Christian who has made a solemn and resolute profession of the faith, and has endured torments in its defense. A mere faint is called a confessor, to distinguish him from the roll of dignified saints; such as apostles, martyrs, &c. In ecclesiastical history, we frequently find the word confessors used for martyrs: in after-times, it was confined to those who, after having been tormented by the tyrants, were permitted to live and die in peace. And at last it was also used for those who, after having lived a good life, died under an opinion of sanctity. According to St Cyprian, he who presented himself to torture, or even to martyrdom, without being called to it, was not called a confessor but a professed: and if any out of a want of courage abandoned his country, and became a voluntary exile for the sake of the faith, he was called ex-territis.

Confessor is also a priest, in the Roman church, who has a power to hear sinners in the sacrament of penance, and to give them absolution. The church calls him in Latin confessarius, to distinguish him from confessor, which is a name consecrated to saints. The confessors of the kings of France, from the time of Henry IV., have been constantly Jesuits; before him 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 latter emperors have all taken Jesuits.