Plural of confessionary; priests who hear confessions, or collections of confession-related texts and guidelines.
From confessionary (from confess + -ary + -ies plural). This term combines the -ary suffix (denoting a person or place) with the plural -ies, creating a doubly marked plural form.
Medieval and Renaissance confessionaries were actually dense instruction manuals for priests—long books telling them how to classify sins and assign penances, essentially the 'how-to' guides for spiritual administration of guilt.
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