Doubt I: Whether it is lawful to shorten our life by mortifications

The FIRST opinion is, that it is mortal to use penances imprudently applied, which one has recognized will gravely harm, even if life be shortened on account of satisfying God. So D. Thom. 2. 2. quaest. 147. art. 5., Tolet. lib. 5. summae, cap. 6. concl. 4., Navar. summa Lat. cap. 15. num. 12., Petrus Navarrus lib. 2. restit. cap. 3. num. 88., Couar. lib. 1. variar. cap. 10., Aragon. 2. 2. quaest. 64. art. 5. ad 5., Lopez p. p. instruct. cap. 64., Sayrus lib. 7. cap. 9., Bassaeus V. Homic. 1. num. 8., Diana part. 5. tract. 4. Resol. 33., Pasqual. de ieiunio, disp. 27.

Fagundez SUBSCRIBES, num. 18., that it is deadly to feed on raw herbs, or on other gravely harmful foods, and he cites Victoria num. 43., Aragonius, and Lopez above; yet these excuse one who does not advert to it.

Indeed I am lifted up in wonder, and moved by unblemished examples, when I read through the life of the saints, who pleased God most of all, and among them the Seraphic Father Francis; of whom S. Bonaventura relates in the legend, especially cap. 5., that the most holy Patriarch so crucified, through the whole course of his penitential life, his flesh with its concupiscences, that he scarcely ever in sound health admitted cooked foods, and when he did admit them, he finished them with ashes, or spoilt them with water. And of water he never dared to drink as much as nature would suffice: the bare earth was his bed, wearing a hairshirt, his clothing torn, trembling in the utmost rigor of winter, and he continually devised other new kinds of penance. Now on a certain night, when he was passing the night at the hermitage of Sarthianus, he heard a voice calling him three times: FRANCIS, FRANCIS, FRANCIS. To which he: What? The voice answered: There is no sinner whom God does not spare; but whoever kills himself with harsh penance will not find mercy in eternity: Immediately the man of God perceived the voice of the enemy, and recognized the cunning of the veteran serpent, for he was so inflamed by the temptation of the flesh: But the Holy Father, suddenly stripping himself and scourging himself sharply, thus addresses his body: Come, brother ass. Thus it befits you to undergo the scourges. Soon indeed he rolled among the snows; then he composed seven great heaps of snow, and said: See, this household must be fed by you: this is the wife; these the sons; these the daughters to be clothed; but if this care oppresses you, return; and serve God.

For thus he called his body brother ass, as if to be subjected to laborious burdens, to be beaten with frequent scourges, and to be refreshed with vile fodder. This is D. Bonaventure.

The same Saintly Doctor in the Diaeta, tit. 2. cap. 6., commends gravely the fasting of Elias and of other saints, and says it was instituted by the true Hippocrates, God.

And in Lib. 4. of the Pharetra, cap. 45., he relates of D. Bernard, sermone 66. in Cantica: Abstinebo a vino, quia in vino luxuria est, aut si infirmus sum, medico utar, iuxta consilium Apostoli. Abstinebo a carnibus, ne dum mihi nimis carnem nutriunt, simul et carnis nutriant vitia, etc.

But in the sermon on S. John the Baptist, he observes the austerity of S. John, Matth. 3. erat in deserto ab aetate tenella, vestimentum e pilis camelorum, cibus locustae, ac mel Sylvestre, et Lucae primo insinuatur: Vinum, et siceram non bibet.

Praebuit hirtum tegumen camelus Artubus sacris, strophium bidentes Cui latex haustum sociata pastum Mella Locustis.

Likewise in cap. 7. it is said: Venit Ioannes, non manducans panem; neque bibens vinum, Et tamen aequaliter nunquam peccavit. Sane maior esse debet poenitentia peccatorum, and D. Gregorio homil. 20. in Euangelia, and he subjoins: si Ioannes, et Elias, et omnes SS. P. P. in desertis AEgypti, tantis se vigiliis, et ieiuniis macerarunt, tam aspera, et inculta vestimenta portaverunt, quidnos pleni peccatis omnibus facere debemus? These words of the Saintly Doctor: certainly those Anchorites and Monks fed on herbs and water, and were nourished by them.

The Saintly Doctor confesses in the Apologia pauperum that now indeed more is required on account of weaker natures, but one must beware of self-love, which is accustomed to indulge itself too much.