Chapter III. On Scrupulous and Lax Conscience

A conscience is called scrupulous which, from a slight, indeed even empty cause, doubts concerning the honesty of some action, and therefore fears sin where there is no sin. For a scruple is an empty apprehension, or slight suspicion, by which someone falsely judges something to be a sin. But the word scruple is said to be derived from little stones, or pebbles, which, inserting themselves into the shoes of travelers, create trouble for the feet.

But a lax conscience is called that which from a rather slight reason judges that what is illicit is licit; or finds only a venial sin there where there is a mortal one: it is namely that which, without sufficient reason, bends judgment in favor of liberty, either for avoiding the law, or for diminishing the gravity of fault. This conscience can be distinguished in three ways, namely: 1st, a lax conscience simply, which tends to extend liberty more than is fair; 2nd, a cauterized conscience, which from a long-standing habit of sinning regards grave sins, indeed even most grave sins, as nothing; 3rd, a pharisaical conscience, which makes great things small, and in turn small things great. It takes its name from the Pharisees, who spurned the most grave mandates of the law, while by eating with unwashed hands or passing over empty traditions, they considered themselves guilty of great sin.

For correcting the scrupulous, or at least for dealing more usefully with them, there will briefly be said here something concerning the signs, causes, harms, and remedies of scruples, and also concerning practical rules to be followed both by scrupulous penitents themselves and by their confessors.

It is of very great importance that directors of souls discern the truly scrupulous from the false. For often those are thought scrupulous who are not, and vice versa; and from this immense errors in direction flow, with no small danger of spiritual harm. Therefore much circumspection is needed here. But the principal signs of scruples are:

1st. Pertinacity of judgment, by which someone refuses to obey the counsels of a confessor or of wise men; and while he consults several, he acquiesces in the judgment of none; indeed the more men he hears, the more he is entangled.

2nd. Frequent change of judgment from slight motives, whence frequent inconstancy in acting, and continual disturbance of mind.

3rd. Fear of sinning in all things, joined with pertinacity of mind against the judgment of the confessor, of prudent men, or even against one's own judgment; whence follows frequent questioning concerning the responses of the confessor, and repeated inquiry whether, in acting according to counsel, the conscience can be immune from fault.

4th. Impertinent reflections concerning the circumstances which were present in an action, or could have been present, and certainty anxiously sought in all things.

5th. Obstinacy in always repeating the same sin in confession, or in holding as a sin that which already several times has been declared by the confessor not to be such.

6th. Continual anxiety concerning past confessions, notwithstanding the judgment of the confessor, or repetition of confessions.

But he cannot be judged scrupulous, at least immediately: 1st, who is moderately solicitous, or anxious lest he offend God; 2nd, who after a life passed in sins is still troubled, nor after confession seems to himself to have satisfied, but rather wishes to confess and expiate sins; 3rd, who deliberately still consents to grave sins, although after the committed sin he is greatly troubled and confesses anxiously, for there is a just cause of anxiety, at least moderate: nevertheless even in this there can be a truly scrupulous person; 4th, who in only one or another case has a scruple in a passing way, nor he who doubts whether he has sinned in this or that.

Moreover, it sometimes happens that the confessor cannot, after the penitent has been heard the first or second time, immediately decide whether he is scrupulous, even if he appears anxious concerning many things; since some just and reasonable cause of anxieties can be present. But much less can a scrupulous confessor easily judge whether the penitent is scrupulous, or only fearful. Cf. Lacroix, lib. 1, nn. 517 and seq.

The principal causes of scruples are the following:

1st. Divine permission. Not indeed as if God sends in false apprehensions, but because, permitting these, He withdraws His light, so that namely man, having fallen into anxieties, may return to the heart, bring himself back to better fruit, learn to run back to God, and by patiently sustaining anguish, make satisfaction for sins, increase merit, etc.

2nd. Operation of the devil. For the devil knows skillfully how to fashion scruples, by moving the blood, altering the humors, objecting various images to the imagination, composing diverse species, so that he may form a gloomy and false image of sin, trouble the mind, draw it back from spiritual progress, and finally cast it into dejection of soul, or even into desperation.

3rd. A melancholic and phlegmatic temperament. For melancholic persons are for the most part suspicious and tenacious of the things which they apprehend, and therefore prone to every suspicion of evil; and since they are of a cold temperament, they are more easily subject to fear and pusillanimity, and are terrified at the first appearance of evil.

4th. Weakness of the head, or defect of natural judgment in persons inclined to fear; likewise pusillanimity and dejection of soul, on account of which one does not know how to contemn fears.

5th. Excessive solicitude for avoiding everything which has the appearance of evil; for while the scrupulous person continually cries out to himself: Beware of sin... Attend to yourself..., he frightens and disturbs himself without cause.

6th. Association with the scrupulous; to which pertains also direction received from a scrupulous confessor, the reading of cases of conscience and of stricter ascetical writers done by someone incautious and less understanding; likewise the excessive flight from every human conversation.

Scruples generally draw along with themselves grave inconveniences and spiritual harms, and often also bodily ones, provided they are not specially permitted by God and do not persevere without fault of man. But the principal harms of scruples are the following:

1st. They harm the body; for through continual anguishes they constrict the heart, corrupt the blood, consume the vital spirits, and weaken the head.

2nd. They render the scrupulous person unfit for acting fruitfully with his neighbor; for most scrupulous persons are gloomy, and morose toward those at home no less than toward strangers.

3rd. They harm obedience, or even totally impede it; since the scrupulous person rather follows trifles and the mockeries of imagination; thus he is driven to act against the will of God, which is manifested to him through the spiritual father or director.

4th. They weaken the practice and love of prayer, or even remove it altogether from the midst; because they enervate the force of the mind, distract by leading it away to trifles, fill the soul with anxieties, and render it unfit for union with God. Hence follows not only spiritual gain ceasing, but also immense damage arising.

5th. They break down fortitude; for what great thing would he dare, who is wholly occupied in trifles, and, with the victory over his passions neglected, is so easily cast down in soul?

6th. They greatly diminish hope, or even destroy it; because the matter is at length brought to this, that, confidence in God having been lost, it declines into laxity. For how will he duly trust in God, who always beholds Him as a most severe exactor? Therefore the scrupulous person, unless he fights bravely against scruples, being vexed by them, will shortly be driven into desperation, and will loosen the reins to his desires, or at least will lead a most miserable life and one with great danger of damnation.

Scruples are frequently concerned: 1st, with daily actions; 2nd, with depraved thoughts; 3rd, with confessions. Therefore:

I. To scrupulous persons who in all actions are troubled by the fear of sinning, it must be enjoined that they act vigorously against scruples, and abstain from confessing them, unless they are most certain that sin is present there. For although by acting thus they sometimes sin materially, nevertheless they will not sin formally by reason of the obedience which they ought to render to the confessor. Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 17.

II. To scrupulous persons who fear to give, or to have given, assent to any depraved thought against chastity, faith, or charity, it must be imposed that they despise these thoughts as mere phantasms, and abstain from confession of thoughts of this sort, unless they can swear that they have truly consented to the same. Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 15.

III. To scrupulous persons who are always anxious concerning confessions, especially past ones, it must be prohibited that they think any more about the faults of their former life, nor say a word about them in confession, unless they can swear: 1st, that they have perpetrated mortal sins; 2nd, that they have never confessed them, especially if they have already made a general confession. Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 16.

Moreover the scrupulous and the timorous, anxious about past confessions, are to be questioned thus: 1st. Have you knowingly concealed a grave sin? 2nd. Were you proposing to repeat sins? If they answer negatively to each question, their confession must be pronounced valid.

1st. In moral matters certainty is not to be sought in all things. This is valid for all; but it must be applied especially to the scrupulous person.

2nd. The greatest and blind obedience is to be rendered to the confessor, and one must proceed in all things with great humility and confidence.

3rd. A doubt which in others could seem reasonable is altogether to be spurned in the scrupulous.

4th. It is licit, indeed often obligatory, and sometimes under grave obligation, to contend against scruples. Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 7.

5th. Confession is never to be repeated, unless it was certainly sacrilegious; nor is the examination of the last confession ever to be renewed, even if a doubt concerning a grave sin omitted seems to arise.

6th. Scruples are to be contemned; nor are the scrupulous ever to dispute with themselves about these things.

1st. Let the confessor scrutinize whether the penitent is truly scrupulous..., whether in all things..., and what is the origin of the scruples.

2nd. Let him be patient, kindly, and strong. To him pertain these words of the Apostle, II Tim. iv, 2: "Be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine."

3rd. Let him respond to one asking without hesitation and with command; let him not easily add reasons to responses; nor let him permit sins already confessed to be repeated several times.

4th. Let him commend to the scrupulous person great confidence in the goodness of God, frequent prayer, flight from idleness, brevity of examination, humility of heart.

5th. With the scrupulous person let him use general, not particular rules; for the scrupulous person cannot be directed by these, because he is unfit for applying them.