , the name reserved for saints. The confessors of the kings of France, if one excludes the illustrious M. l’abbé Fleury, were consistently Jesuits since Henri IV. Before him, the Dominicans and the Cordeliers were almost always confessors of the kings of France. Confessors of the House of Austria were also ordinarily Dominicans and Corderliers; the last emperors judged it fitting to take Jesuits. Dictionnaire de Trévoux et Chambers [1].

Note

1. The Dictionnaire de Trévoux (1704) was the nickname of the Dictionnaire universel françois et latin . “General Chronology of the Encyclopédie” , http://encyclopedie.uchicago.edu/node/82 (accessed February 18, 2014). Chambers refers to Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1728).