Chapter — 1917 Code of Canon Law
Chapter I: Of the Confession of the Parties
Superseded as law in 1983 — read why this Code still matters. Each canon links to its 1983 counterpart.
An assertion concerning some fact, in writing or orally, made by one party against himself and for the adversary before the judge, whether spontaneously or when the judge interrogates, is called a judicial confession.
Assertio de aliquo facto, in scriptis aut oretenus ab una parte contra se et pro adversario coram iudice, sive sponte, sive iudice interrogante peracta, dicitur confessio iudicialis.
1983 Code correlation: can. 1535
If there is question of some private business and the public good is not involved in the cause, the judicial confession of one party, provided it is made freely and deliberately, relieves the other from the burden of proving.
Si agatur de negotio aliquo privato et in causa non sit bonum publicum, confessio iudicialis unius partis, dummodo libere et considerate facta, relevat alteram ab onere probandi.
1983 Code correlation: can. 1536
A party who has confessed something in judgment cannot come against his own confession, unless either he does this immediately, or proves that the confession itself either lacks the conditions expressed in can. 1750 or is to be ascribed to an error of fact.
Pars, aliquid confessa in iudicio, non potest contra confessionem suam venire, nisi aut in continenti hoc faciat, aut probet confessionem ipsam vel carere conditionibus in can. 1750 expressis vel errori facti esse adscribendam.
1983 Code correlation: can. 1538
A confession, whether in writing or orally, made to the adversary himself or to others outside judgment, is called extrajudicial; and when it has been brought into judgment, it belongs to the judge, all circumstances of things having been weighed, to estimate how much it is to be valued.
Confessio sive scriptis, sive oretenus, ipsimet adversario aut aliis extra iudicium facta, dicitur extraiudicialis: eaque in iudicium deducta, iudicis est, perpensis omnibus rerum adiunctis, aestimare quanti facienda sit.
1983 Code correlation: can. 1537