Subdoubt I: Who are reckoned unable to fast

THOSE are reckoned impotent who, without grave inconvenience, cannot morally carry on their life; or who, being weak, cannot sustain themselves with one meal, or are too much burdened by it, so that they cannot digest; as the sick, the sickly, convalescents, and those whom fasting notably harms. Among the sick are also the old; for, as Caietanus says here art. 4. Valentia puncto 5. old age is an incurable disease. But the age beyond which they are not bound to fast is commonly assigned by the Theologians at sixty years. Many, however, say that if at that age they are still robust, they are bound. Of these about thirty Doctors are counted by Diana resol. 29.

OTHERS, however, with whom Diana sides, free from the fast all old men whatsoever above the sixtieth year. Llamas part. 3. cap. 5. §. 20. where he asserts that Pius V, questioned on this matter, so answered viva voce. Molfesius tom. 1. tract. 10. cap. 4. Ortiz summa, c. 19. Angles in 4. part. 2. quaest. 6. dub. 6. Sanchez de matr. tom. 2. lib. 7. disp. 22. num. 17. Portel. in dub. leg. part. 1. verb. ieiunium.

THE REASON is, because that age has a deceptive health, and is midway between disease and health, as Gal. says lib. 5. et 6. de tuenda sanitate, and although some seem strong, yet they rush toward death, and thus are continually in danger of the gravest fall, unless they are refreshed with food. Then Pius V and the succeeding Pontiffs, denying to clerics and religious the eating of milk-dishes by virtue of the Bull of the crusade, nevertheless excepted the sixty-year-old, as it were agreeable to reason, that in that age provision be made for the weakness of nature.

MOST WELL does St. Bonaventure in spec. animae, cap. 5. posit impotency from age without fixing the years, for many are more impotent in their fortieth year than others in their sixtieth. Therefore one must consider the complexion and state, etc., which hurry a man to old age, as Lessius notes de iust. lib. 4. cap. 2. dub. 6. Tanner. disp. 3. quaest. 5. dub. 5. num. 101. Bassaeus V. Ieiunium, 2. Fagundez de praecep. 4. eccles. lib. 1. cap. 8. Reginaldus tom. 1. lib. 4. cap. 17. sect. 1. num. 209. Bonacina de leg. disp. 10. quaest. 1. part. ultim. saying that a sixty-year-old can be so sound in strength that by no reason is he excused.

ADOLESCENTS also are reckoned impotent up to the twenty-first year, which is that of growth, as Valentia notes loco cit. and others with St. Thomas quaest. 147. art. 4. ad 2. there Syluios Sanc. sel. disp. 54. Lezana V. Ieiun. num. 6. Bassaeus ibi.

SIMILARLY also pregnant women and nursing women, who must supply food to their offspring; it is the common opinion, in Diana resol. 14. nor should I exclude those who are robust, for the offspring must not in doubt be exposed to danger. Diana brings the case resol. 30. whether a pregnant woman, who is in grave danger of lust, is bound to fast with danger to the offspring. Fernandez asserts it in Exam. part. 4. cap. 12. §. 6. Against whom Homob. rises up in Exam. part. 2. tract. 8. cap. 7. quaest. 17. Diana resol. 30. Pasqualig. disp. 289. with whom I see that one must subscribe without hesitation; for since other remedies are prepared by God, as prayer, frequent Sacraments, and the grace of God never fails in necessities, and moreover since God has commanded that we not kill, and accordingly this is a grave necessity of keeping both precepts, not killing and not committing adultery, I think it impious to say that it is in our power to kill, or that we are compelled, as it were because God with His grace fails the necessary opportunity of an otherwise inevitable temptation.

THE POOR also are excused, who have not wherewith to eat enough. Indeed, those who have not wherewith to season, what fatness, are excused by Silvester verb. Ieiunium, quaest. 5. num. 16. cap. 21. quaest. 8. Tanner. num. 107. especially in places where eggs and milk-dishes are lawful. See St. Thomas art. 4. ad 4.

Indeed those who have nothing but flesh are excused by Bellarmino lib. 2. de bonis operibus, in particul. cap. 9. Azor lib. 7. cap. 27. quaestio 7. Tanner. num. 106. Therefore he excuses those serving heretics, with Lessio disp. 5. n. 35. Indeed he excuses those who, destitute, eat the leftovers given them from the banquets of Bacchanalians; but these things are not to be granted so absolutely; I excuse, indeed, those who have no congruous food, but only vegetables and fruit, Pasqualig. disp. 179. Bassaeus V. Ieiun. 2. for with bread a relish is necessary: Therefore the Saintly Doctor loco cit. speciali requires that the poverty be notable.