Article II: On Scrupulous Conscience

— I. Various notions. 1. Called from a rough little stone which, by entering the shoe, makes walking troublesome, scruple already by Cicero (Rosc. Amer. 2, 6) is transferred to an uneasy solicitude of soul. But objectively it is a certain slight and empty little reason, whose solution is not found, and on account of which an action would be either prescribed or evil; or, subjectively, the consequent and anxious fear concerning obligation or the malice of an action.

Therefore in this place, scruple is taken especially for a morbid anxiety of soul concerning an obligation to be executed or concerning sins committed.

2. Scrupulosity is called antecedent when, solicitous concerning obligations, it regards future acts; consequent, when, adhering in sins, it affects past acts.

According to varied origin, it is innate, transmitted by heredity, or acquired, which must be attributed to institution, companions, accidental disturbance.

According to varied extension, it is general or particular, when anxiety is detected in almost every matter, or, on the contrary, is circumscribed by a few arguments, indeed by one.

According to varied intensity, it either contains true scruples, or only the beginning of scruples or even remnants in him who is recovering from scruples. This diminished scrupulosity is manifested by a certain hesitation or fear.

According to varied permanence, it can be long-lasting or brief.

3. Scrupulosity can be ascribed to a certain kind of "phobia." But this is the form of its process. It takes its beginning from a fatiguing deliberation concerning the honesty of an action or from an examination of an action done. After one has at length arrived at some conclusion, the opinion obtained in so laborious a way is soon contradicted internally by various reasons, often strange and objected, which impel the scrupulous man to deliberate again and again concerning confirming or reforming the opinion. Finally, as if compelled by necessity, he rushes into action: he says or does the things concerning which he was anxiously inquiring; he makes confession anxious about an incomplete examination, about an act of contrition not elicited; he receives the Eucharist, by no means secure concerning the state of grace. Hence a new scruple, that he has acted against conscience, or with a practically doubtful conscience.

4. Marks of the scrupulous man. To the man who diligently observes them, scrupulous persons seem acute and as it were clever in finding and distinguishing reasons; pertinacious in a certain estimation of their own arguments; yet at the same time timid in conclusions, and, by a certain distrust of themselves, suspecting a defect of words in proposing difficulties, of intellect in grasping or interpreting responses, of memory in retaining either counsels given or chiefly positive precepts, or their own very deeds, so that they doubt concerning a door closed by themselves, a light extinguished, hours recited, Mass heard; and especially in the purpose of preserving peace, of being silent about scruples, of omitting a new inquiry into the matter, of obeying simply, they are inconstant and little firm.

They labor or remain wavering in no general principle, nor in the dialectical texture of a syllogism or reasoning, but in the application of the principle to their state or to their deeds, that is, in the "minor," so that it is troublesome for them, and sometimes altogether impassable, to pronounce concerning the quality of a motive (vain, serious), of diligence employed (sufficient, slight), of a cause on account of which it is permitted to omit fasting, to disapprove the deeds of another, to narrate, and concerning the quality of their state (temptation overcome, admitted).

Therefore the illness is not of the intelligence alone, but also, indeed rather, of the will; and, insofar as it is intellective, it affects less discursive reason than intuitions, not indeed the highest, but those by which either individual facts or facts collected together are directly, as if by one glance, to be estimated and judged.

A liberal and strong soul, just like one pusillanimous and applied to loving itself, can be joined with scruples. Yet as such, the scrupulous man is never shown to be generous and magnanimous, since he is uneasy concerning his guilt, concerning his future lot, but not concerning loving God, helping his neighbor, or the more perfect good.

Distinction from excessive rigor. Since anxiety, a certain disturbance of soul, pertains to the essence of a scruple, scruple must be well separated from a propensity even excessive toward severity, or from tranquil errors of doctrine or of judgment, just as by St. Ignatius in the rules concerning scruples it is distinguished from these.

¹ Several writers in France and Italy have written concerning scruples and their remedies. V.g., Dr. Raymond, R. D. Toulemonde, R. P. Gemelli. The best work, including, besides the common part, a special part for the use of confessors, is: L'Ange conducteur des ames scrupuleuses ou craintives. Bruges, 1905. Natale Turco is also praised, A uso degli ammalati, medici e confessori. Il trattamento morale dello scrupolo e dell'ossessione morbosa. 2 vol. Turin, 1919 and 1920.

— II. Signs of scrupulosity. These can easily be drawn out by a confessor from the description just made. But for the scrupulous man himself, no better demonstration can be sought than from the judgment of his prudent confessor.

— III. Theology of scruples. 1. A man who, from a speculative apprehension even to be despised in itself, has definitely judged that his action is forbidden to him or is of only doubtful honesty, would labor under an erroneous or doubtful conscience, with which it is by no means permitted to act. Then scruples enter the very dictate of conscience; from them conscience has been formed. But this is not the case of the scrupulous man who from the warning of the confessor is commanded to contemn his scruples. He himself, even when he works fearfully, readily has this formal or virtual judgment, that a scruple can safely be neglected by him. Wherefore the consents which he says he has given, either to a depraved interior suggestion, or to the purpose of acting however the morality of the action may stand, or to this conclusion: "I shall sin and then by confession I shall expiate the sin," must be ascribed to the fantastic order. That is, fantasy represented assent of this sort to him, so that he seemed to himself as if he saw himself acting thus. Nevertheless, not otherwise than in a dream, he gave no free consent to those suggestions or purposes; perhaps he made this use of the confession alone foreseen, that from it he might become more courageous for acting against scruples. Wherefore for a scrupulous man who, v.g., from the counsel of a confessor, knows habitually that his doubts must be contemned by himself, it is lawful to act with a scrupulous conscience, or with the scruple remaining. For that knowledge provides him a certain conscience. Indeed he must act thus, because, since it is not in his proximate power to remove the scruple from himself, with the scruple remaining, he can only either yield to the scruple, increasing his weakness, lessening his moral forces and liberty itself; or, from impatience, change his good will and embrace formal sin, trampling the scruple under foot in this way; or, preserving a good will, neglect and overcome the scruple from the approved rule of despising his doubts: which way of acting alone is reasonable, salutary, and honest.

2. It can indeed happen that, in the process of scrupulous reasons, scrupulous persons labor for a long time, and are so wearied and disturbed from the struggle that they rush blindly into action: but then they are deprived of the liberty necessary, at least for sinning gravely.

3. By a similar reason, promises, vows, blasphemies which some often, indeed almost daily, dream that they have made or said, can be held as fictitious. A confessor should simply refuse to hear or estimate these things.

4. The obligation of attacking scruples is present, and indeed grave, where scruples cannot be combined with the office of state, v.g., of a parish priest; or where they induce a sufficiently proximate danger of ruin, whether mental or spiritual. Yet a man who is gravely scrupulous will scarcely incur subjective guilt, provided that with his weak will he is willing to strive against scruples in general.

— IV. Medicine of scruples. The physician ought chiefly to look to this, not that he solve the difficulties speculatively and satisfy the intellect, but that he communicate or restore sufficient courage or confidence to the will of the sick man, and that the scrupulous man may dare to act according to common sense, of which he is by no means without share.

Moreover treatment usually includes these two stages: immediate aid must be furnished to the needy man, and complete healing must be prepared from the beginning.

1. Immediate aid consists in this, that the physician by his own will supply what is lacking of efficacious command in the will of the sick man. Therefore he ought to take care that he have authority with the sick man. Wherefore: a) he will be helped by the esteem by which the scrupulous man holds him as an upright and holy man; b) he will be helped by the name of doctrine and science. The physician should not lessen that esteem, and therefore let him be brief in the explanation of his counsels, lest, among the motives alleged, the scrupulous man find one less solid, on account of which he begins to doubt concerning the rest. Especially let him abstain from repeating the exposition which the scrupulous man made of his difficulty or his case: for if the scrupulous man has spoken at length for some time, it can scarcely happen that he does not detect some diversity between his narration and the physician's, whence he judges the case not understood and therefore not solved; c) the physician will be helped by firmness of face, words, and speech: let him pronounce nothing hesitantly; d) he will be helped by monopoly: let him beware lest the scrupulous man, by questioning others or consulting books, observe some discrepancy of opinions, on account of which he begins to distrust his physician.

He will use his authority for imposing norms that are few, clear, brief, such as scarcely give place to distinctions and exceptions. He will propose these, accommodated to the necessities of the scrupulous man; and in kind they are twofold: some are materially and formally true; others are only practical formulas for emerging from scruples, which the confessor, from his conscience known to himself, can prescribe to the scrupulous man.

1. Moreover the theology of the scrupulous man furnishes these things: a) Scruples are an inconvenience which truly dispenses from several positive obligations: v.g., from material integrity of confession, from the precept of fraternal correction;

b) Even with probability of particular error, the scrupulous man, intending health, can consider as universal and follow a rule by which of itself he does not recede from honesty, and will be led, as is hoped, to more or less full health. For he has a right to employ efficacious and of themselves honest means for being healed. But the effect of error is accidental and, on account of a proportionate cause, legitimately permitted.

Relying upon these principles, the confessor, according to the opportunity of the scrupulous man, should free him from every solicitude of warning superiors, correcting equals; should set him a maximum time for searching his conscience for confession, or remove from him the whole burden of examination properly so called; should reduce sacramental accusation to a few points or to external sins alone; should command him to be silent concerning past confessions.

2. Certainly he cannot dispense him from any natural or divine law. Wherefore he will not formally assent to one asking: "Can I adhere to depraved delights?"; but he will warn him to turn his soul away from doctrinal rules, ruinous to him, and to follow the practical indications of his confessor. He will substitute for the rules by which the scrupulous man is impeded other, simpler and cruder rules. Let these be examples: "Care for nothing unless it is plainly established to you as 2x2 = 4." "Neglect everything that seems doubtful to you, and judge that you doubt if you ask whether you doubt or not." "Care for external acts alone, neglecting all questions concerning internal assent, desire, etc." "Choose at once without deliberation." Indeed, in a more extreme case, to a penitent otherwise morally upright, he could advise this: "Act as if you were loosed from every duty, so that you reckon yourself only invited to acting well."

II. Healing. But at the same time the confessor will try to extirpate the illness by the root, lest the scrupulous man be enslaved forever to the counsels of another. Therefore:

1. To enlighten his intellect, he will teach him that in moral matters mathematical proofs are not to be sought; that little attention is to be given to the things which merely can be or happen, but that our providence is limited by probable things; and that anxiety, which is in the appetite, cannot be confused with the judgment of the intellect.

2. To strengthen his will, he will stir him in a more universal way to a firm mode of acting in every matter; he will command him to neglect the anxiety which he experiences in acting; he will urge him to have and foster a purpose of sharp battle against scruples, on account of these or similar causes: that scruples hinder, far from favoring, the progress and merit of the soul; that men are impeded from many good works, especially apostolic ones, on account of scruples; that nothing generous, nothing noble, is present in scruples; that it is pleasing to God and to Christ that he put away a scrupulous soul; indeed that he ought to do this; that therefore he will be safer if he contemns and expels scruples than if he lets himself be anxious and be deceived by very small matters.

3. It will often be useful that the scrupulous man be occupied in many things: since then he is not free to turn many things over in his mind, and, compelled by the very necessity of more prompt action, he recognizes the harmful foolishness of scruples.

4. By fervor of life he will be no less impelled to conceive greater confidence which dares to contemn scruples.

5. The confessor will gradually lead the scrupulous man to solving his own cases by himself, forbidding, v.g., that he propose doubts more often than once or twice in a week or in a month; that he recite more than two or three; by suggesting that he act in that way which, in his estimation, other men would commonly hold, or which the director of souls would indicate to him; and that he cast away every fear which others would not seem to him to be going to experience, or which they would hold as vain and ridiculous.

Finally, conversation with friends who are good and of a strong soul, books concerning heroic and holy men, are not without usefulness. Indeed physical care of the body must not be neglected.

— The worse case of the scrupulous. While one can deal broadly with pious and good scrupulous persons, he must be moderated more cautiously who joins scruples with true spiritual tepidity and true sins. His case is far more encumbered. Besides rules which are formally true, by which, v.g., he is exempted from too troublesome a discussion of conscience, from fraternal correction, other dispensations often will not be able to be given without danger of abuse. Wherefore it will sometimes be useful as counsel that he be warned that he can be freed from many troubles if only he begins to live more fervently; and that he is particularly invited by God to draw from scruples an occasion of fervor.

— Concerning special anxieties these few things can be added:

a) He who is too solicitous concerning the canonical hours or certain prayers should be prohibited from reciting anything twice, for any cause whatever; and let him judge that what he fears he has omitted has already been recited by him. And since the law of the Church does not oblige with great inconvenience, the confessor can prescribe for him a time in which he should conclude the recitation of the hours, so that he omit what perhaps remains; indeed, if the matter demands it, he can relieve the scrupulous man from the burden of the breviary;

b) One anxious concerning faith and hope should not labor in eliciting acts, but should simply commend and commit himself to divine Providence;

c) One anxious concerning past confessions should not be heard concerning these;

d) One anxious concerning a fantastic representation or organic disturbance which he suffers while looking at honest or harmless things should accommodate himself to the morals of men who are honest, and contemn the motions or fantasies.

N.B. Sufficiently similar to the scrupulous are several who, while they wish to believe, are disturbed by a certain appearance or apprehension of difficulties. In both, anxiety by no means produces a doubtful conscience concerning honesty or concerning faith. In both, the cause of fear is often that from the intellect alone, or reasoning, they think certainty must be sought which, in the moral and religious order, must be obtained by each faculty: intellect and will; add here the necessity of grace. In both, besides prayer, the remedy is often in correcting and perfecting the will, so that it becomes firmer, purer, nobler in intention; finally, in both, by the very command by which the action or the assent of faith is commanded, a certain conscience concerning honesty or faith is of itself demonstrated.

— V. Usefulness of scruples. Scruples have a temporary usefulness of expiating sins and rash actions, of humbling and mortifying man, of purifying intention, while in that desolation he continues to hold the way of virtue and fervor; finally, of increasing his psychological experience, by which the scrupulous man, once healed, will be able to profit others.

Yet long-lasting scruples weaken strength, impede many good things, cast man down to an excessively timid and restricted action; and by a certain despair lead him to renounce the more perfect life, indeed virtue.