Chapter VI — On the Scrupulous Conscience

I. Of the scrupulous conscience, or of a scruple, this is the notion: it is a certain light suspicion of sin, with excessive anxiety in acting. A scruple is distinguished from a doubt, in that the latter is placed in a suspension of judgment; and from an opinion, which rests upon a grave foundation. The last words — with excessive anxiety in acting — constitute the true character of the scrupulous man, who is pressed by continual anguish.

II. From this definition of a scruple, it is plain how erroneous is the opinion of the crowd. Worldly men, and men given over to corruptions, hold for scrupulous those Christians who are zealous and solicitous for eternal salvation; who with the utmost vigilance study to decline both sins and the dangers of sin; who detest the allurements of the raving world — namely dances, games, comedies, and spectacles of every kind — and devote sedulous labor to the most grave precepts of humility and to panting after evangelical perfection. But blind indeed are they who number such Christians among the scrupulous.

III. Several causes of scruples are commonly assigned. First, the disposition of nature. A temperament which abounds in cold and melancholic humor inclines to suspicions and terrors. Suspicion paints things with a black brush and fabricates specters; these inflame the fantasy and excite fear. Secondly, infirmity of the head, and injury of the imaginative faculty, excessive maceration of the body, and prolonged vigils. That these causes may be expelled, the art of physicians is needed.

IV. Other causes arise either from the demon, or from one's own vices. 1. The demons stir up the melancholic and black humors, whence scruples are wont to flow. 2. Society and familiarity with the scrupulous. 3. Ignorance, which impedes the distinction of good from evil. 4. Pride, by which a man trusts too much in his own judgment. 5. God also permits at times certain souls to be vexed by scruples, either in penance for their crimes, or unto greater perfection.

V. There are two kinds of scrupulous persons. One is of those who are in very deed upright and of the best morals, and who, through excessive anxiety of declining even the very shadow of sin, are tormented by scruples. The other is of those who stir up scruples for themselves in matters of no moment. They say they are tormented by scruples because they have prayed with a distracted mind, because they have passed a rash judgment upon their Neighbor, because they have not promptly resisted internal suggestions. Meanwhile they stir up no scruple in themselves for not having fulfilled the precept of almsgiving, for living sumptuously and studying to indulge their appetites, for neglecting to fulfill the duties of their profession. It is carried about in the place of a proverb, that the scrupulous are gluttonous, stiff-necked, and lovers of their comforts.

VI. Question I. What are the remedies of scruples? Answer. Authors assign many. Fr. Hermann Busembaum, among the rules which he sets forth for driving away scruples, assigns one in chapter 3 which lays open the sweetness of his Medulla; it is placed at number 4, and conceived in these words, as found in Fr. La-Croix, page 51: To accustom oneself to follow the milder opinions, and even the less safe. Fillius, at number 181, gives emphasis to this "accustoming oneself," and wanders most widely along the broad and spacious way. There is no need of persuasion that men should accustom themselves to milder and less safe opinions. For by their very nature they are prone to the milder, the laxer, and the less safe. This rule I reject as false and pernicious.

VII. Rule 1. Let the scrupulous enter upon the strait and narrow way which Christ prescribes, and beware of the broad and spacious way which leads to perdition: for this is most useful, not for fostering scruples, but rather for driving them off. 2. Let them accustom themselves to humility, to prayers, and to works of piety. 3. Let them exercise themselves in the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. 4. Let them solicitously guard against both mortal and venial sins. 5. Let them imitate the life of the Saints. 6. Let them select a director who is learned and pious, and an assertor of sound doctrine. 7. Let them obey his counsels at his nod, and receive his decisions as those of God. Having once received the rules of direction, they ought not importunately to go to the Director, and vex him with most troublesome interrogations, and afflict him with the utmost tedium; but by the benefit of the rules which they have received they ought to drive away their scruples and specters.

VIII. Question II. How should the Confessor conduct himself with the scrupulous? Answer. 1. Let him declare to the scrupulous that he will not undertake their direction unless they altogether promise exact and blind obedience. 2. Let him persuade them that their health is placed above all in obedience. 3. Let him explore the causes of the scruples. 4. If a past life full of vices and sacrileges be the cause of the scruples, let him prescribe a general confession, and the method to be observed in making it. This done, let him severely forbid them thereafter to think back upon their past vices. At most, let him hear three or four times some sin of the past life. Then let him shut altogether the door of the life that has elapsed. 5. Let him exercise them in the duties of the virtues. The devil is cunning and crafty. When he cannot assail and subdue the soul directly by the representation of crimes, he endeavors to make the yoke of Christ harsh, and to strew the way of virtue with thorns and briers: he fills the mind with continual specters, and endeavors to depict the road to heaven as impassable and unequal to human strength, so that the soul, at last oppressed by desperation, may relapse into its old crimes. Let the Confessor therefore take care to raise up the strength of the scrupulous, to foster hope in the divine mercy, and utterly to abolish in them the recollection of the past life, which disturbs the soul.

IX. Let the Confessor be benign and merciful in animating and inflaming the spirit of the scrupulous man; but severe in admitting the repetition of the confessions of the life that has elapsed. Let him make manifest what grave evils scruples beget. 1. They render the profession of virtue odious. 2. They induce desperation. 3. They impede the consolation and joy of a well-ordered life. 4. They fill the soul with afflictions; they beget the loss of time in vain cogitations, and innumerable other evils.

X. Question III. Is it licit to act against scruples? Answer. It is not merely licit, but a duty, to despise scruples, and, spurning them, to act against them. When certain scrupulous persons doubt either about the attention necessary in reciting prayers, or about the omission of some psalm or hour, certain Casuists suggest demanding an oath of the scrupulous person: Would you swear that you omitted the hour, that you were not attentive, that you consented to the temptation, and so forth? This demanding of an oath I count inept and vain. Either let the scrupulous person altogether despise suspicions of this kind; or let the Confessor command that on bended knees he repeat the hours and psalms which he doubts he has omitted. Perhaps this vexation will give understanding. Yet the diversity of the scrupulous must be regarded. The common and general remedy is to despise all these things, and to urge the scrupulous person to conduct himself for the future more vigilantly and more devoutly in the discharge of his duties. The repetition of prayers is inept; and elapsed negligence is not better blotted out than if one's proper duties be fulfilled more attentively, devoutly, and fervently.