[ad. med.L. confessiōnārium (cited by Du Cange in sense 1 from Council of Seville, 1512), neuter of confessiōnārius adj.]
† 1. = CONFESSIONAL sb. 2. Obs.
1669. Woodhead, St. Teresa, II. iii. 16. He came and spake with me in a Confessionary.
1704. Collect. Voy. (Churchill), III. 76/1. The Confessionary is so turn’d, as the … Confessor cannot see the Woman that enters to Confess.
1792. Archæol., X. 299 (D.). These stalls have been improperly termed confessionaries or confessionals.
2. = CONFESSION 8.
1727–51. [see CONFESSIONAL sb. 3].
1848. B. Webb, Cont. Ecclesiol., 430. The crypt or confessionary retains an original altar.
1879. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Med. Archit., II. 29. An extensive crypt, called a confessionary, as containing the tombs of confessors.
1881. G. Scott, junr., Eng. Ch. Archit., 9/2. In front of the altar and the confessionary was the choir of the inferior clergy and singers.
