profess

To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order.

This swayed the balance decisively in Mary's favour, and she was professed on 8 September 1578.

To declare oneself (to be something).

Kiefer professes himself amused by the fuss that ensued when he announced that he was buying the Mülheim-Kärlich reactor[…].

To declare; to assert, affirm.

He professes to haue receiued no sinister measure from his Iudge, but most willingly humbles himselfe to the determination of Iustice[…].

The best and wisest of them all professed / To know this only, that he nothing knew.

To make a claim (to be something); to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity.

Ed Miliband professed ignorance of the comment when he was approached by the BBC later.

Caution needs to be exercised in regards to claims of coinage as the data contained a number of examples of writers professing the invention of a term that had actually been in existence for many years.

To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.).

[N]ow ſuch a liue vngodly, vvithout a care of doing the wil of the Lord (though they profeſſe him in their mouths, yea though they beleeue and acknowledge all the Articles of the Creed, yea haue knowledge of the Scripturs) yet if they liue vngodly, they deny God, and therefore ſhal be denied, […]

The remainder of the population, about two-thirds, belongs to the Mongolian race and professes Buddhism.