Doubt III: Whether fasting itself is a good work, and of precept

THE necessity of the fasts used in the Church heretics have attacked, apud Valentiam disp. 9, quaest. 2, puncto 1, Bellarmine lib. 2 de bonis operibus, in particulari, who defend it gravely. Others, however, blame not fasting precisely, but certain of its circumstances, which are employed according to the prescription of the Church.

Thus most recently dogmatize the sectaries, Luther lib. de visione Danielis, Calvin lib. 4 Instit. cap. 12, Kemnitius in fest. 25 Tridentini, and others of this chaff.

FIRST, then, it is certain that fasting, as it is an act of Temperance for taming the flesh, is a good, even if one abstains from foods which otherwise one might lawfully use.

IT IS PROVED by the Holy Doctor in Diaeta, tit. 2, cap. 6, Exodi 24, where Moses fasted forty days; 3 Reg. 19, where Elias likewise spent the same number of days in fasting. Ioel. 2: Convertimini ad me in ieiunio, etc. Iudith. 8, where the almost perpetual fasts of this holy widow are praised.

From the New Testament, Matth. 6, where Christ hands down the manner of fasting; Marci 9, where he says: Hoc genus daemoniorum non eiicitur, nisi in oratione, et ieiunio.

IN 2 Lucae the Holy Doctor proves it by the example of Anna, quae non discedebat de Templo, ieiuniis, et obsecrationibus serviens; Tob. 12: Bona est oratio cum ieiunio.

SERM. 4 prima Dominicae, he brings forward. The fast of Christ, to which he was led by the Holy Spirit. The fast of the Ninevites, praised Ionae 3. The fast of Moses Deuter. 9, and the others brought forward above.

IT IS PROVED by the Holy Doctor in the cited places, from the Fathers, whom see there.

IT IS PROVED there by reason. That which stands in the place of arms for taming the passions, insofar as they impede salvation, is useful and holy: Such is fasting: Therefore. The reason is from SS. Basil de laudibus ieiunii, Athanasius de virginitate, Cyprian serm. de Ieiunio, Ambrose lib. de Elia, et ieiunio, cap 4, Leo serm. 7 de ieiunio septimi mensis, and D. Augustine de utilitate ieiunii, of which Possidonius makes mention in the Indice operum Augustini, where he has an elegant similitude; for if I were to mount a horse which, being ferocious, could easily throw me headlong, would I not strive to tame it, by withdrawing the stronger foods from its fierceness and putting in hay? So too now.

IT IS CERTAIN also that fasting is useful for other holy ends. First, for rendering prayer more efficacious: So it is had in Tob. 12, prima ad Corinth. 7, Act. 13 et 14.

SECOND, for stirring up penance the more, as is intimated Ioel 2 et Ionae 3 supra.

THIRD, for a readier contemplation, as is said of Daniel; for the lean bird is the swifter of flight. So it is compared by D. Chrysostom homil. 2 in Genes.

FOURTH, for avoiding the scandal of the infirm Rom. 14, prima Corinth. 8.

FIFTH, for withdrawing the food of the pot of covetousnesses; for it is said: Luxuriat raro non bene pasta caro; Subtrahe ligna foco, si vis extinguere flammam.

SIXTH, for curing sickness a diet is advised.

SEVENTH, for putting the wolves to flight from the wood, as is said Marci 9.

EIGHTH, for storming the town in which a strong man armed keeps guard; for a siege wears down the defenders Lucae 11. See these and other things in D. Bonaventure Diaeta tit. 2 cap. 6.

IT IS CERTAIN, thirdly, beyond controversy: Fasting, although of itself it is not an evil, when referred to the aforesaid ends, yet if it have not joined to it other good works also, which are necessary, and indeed, unless it be propped up by the grace of God, is unprofitable unto salvation. The Holy Doctor proves it by that Isa. 58: Hoc est ieiunium, quod elegi; Dissolve colligationes impietatis, etc. Nolite ieiunare sicut usque ad hanc diem.

This the SS. Fathers warn of, Jerome lib. 2 cont. Iovin, Gregory homil. 16 in Evang, Maximus homil. prima de ieiunio.

FOURTHLY it is certain, if we abstain from certain foods as being defiled by their nature, the fast will not be holy, but impious. For this was the error of the Tatianists, as D. Augustine relates lib. de haeresibus, cap. 25.

OUR controversy, therefore, with the heretics is: Whether fasting is rightly taken up as a command of the Church, binding under pain of mortal sin.

For the sectaries, raising up the heresy of the Aërians, which Epiphanius records haeresi 75, boast that this kind of fast is superstitious.

Yet the Catholic Church declares this holy command.

IT IS PROVED first by the arguments by which I showed p. p. Tract. 1 disp. 5 proaemiali, et prima secundae, Tract. de legibus, disp. 5 that the Church can make laws binding in Conscience.

Moreover this law of Fastings is proved from many Councils, especially Gangr. can. 19, where it is said: Si quis ieiunia, quae communiter custodiuntur ab Ecclesia, dissolvit, sit anathema. In the Council of Tiburtina can. 35 it is said, Irasci Dominum, si quis Quadragesimae, aut ieiuniorum diebus non coerceatur a ieiunando; and in the Fourth Council of Carthage can. 63: Statuitur ut clericus, qui tempore ieiunii absque inevitabili necessitate, ieiunium rumpit, inter minores habeatur; and in the Council of Agde can. 12 it is commanded ut omnes Ecclesiae filii in Quadragesima ieiunent; and in the Council of Mainz under Charlemagne can. 35 those are anathematized who dissolve the appointed fast; and in the Eighth Council of Toledo: Frangentes ieiunium Quadragesimae, privantur in Paschate communione; and in the sixth Synod cap. 56 it is had: Visum est, ut omnis Dei Ecclesia, quae est in universo terrarum orbe, unum ordinem sequens, ieiunium perficiat, et abstineat, sicut ab omni mactabili, sic ab ovis, et caseo. Si autem hoc non servaverint, si sint quidem Clerici, deponantur; si autem Laici, segregentur. See also other authorities prima secundae, disp. 17 de consc. quaest. 10, where the propositions condemned by Alexander VII are treated of.

The SS. Fathers pursue this truth with abundant arguments, calling heretics those who deny it, especially Epiphanius haeresi 75, Augustine lib. de haeresibus, cap. 53.

YOU OBJECT first, that to abstain from foods is the doctrine of devils, which the Lord created to be received 1. Tim. 4 and Matth. 15: Non quod intrat in os, coinquinat, 1. Corinth. 1: De eo, quod in macello venit, manducate.

IT IS ANSWERED, that those ancient heretics are reproved who said one must abstain from foods as unclean by nature; or the Judaizers, who wanted abstinence from foods still to be kept according to the Mosaic ceremonial law. But Matth. 15 wills that one be not defiled of oneself, but only by reason of an external precept, insofar as they are opposed to things intrinsically forbidden. Paul, moreover, shows that one must not inquire too scrupulously whether meats have been sacrificed to idols.

Moreover these commands are had as declared cap. Non oportet, cap. Placuit de consecr. dist. 3, cap. Quadragesima, dist. 5 cap. 1, et cap. Consilium, de observ. ieiun.

ECCLESIASTICAL fasts, therefore, are had from the ancient practice of the Church, and indeed the fast of Lent was instituted by the Apostles, and is had in can. 68 Apostolorum, as Epiphanius testifies haeresi 75, Jerome epist. ad Marcellam, Leo serm. 6 in Quadrag, and it is gathered from Augustine epist. 118 ad Ioan. et lib. 4 de Baptism. cap. 24.

TELESPHORUS the Pope sanctioned that the clergy should begin the Lenten fast from Septuagesima cap. Quadragesima, dist. 4. But this custom has been abrogated, as Balaeus warns V. Ieiun. 2. By the common law, from Apostolic tradition, as D. Leo notes serm. de Pent, and as Bellarmine proves cap. 19, Baronius anno 57, and as is related cap. statuimus, dist. 76, we have the fast of the four Seasons (Ember days). By the same law one fasts on the Vigils of the Nativity of the Lord and of the Assumption of the B. V. cap. ex parte, de observ. ieiun. Likewise on the Vigils of the Apostles cap. Consilium, ibi. Exceptis SS. Philippi, et Iacobi, ob tempus Paschae, et D. Ioannis ob Nativitatis solemnia.

Now certain vigils of the Apostles were not kept.

The VIGILS of Pentecost, of St. John the Baptist, of St. Laurence, and of All Saints bind by custom alone, as Sylvester notes num. 5, Sylvius quaest. 147 art. 5 quaesito 7, Fagundez cap. 5, apud Balaeum.

There are some who doubt whether this custom has been introduced so as to bind: Pasqualigo decif. 171.

IF the Vigil of St. John the Baptist falls on the feast of Corpus Christi, it is transferred by the precept of Urban VIII, die 15 Oct. 1638 edito.

The Bishop also can transfer vigils falling on some solemnity of a place; and so for other causes. The same holds for regular Prelates with their subjects. For although Pontifical Law does not subject them to itself, yet its prudent execution does.

ABSTINENCE also on Friday and Saturday is had from the ancient practice of the Church.

It is a pleasure to add the saying of D. Jerome epist. 28, apud D. Bonaventure Spec. cap. 3: Unaquaque Provincia abundet in suo sensu, et praecepta maiorum leges Apostolicae arbitretur. See the Holy Doctor also serm. 5 Ciner. et serm. 3 et 5 primae Dom. Quadr.