Question V: Whether austerity of food is owed to religious poverty

ELOQUENTLY the Seraphic Doctor expounds the abstinences and austerities of Religious c. 2. et 3. Responsionis secundae in Apologia Pauperum. The sectaries assail them with calumnies and taunts.

I ASSERT that austerity befits Religious.

It is proved from the Seraphic Doctor first, from Luke 1. where Ioannes is foretold great on that account: For he shall be great; he shall not drink wine, or strong drink. And he ate locusts, clothed in haircloth.

THEN from 1. Cor. 9. where Paul: I chastise my body, etc. Every one who contends in the arena abstains from all things.

THIRDLY from the austerities of the ancient Saints. See the excellent things there.