Doubt VII: Who are bound to fast

IT IS CERTAIN from the Councils and Fathers, cited dub. 3. et ex praxi antiquissima Ecclesiae, that the Ecclesiastical precept of fasting binds under mortal sin all the baptized, of legitimate age, not impeded, as the Theologians commonly teach with St. Bonaventure dist. 15. and in other places cited there, as Valentia notes disp. 9. quaest. 2. puncto 5. Tannet, disp. 3. q. 3. dub. 5. cum D. Thom. quaest. 147. art. 4.

AND indeed they are not bound from eating flesh before the seventh year, as Tannerus teaches num. 9. and others cited in him and in Diana resol. 42. Sanchez tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 12. Villalob. tom. 1. tract. 23. dub. 4. Sanchez in select. disp. 41. num. 31.

WHETHER, however, they are bound immediately after the seventh year, I said in my Tract. de legibus.

BUT all, not impeded, are bound by the perfect Ecclesiastical fast after the twenty-first year, which is the completion of growth even of the just and perfect, as defined in Conc. Vienn.

THEY RAISE the question whether, if the 21st year is completed in the morning, one is bound from that point; and they cite Portel. addit ad dub. Regul. V. Ieiunium; Sanchez de matrim. tom. 1. lib. 2. disp. 24. num. 23. Yet this does not please Sancio select. disp. 54. See Diana resol. 49.

I THINK this to be a Metaphysical question, the more so since growth, or augmentation, is not completed in one day or another of the twenty-first year, but has a breadth; and in many it even exceeds these years, as Diana often observed part. 1. Tract. 9. resol. 49. Pasqual. decis. 252. Sanctius select. disp. 54.

THREE impediments indeed are counted: Impotency, Necessity, and Piety. So St. Thomas quaest. cit. art. 4. and other Theologians 4. dist. 15. Valentia disp. 9. quaest. 2. dub. 5. Tanner. num. 99. citing others.