Noun

(wikipedia confession) (en noun)

The open admittance of having done something (especially of something bad).

Without the real murderer's confession , an innocent person will go to jail.

* Shakespeare

With a crafty madness keeps aloof, / When we would bring him on to some confession / Of his true state.

A formal document providing such an admission.

He forced me to sign a confession !

(Roman Catholicism) the disclosure of one's sins to a priest for absolution. Now termed the sacrament of reconciliation.

I went to confession and now I feel much better about what I had done.

* (First Folio ed.)

Hauing di?plea?'d my Father, to Lawrence Cell, / To make confe??ion , and to be ab?olu'd.

Acknowledgment of belief; profession of one's faith.

* Bible, Rom. x. 10

With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

A formula in which the articles of faith are comprised; a creed to be assented to or signed, as a preliminary to admission to membership of a church; a confession of faith.

Noun

(testimonies)

(legal) statements made by a witness in court.

* {{quote-news

, date = 21 August 2012 , first = Ed , last = Pilkington , title = Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die? , newspaper = The Guardian , url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/21/death-penalty-trial-reggie-clemons?newsfeed=true , page = , passage = The Missouri prosecutors' case against Clemons, based partly on incriminating testimony given by his co-defendants, was that Clemons was part of a group of four youths who accosted the sisters on the Chain of Rocks Bridge one dark night in April 1991. }}

An account of first-hand experience.

* Milton

[Thou] for the testimony of truth, hast borne / Universal reproach.

In a church service, a personal account, such as of one's conversion.

Witness; evidence; proof of some fact.

* Bible Mark vi. 11

When ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them.