Causes and remedies of scruples

The confessor, then, should know how to recognize a scrupulous person, what the causes of scruples are, and what are the suitable remedies in particular cases. The prudent confessor will not at once believe a penitent to be scrupulous merely because he says that he is. Some people who are anything but pious think that it is a fine trait of character to be scrupulous, or they honestly think that they are scrupulous for want of self-knowledge, and tell the confessor so, He would obviously make a great mistake if he applied the rules for scruples to such cases. Nor can the confessor safely conclude that a penitent is scrupulous because he mentions in confession minute faults which common penitents hardly trouble themselves about. He may have before him a soul of great purity of conscience and great sanctity, who is in no sense scrupulous. Until he has heard a penitent’s confession more than once the confessor will usually suspend his judgement. ‘When the penitent keeps confessing things which are not sinful, when he says that he is troubled with doubts and anxieties about his actions, when he is not satisfied with his confessions but keeps coming back, or running from one confessor to another; when he will not follow the advice the confessor gives him, but remains obstinately attached to his own will, the confessor may usually conclude that his penitent is really scrupulous.

If he can find out how the scruples arose, the confessor will sometimes be able to apply a suitable remedy at once. They may arise from a variety of causes: from reading ascetical or theological books which are too rigorous or which are not suited to the person’s state of conscience; from associating with scrupulous people and contracting their malady; from a naturally weak judgement or from bad health; from immoderate and indiscreet fervour and spiritual pride; from the temptation of the devil, who wishes to ruin his victim, and from the permission of God, who for his own wise ends permits the evil for a time.

The confessor will then seek to apply a proper remedy. He may ask the scrupulous penitent whether he is prepared to follow his advice and direction. If the penitent will not do this, but goes from one confessor to another, the confessor will be able to do no good with him, and had better tell him to find someone whose directions he will follow. With one who trusts him and tries to follow his advice, the confessor should be kind and patient; he should give short, clear rules to the penitent, without going into further explanations; he should tell him to despise his scruples and to go against them, boldly to do what he groundlessly imagines to be sinful; as of course he is justified in doing, for he knows that his fear of sin in the matter is an idle scruple. The confessor should tell him not to mention his scruples in confession, and when great harm seems to threaten the penitent from his scruples he may tell him not to say anything about them, even if on occasions he has really committed sins; for scruples may be a valid reason for not making a full confession. The confessor will exhort him to keep body and soul fully occupied in interesting work and never to be idle; an idle brain is the devil’s workshop.

Scruples commonly have reference either to past confessions, suggesting that they were not properly made, and were bad, or to temptations against some virtue, as faith or purity; or to one’s actions in general, insinuating that they are sinful because not done with a proper motive, or for some other reason. With regard to the first class, the confessor will ask the penitent whether he is certain that he left out of his confession some grave matter, or that it was sacrilegious. Unless he can say that he is certain, he will tell him not to think of the past, to leave it with our good God, but to direct his thoughts to the present and future. Even if he says that he is certain that something serious was left out, or that he had not proper sorrow for his sins, the confessor after once or twice hearing him will forbid him to mention the past again.

One tempted against faith, purity, charity, or any other virtue, should be told that temptation is not sin, that sin is in the free consent of the will to evil, and that the best way to conquer such temptations is to despise them, to think as little as possible about them, and not to mention them in confession.

The confessor should tell a penitent who through scruples thinks he commits sin in every action to act boldly and fearlessly, that he may do whatever is not obviously forbidden, and that it is impossible for one who wishes to serve God to commit sin, especially grave sin, without being well aware of it.¹

¹ Reuter, Neo-Confessarius, n. 262.

173. Whence do scruples proceed? - The causes of scruples, dispositive, permissive, effective, occasional, are some intrinsic, others extrinsic. - The intrinsic causes of scruples are: 1. The natural constitution of the body, very much disposed to suspicions and fears, such as a melancholic disposition. 2. Weak health of the head, especially in women. 3. Ignorance, by which someone does not well perceive the precepts of God and of the Church. 4. Hidden pride, by which someone trusts too much in his own judgment. 5. Excessive abstinence and immoderate vigils, by which, the head being weakened, the soul is easily disturbed. 6. Immoderate and indiscreet fervor. - But the extrinsic causes of scruples are: 1. God, who permits scruples in the just, so that, thus purged, they may advance more; in the tepid, that they may perform the offices of Christian piety more fervently; in penitents, that they may pay the penalty of past sins. Scruples are judged to be from God if those agitated by them become better. - 2. The demon, who, "God permitting, can move melancholic humors in man, through which the imagination can either err or be disturbed toward inordinate fear." St. Antoninus, 1 p., t. 3, c. 10. Scruples are judged to come from the demon if the scrupulous person senses that he is being led to tepidity, drawn back from virtue, and especially inclined to despair. - 3. The society of the scrupulous, especially if scrupulous persons are ruled by their counsels, and frequently converse with them concerning things of the soul; for those with whom we associate, these we most easily imitate. - 4. Reading books which are too rigid, "establishing harder precepts which the human condition cannot sustain"; St. Ambrose on Psalm 118; little by little, without sensing it, we assent to the opinions to which we devote ourselves.

175. What are the remedies of a scrupulous conscience? - 1. To contemn scruples, to act against them, and not to cherish them by thought. "A scrupulous person is sometimes bound by a grave obligation to operate against scruples, since from the anxiety of scruples he can fear grave harm in spiritual progress, or in the health of body or mind." L. l. 1, n. 17, 13. - 2. To acquiesce in the judgment of the confessor, or of another pious and learned man. "For this above all can be called the principal, indeed the only, remedy of infirm persons of this kind... Deprived of this anchor of obedience, they can never be healed." L. l. 1, n. 12, 13, 16. "After a scrupulous person has received the response or example of one confessor or good man, he ought not to consult others, lest he become accustomed to cherishing useless anxieties longer." Sporer n. 108. - 3. To look upon the life and custom of good men as a rule, and to avoid the conversation of other scrupulous persons; likewise to abstain from the reading of books that excite scruples. L. 1, n. 2. - 4. Before he acts, not to judge anything to be a sin unless he knows it certainly, lest from an error of conscience he in fact sin. After the operation, let him use "the rule wisely handed down by the Doctors, namely, that those who are of a fearful conscience, unless they know morally certainly that they have consented to grave sin, are to be judged immune from sin; for it is impossible that sin should enter into a soul abhorring it without being clearly recognized by it." L. l. 1, n. 15; Suarez tr. 3, d. 12, s. ult. - 5. To accustom himself to following the milder sentences and even the less safe ones. Busemb. apud La-Croix, l. c. "For the scrupulous, that rule handed down by Blessed Albert the Great and St. Antoninus is to be observed: Between the hard and benign sentence concerning precepts, the benign interpretation, other things being equal, is to be made." L. l. 1, n. 19. - 6. Never to be idle; because idleness fills the imagination with scrupulous thoughts. L. l. 1, n. 12. - 7. To destroy the causes of scruples; for example, let the melancholic person evacuate black bile by medicines, let the obstinate break his own judgment, let the proud person not trust his own prudence, let the rude seek instruction, let the timid meditate on the goodness of God, which does not impose precepts reducing one to madness. - 8. Earnestly and confidently to commend himself to God, who consoles us in all our tribulation, 2 Cor. 1:4; L. l. 1, n. 12.

177. What ought to be the manner of acting of the confessor with the scrupulous? - It is contained in these rules: 1. Let him be patient and full of charity, since the care of the scrupulous is long and arduous, and their condition most wretched. - 2. Let him be discreet, so that he may rightly know what is the origin of the scruples in the penitent; and whether he is scrupulous in all things, or only in one, so that he may be able to remedy the evils congruently. - 3. Let him be prudent, namely in prescribing rules, which indeed ought to be general; for scrupulous persons are almost never able to accommodate themselves to particular rules, because they cannot apply them to themselves. Indeed, they always doubt whether the case was sufficiently explained and understood, whether the rule prescribed to them was well accommodated to that case. - 4. Let him be brief and dictatorial in his responses; and let him define all things, as far as he can, promptly and firmly; otherwise the penitent would be confirmed in his anxiety by the authority of the confessor himself.

178. Especially let the confessor note that for the most part scruples turn around three things: 1. that assent has been given to any evil thought which presents itself to the mind, for example, against faith, chastity, charity; 2. that past Confessions were null, or even sacrilegious, either because of defect of integrity, or because of imperfection of sorrow; 3. that in every action there seems to be sin or danger of sin.

182. Are scruples useful? - "Scruple... for some space of time, helps not a little the soul which gives itself to spiritual exercises; indeed it greatly purges and cleanses such a soul by separating it very much from every species (appearance) of sin according to that saying of Gregory, It belongs to good minds to recognize fault where there is no fault." St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, Rules on Scruples, 3; La-Croix l. 1, n. 513. - But if they are protracted for a long time, "scruples are harmful, first to the body, because they destroy health, weaken the head, often reduce a man to madness, often shorten life; then to the soul, which they render entangled, desolate, perplexed, sometimes despairing; they confuse the intellect, disturb the power of judging, often render the whole man, endowed with distinguished talents, unfit for all functions; moreover they impede many good works, waste time with many vain and useless thoughts, etc." La-Croix l. c., n. 514.

44. • The principal causes of scruples are the following:

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

2. Operation of the devil. For the devil skillfully knows how to fabricate scruples, by stirring the blood, altering the humors, placing various images before the imagination, composing diverse species, so that he may form a severe and false image of sin, trouble the mind, draw it back from spiritual progress, and finally cast it into dejection of spirit, or even into despair.

3. A melancholic and phlegmatic temperament. For melancholics 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 liable to fear and pusillanimity, and are frightened at the first appearance of evil.

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

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

6. Association with the scrupulous; to which also pertains direction received from a scrupulous Confessor, the reading of cases of conscience and of stricter ascetical authors done by someone incautious and less understanding; likewise a fastidious flight from any human conversation.

321. Causes (Aetiology) of scrupulous conscience sometimes (although rather rarely) are supernatural, namely God, who sends scruples that the soul may be exercised in patience and humility, as is narrated concerning St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis de Sales, and other saints; but such scruples are not accustomed to last for a long time, but, once they are soon overcome, the sweet peace of the soul is reborn. - God permitting, the devil sometimes causes scruples in order to disturb the soul or to take vengeance on it; but these scruples also are not accustomed to persevere for a long time, but they will cease with divine grace assisting and with the soul's strenuous struggle.

Much more often natural causes produce scruples, although God must be said to be the first cause, who employs natural causes to produce effects. The natural causes which proximately produce scruples are either moral or physical. Among the physical causes of scruples there stands out a pathological⁵⁵ bodily disposition, namely of the brain, heart, and nerves, arising not rarely from heredity or atavism. Hence often with a bodily pathological disposition of this kind scruples not only arise, but also cease with it. Those things are to be recalled which were said above in n. 95 concerning "fixed ideas." Perhaps it is not alien from the truth if someone were to say that the greatest part of scruples is nothing other than religious fixed ideas, or rather a religious phobia. Sometimes the physical cause of scruples is also weakness and inconstancy of soul, which modern psychiatrists call "psychasthenia." - The moral causes of scrupulous conscience are excessive flight from human intercourse and honest recreation, intercourse with fearful men,⁵⁶ reading of writings that are too rigid, hidden pride, by which someone trusts his own judgment more than the opinion of the confessor.⁵⁷ Hence St. Alphonsus⁵⁸ says: "Often scruples have their origin from the vice of pride."

⁵⁵ St. Antoninus (Sum. theol. I, 3, 10) already recognized this, saying: "Sometimes pusillanimity or scruple is caused from manic or melancholic illness ... through which imagination and sometimes reason are injured... But sometimes it proceeds ... from negligence of bodily regimen, namely through excessive abstinence ... vigils and things of this kind."

⁵⁶ Beaudouin, O. Pr., rightly writes, Tract. de consc. p. 57: "An extrinsic cause of scrupulous conscience is the society of the scrupulous; for one scrupulous person makes another scrupulous, just as one fearful person makes another fearful."

⁵⁷ Cf. S. theol. 2, 2, q. 173, a. 2; Billuart, De consc. diss. 5, a. 5, quaer. 4°.

⁵⁸ Theol. mor. l. 1, n. 12.

322. Remedies of scruples. (Therapy.) 1. The first remedy, from which the cure of this disease is to be begun, consists in the removal of the causes which produced and produce scrupulous conscience. Hence if the cause of scruples is a pathological bodily quality, this is to be eliminated through a good and God-fearing physician. Certainly, since very often a disturbance of the nerves is the cause of scruples and since this disturbance can be healed only with difficulty, great patience is necessary. When the confessor suspects that a bodily disease is the cause of scruples, let him use skillful prudence and circumspection, especially with younger scrupulous women, lest he give occasion to malicious detractions. Let him say simply to the penitent: moral Theology teaches us that scruples rather often arise from an unhealthy bodily disposition, and therefore go to a prudent and God-fearing physician, so that it may be detected whether a disease is truly present.

2. The second remedy, and one proclaimed with one voice both by psychiatrists and by theologians, is perfect obedience to be rendered to a wise director.⁵⁹ For the scrupulous person cannot direct himself nor judge rightly concerning his own state and his own acts, and therefore he is bound to submit himself to the direction of a prudent man, by whose help he will gradually cast away vain fears. Therefore the confessor, as soon as he has clearly known that the penitent labors under scrupulous conscience, ought to strive: a) by paternal kindness to capture his perfect trust. This indeed he will obtain if he clearly shows that he is affected with great Christian charity toward the penitent and is prepared to help him with all the powers by which he can. But the penitent ought not only to have persuaded himself of the charity of the confessor, but also to revere his authority. b) Let the confessor always speak with the penitent not hesitantly and doubtfully, but as one knowing with certainty and speaking from the authority of God. Therefore again and again let him inculcate that he does not speak by his own authority only, but also as a minister of God, to whom the illumination of the Holy Spirit will most certainly never be lacking when he rightly performs his office. Let him bring forward either no reasons at all, or only brief reasons, for his way of acting; otherwise there will be interminable, indeed harmful, discussions between confessor and penitent. This also is a good and efficacious rule to be observed: not only with brief words, but also with the same words, let the confessor constantly judge concerning the acts and state of the penitent; otherwise the scrupulous person easily thinks that he has not rightly understood the words of the confessor. Not rarely good effects are also obtained if the confessor gives the penitent in writing a way of acting; then he has greater security, often reading the things which have been written.

3. The third remedy against scruples is: not continually to approach other confessors or directors for the sake of taking counsel. For if the scrupulous person goes about from one confessor to another, his disturbance becomes greater as he hears diverse answers, and he himself does not obey so perfectly as if he were always directed by the same man.

4. The fourth remedy is suitable bodily or spiritual labor drawing the mind away from scrupulous thoughts, and honest recreation. For experience establishes that the scrupulous think too much about their own state; and therefore, if their mind is detained by other suitable occupations, their scruples are diminished.

5. The fifth remedy (which should never be omitted) is fervent and assiduous prayer to God, the Father of light. From such prayer not only is special grace obtained, but trust in divine mercy is also increased and peace of soul is gradually restored.

⁵⁹ "Let him earnestly take care to persuade penitents troubled by scruples that he walks altogether safely who acquiesces in and obeys the counsels of his director in all things in which evident sin does not appear: for then he does not obey man, but God Himself saying: He who hears you, hears Me, and he who despises you, despises Me (Luke 10, 16)." Thus St. Alphonsus, Theol. mor. l. 1, n. 13.

1835. Those are called SCRUPULOUS who, from an empty cause, suspect and, with disturbance of soul, fear sin where there is none (cf. n. 27). Much care must be expended upon them. For SCRUPLES impede tranquility of mind, torture the soul, weaken the body, ruin health, disturb promptness in acting; indeed they sometimes cast one into despair, or into madness itself, and bring innumerable other evils.

Therefore, so that the confessor can provide opportune and useful governance to scrupulous persons, he must attend to four things: 1. the signs by which scruples are recognized; 2. the causes from which they arise; 3. the matter about which they turn; 4. certain rules of prudence, the application of which fits all scrupulous persons indiscriminately.

1836. I. "The SIGNS of a scrupulous conscience are these:⁵ - 1. Pertinacity of judgment, by which the scrupulous person refuses to obey the counsels of the wise, consults various men, but acquiesces in the judgment of none; indeed, the more he hears many, the more perplexed he becomes. 2. Frequent change of judgment from light motives; whence arises inconstancy in acting, and disturbance of mind, especially in external operations, for example in the celebration of Mass, in the recitation of the Hours, or in the administration or reception of the Sacraments. 3. To have irrelevant reflections concerning many circumstances which were present in the action, or could have been present. 4. To be fearful concerning sin in all things, and to cling in mind contrary to the judgment of the wise, and even to his own judgment; and therefore never to be content with one assertion of the confessor, but often, in the same act, to ask the same man whether, in acting according to the counsel given, the conscience can be immune from fault."

But he is by no means to be counted among the scrupulous who always watches over himself very attentively, lest in some matter, however small, he displease God; - nor he who, after sins have been committed and confessed with moderate detestation and sorrow, is distressed and therefore desires to repeat confession; - nor he who, now and then, in a passing way, is disturbed by some empty anxiety of conscience.

1837. II. The CAUSES of scruples are some intrinsic, others extrinsic.⁶ -

The INTRINSIC are: a disposition much inclined to anxiety and fears, such as is that of melancholic persons; weak health of the head, especially in women; excessive abstinence and immoderate vigils, from which, the head being weakened, the mind is easily disturbed; slowness of mind, which judges foolishly concerning the precepts of God and of the Church; hidden pride, inclining to excessive confidence in one's own judgment, etc.

But the EXTRINSIC causes are: 1. God, who permits the soul to be tossed by the storm of scruples through a transitory loss of light; and indeed He permits this for this end: that man may detest committed sins more vehemently, and recede farther from the evil way; then, that he may truly progress in humility, in confidence, in patience, in obedience, and in other virtues, and thus be found faithful in divine service. 2. The demon, who terrifies the soul by false imaginations of sins, whether committed or to be committed, disturbs mind and body, and thus fishes in troubled water. Nor is fishing of this kind done in vain. For unless his snares are avoided, the soul, in a short time, falls into tepidity, into acedia, into various faults, and finally into crimes, indeed into despair.⁷ 3. Association with scrupulous persons; direction by a scrupulous confessor; reading of books which abound in severity in moral doctrine; and similar things.

To these causes, however, congruous REMEDIES must be opposed, such as are: flight from idleness, moderate occupations, honest recreations, humble prayer full of confidence toward God, avoidance of scrupulous persons; but above all prompt and blind obedience, without which it is impossible to be healed from this disease (cf. n. 28).

1838. III. The MATTER about which scruples turn consists, for the most part, of actions to be placed, evil thoughts to be repelled, and confessions already made.⁸

1. To scrupulous persons who fear that they sin in every action, it must be enjoined that they act freely, that is, by contemning scruples, indeed even by acting against them, whenever evident sin does not appear; that they never repeat works once done, and that in every doubt they always choose the part more benign to themselves. - Although, however, by acting thus, they sometimes sin materially, still they will not sin formally, by reason of the obedience which they must render to the confessor, according to this rule of St. Ignatius: "One must obey in all things in which sin is not perceived" (recall what was said at nn. 28 and 693).

2. To scrupulous persons who are distressed by evil thoughts (against chastity, faith, charity), and who think that they consent to them, let the confessor enjoin that they take no account of thoughts of this kind, because thoughts are not sins, but consent is; and let him prescribe to them that in confession they abstain entirely from declaring thoughts of this kind, unless they can swear that they certainly gave consent to them (cf. n. 1696). - For the rest, not even their oath would always be an indubitable argument concerning consent having been given. For a very scrupulous man can come into such disturbance of mind that he shows himself ready to swear, although in reality he has not sinned. But "by their fruits you shall know them," i.e., from their works, and from their ordinary manner of acting.

3. To scrupulous persons who are always distressed concerning confessions already made, if the confessor knows that they have sincerely set forth all things (or if they have already made a general confession with a prudent confessor), let him absolutely impose that they no longer think about past faults, nor make any mention of them; unless they can immediately swear that they certainly committed mortal sins, and never declared them in confession. - It is expedient to say to such distressed persons: "Be entirely quiet, I take all things upon myself"; or to repeat these words, by which St. Bernard tranquilized a certain scrupulous priest: "Go, and celebrate on my faith." But if the penitent returns after confession, let him be dismissed unheard, so that he may learn to contemn vain fears.

Concerning these things it is still to be NOTED: 1. A scrupulous person who is anxious concerning past confessions must be asked whether, knowingly, he concealed some grave sin, and whether he had it in mind to commit the same sins again. If he answers negatively, the confession is to be judged valid.

2. A scrupulous person can sometimes be excused from material integrity, namely whenever, from confession or examination of conscience, grave harm of body or soul would threaten him. And the same must be said concerning the Hours to be recited, concerning fraternal correction to be made, concerning the truth to be investigated about doubtful restitutions, and similar matters, in which new doubts always arise for him; because the law does not oblige with so great an inconvenience.

1839. IV. The MODE OF ACTING with scrupulous persons, which prudence universally advises, is expressed by the following RULES:⁹

1. Let the confessor be full of charity and patience, and let him listen kindly to their narration, however tedious, especially in the first times. For unless he has won for himself the confidence of the distressed person, he will accomplish nothing.

2. In responses let him be prompt, without hesitation and change; for the trembling of the scrupulous person will not otherwise be excluded.

3. Let him be brief and dictatorial. For scruples are not driven away by discourse, but by contempt and obedience. - Nor should he easily add reasons to his responses, because reasons prepare a snare for penitents of this kind.

4. Yet let him teach true doctrine and benign opinions, for example concerning attention in prayers, concerning the integrity of confession, concerning Communion received in good faith, etc. Let him above all frequently remind them of those things which holy men have handed down concerning the security and merit of obedience, namely: "That he walks entirely safely who acquiesces in and obeys the counsels of his director in all things in which sin does not appear; for then he does not obey man, but God Himself, saying: He who hears you, hears Me; and he who despises you, despises Me."¹⁰

5. Let him prescribe for them rules of acting, not particular, but general; because new cases always seem to them diverse from preceding cases. - Nor let it weary him to repeat the same things. For the sick mind is healed not suddenly, but gradually.

6. Let him excite those who have fallen, not otherwise than other penitents, to contrition, but at the same time to every confidence; for scrupulous persons especially need this.¹¹

IV. Causes of scruples are all those things which weaken the nervous system and diminish the energy of the soul.

1. Internal causes: a) mediate on the part of the body: a melancholic disposition or temperament prone to suspecting evil and to sadness, which can also come from heredity or from a certain degeneration;² solitude or flight from every human conversation and recreation; and weakness of the head, even arising from immoderation in abstinences, vigils, and studies; or from a weak and infirm constitution, insufficient nutrition and disturbance of nutritive functions, depressing emotions, bodily disease gravely weakening, or also psychasthenia, which scarcely permits a more intense attention of the soul for forming an equitable judgment concerning practical matters;

² Melancholy is numbered among the causes because melancholics everywhere are sharp in talent and suspicious by nature, and tenacious of the things which they apprehend; thus they are prone to every suspicion of evil, wish to scrutinize even the smallest things, and with difficulty acquiesce in others; all these things predispose to scruples.

b) immediate on the part of the soul, whether in the intellect: subtlety of talent which easily finds reasons for doubting, or in all things seeks mathematical certitude; weakness of mind and defect of judgment, women are more often scrupulous than men; weakness and inconstancy of soul by which it follows vivid imaginations rather than mature judgment; - or in the affection: hidden pride tenaciously adhering to its own judgment; pusillanimity which does not know how to contemn fears and casts down the soul.

Therefore there is a twofold genus of the scrupulous: some are rather intellectual, others excessively sensitive and timid from a certain phobia. In each case there is a defect both 1) of practical judgment or prudence in estimating particular circumstances, and 2) of energy or fortitude, perseverance, or constancy of the will, which does not command the intellect to be content with practical certainty and certainty improperly so called, or does not moderate the imagination and sensitive appetite and thus does not move to a serene examination free from the influence of imagination and anxiety.³

³ Some, such as Grasset and Leroux, reduce scruples to diseases of the will; nevertheless their first cause seems to be defect of practical judgment which precedes the exercise of the will. Grasset himself confesses: "The fixed idea takes over the will an unjust and undeserved dominion, uncoercible, irresistible, disproportionate, senseless." Moreover there does not seem to be a sickness of the will which does not depend on a mental sickness, since the act of the appetitive power follows cognition and is essentially proportioned to it. Cf. Vermeersch, Th. M., I, n. 34, citing St. Thomas, I-II, q. 10, a. 1. But if sickness of practical judgment is called sickness of the will, the speech is not correct, but the question will be about the name.

2. External causes are: a) God, by not granting light or strength, permitting scruples as a punishment of sin, amendment of conscience, liberation from tepidity, exercise of humility, greater generosity of soul, exercise in virtue and confidence, horror of sin, increase of merit, mystical probation, etc.; or even on account of the good of others, that we may learn to direct the scrupulous;

b) the devil exciting scruples in the imagination and sensitive appetite for torturing the pious, especially by nourishing sadness, so that they become weary in virtue, seek external consolations until they are led to desperation concerning salvation, by which they decline to laxity, indeed to all vices, or even inflict death on themselves;

c) education too constricted or harsh, or too soft, conversation with the scrupulous and reading of rigid books, or of books treating of the moral matter, by one who does not know how to judge them rightly.⁴

⁴ Concerning the distinction of scruples, whether they are from God, from the devil, or from the corruption of nature, see Reuter, o. c., nn. 258-260.

VI. Remedies of scruples are: 1. To remove or diminish their internal causes: melancholy and solitude by comforts and cheerful recreations; weakness of the head by the counsels of a wise physician; defect of judgment by practical instruction of conscience; pride by humility and submission of judgment; inconstancy and weakness of soul by exercise and strengthening of the will; timidity and pusillanimity by meditation on the goodness of God and confidence in God, etc.

In species, intellectual scrupulous persons should be persuaded that in moral matters mathematical certitude is not to be sought, that attention is not to be given to all things which can happen, but only to those which likely occur, and that anxiety of the appetite is to be carefully discerned from the judgment or state of the intellect. But the timid should learn to act firmly in every matter, strongly neglect the anxiety which they experience in acting, trust in the goodness of the divinity, and keep in mind and often renew a firm purpose of sharp struggle against scruples.⁵

⁵ Thus for strengthening the will; concerning this cf. Eymieu, who methodically describes the process of cure according to which 1) sensations not only sad but merely passive and emotional are to be avoided; 2) physiological care is to be instituted from the things sought: rest, sleep, distractions, placid tranquility without fatigue, and leaving behind the environment in which ordinary life is turned; 3) activity is to be exercised and the will educated by various means by which the scrupulous person learns to will, to consent, to attend to physical or intellectual labor, to apply efforts, and to will strongly, firmly, and constantly under uniform and unconquered discipline, malgre tout.

2. To avoid external causes, namely scrupulous persons or writings which are an occasion for them, and excess of intellectual labor.

3. To flee idleness and carefully apply oneself to labor, especially that which delights more, namely for avoiding empty thoughts.

4. To act with a great and mortified soul against scruples, repelling them as evil and harmful thoughts, especially indirectly, by contemning them and applying the soul to other things, and never consenting to them, not even once.

5. To act as other pious and God-fearing men act.

6. Especially: to obey the superior or confessor, who is to be chosen not as scrupulous, but prudent, even rather than holy, in a humble, blind, and perfect manner, and rather often to ask this obedience from God with great confidence; this is almost the only efficacious remedy.

VII. Special principles according to which the scrupulous are to be directed:

1. The scrupulous person cannot be ruled by his own judgment, because his reason is powerless for this; therefore nothing remains except that he be governed by the reason of others, e.g., of the superior or confessor, who should say that he is scrupulous and in what matter,⁶ and that in this matter he can and must follow the judgment of the superior, and that by obeying he cannot sin, unless he is altogether certain both that sin is present and that the judgment of the superior cannot be applied here and now; indeed even if he is certain, or if he says that he everywhere has evidence of obligation and sin, provided it is established that he is so scrupulous that phantasy fashions for him that he is certain. For although by acting thus the scrupulous person may sometimes err, nevertheless he will not sin by reason of the obedience which he owes to the superior or confessor.

⁶ For in other matters he is rather often lax. "From pusillanimity it follows that someone is drawn back from works of virtues on account of fear of sinning. Indeed sometimes for avoiding light sins he is carried to graver ones. This happens especially to one laboring under a scrupulous conscience concerning a special matter, for example concerning the recitation of the Hours, celebration of Mass, etc. For often other things are reputed as nothing, and with a scrupulous conscience a lax one is nourished. It is no wonder, since they proceed from the same root, namely from smallness and lightness of soul; e.g., not rarely it happens that one who anxiously repeats the words of consecration does not care concerning the cleanliness of vessels or corporal, nor look to other duties of his office." Beaudoin, Tr. de Conse., q. 4.

Namely the presumption stands for the confessor as for the superior, who must be obeyed unless it is certainly established that he errs in prescribing a rule and cannot impose such a rule, and that obedience is illicit. And the scrupulous person can follow such a universal rule, as morally altogether necessary to his sound life, even if from this in a particular case error or material sin can follow. That effect can be considered as accidental and legitimately permitted on account of a proportionate cause. For he has the right of applying efficacious means which of themselves are honorable for being healed.

2. The scrupulous person easily exaggerates or fears sin; hence with him a grave doubt, which in others would be reasonable, "that in the case sin is present," is judged empty and to be spurned; and a light doubt "that in the case there is not sin" is judged founded.

Let him not carefully examine these doubts so that he may arrive at certitude: for he cannot arrive at this, and no one is bound to the useless. Hence he must be told that he can act freely unless he is altogether certain that sin is present; indeed if he is certain, provided it is established that he is so scrupulous in this or that matter that phantasy fashions for him that he is certain.

3. A positive obligation, namely of an affirmative precept, e.g., of confessing sins integrally, examining conscience, saying the Hours, making fraternal correction, does not oblige with great inconvenience; hence the scrupulous person can more easily be exempted from it.

IX. Applications. - There is especially a threefold class of the scrupulous:

1. Some are distressed by depraved thoughts concerning faith, chastity, charity, e.g., from rash judgment or a sense of aversion, or concerning future things to be done under condition, or by blasphemies internally uttered, to which they often fear that they have assented.

It must altogether be imposed on them a) that they not fight directly against these thoughts, e.g., by eliciting an act of faith, etc.; for this would excite them more and would be a great inconvenience; but b) that they despise scruples, because not depraved thoughts but only consents, not fictitious consents but only voluntary ones, are sin; and c) that they not examine themselves concerning them or write them on paper; indeed d) it can fittingly be imposed that they abstain from confessing them unless they knew with such certainty that they had consented that they could swear it. For the very fear of consent is a sign of resistance or of non-consent.

2. Others are anxious concerning duties already fulfilled:

A. Either on account of the integrity or contrition of past confessions. To these, if they have sometimes made a general confession or for a notable time have diligently made confessions, it must be imposed that they no longer think of all these things nor speak a word in confession, unless they continue to fear and can affirm these three things without any doubt, even with an oath: that the sin certainly was committed, that in their mind when they committed it it was mortal, and that they certainly forgot it. But if they do not immediately affirm or swear, they are no longer to be heard; and even if they swear, they are not on that account to be believed.

B. Or concerning the hearing of Mass or the recitation of the Hours. To these it must never be permitted to hear another Mass or to repeat the Hours, or a part.

C. Moreover, those who suffer perpetual and grave anxieties concerning these things, on account of the great inconveniences of scruples, are excused from material integrity of confession or of the Hours, so that they are not held to spend more time on the Hours than is customarily spent by upright men, and can omit the rest; indeed also sometimes part or the totality of the office could be prohibited to them, or a determined space of time assigned, or recitation suspended for a time.

B. Likewise some are scrupulous concerning duties to be fulfilled:

a) Concerning the integrity or contrition of confession to be instituted. To these there must be imposed a moderate examination of conscience, or even the time of examination must be determined, accusation concerning a few points or concerning external sins alone, and the simple recitation of the act of contrition.

b) Concerning fraternal correction. These must suppose themselves not to be held to it, unless they are altogether certain.

c) Concerning the intention of Mass, of the Hours, of a Sacrament, etc. These can elicit no intention, but begin absolutely and materially, and continue without hesitation and delay, without haste, strain of the head, or anxious solicitude: the very fear that the intention has been lost or not renewed is a certain sign that the intention is present; - moreover, there is not required the intention of satisfying, but of saying the office, hearing Mass, etc.; and it is as if impossible that one using reason would not have such an intention.

d) Concerning Holy Communion. Let them approach it with certitude that they would not sin even if they were in the state of sin; indeed then accidentally they would obtain grace.

In all these matters moderate diligence is to be employed.

3. Others fear sinning in every action.

On these it must be imposed

a) that they act freely, without deliberation and according to the first glance, despise scruples and operate against them where evident sin does not appear, indeed even against evidence if they were so scrupulous that phantasy fashioned for them that they had such evidence;

b) and it must be prescribed that they conquer scruples, lest they become insane or altogether useless for acting;

c) and concerning such actions in confession let them abstain from accusing themselves: for although they can sometimes err, nevertheless they do not sin, by reason of the obedience which they owe to the confessor.

But if they fear sin only in a certain genus, let the same hold for this genus.

X. Admonitions for the confessor. - 1) Before the confessor treats a penitent as scrupulous, let him inspect with great circumspection whether he is truly scrupulous: for there are those who are anxious concerning many things, but not without a just and reasonable cause, e.g., concerning restitution because they proceeded laxly; concerning past confessions because they approached without due preparation; concerning past sins which they wish more to expiate, as in new converts; concerning grave sins committed for the first time or as recidivists and not yet confessed; concerning lighter sins in which from tenderness of conscience someone now does not wish to offend God, etc.

125. Causes and effects of scruples. - The causes of scruples are as many as weaken the nervous system and diminish the energy of the soul.

1st. Internal causes: a) mediate on the part of the body: a melancholic temperament, prone to suspecting evil and to sadness, which can also come from heredity or from a certain degeneracy;² - solitude or flight from all human conversation and recreation; - and weakness of the head, even proceeding from immoderation in abstinence, vigils, and studies; or from a weak and infirm constitution, insufficient nutrition and disturbance of the functions of nutrition, depressing emotions, a bodily illness gravely debilitating, or even psychasthenia, which scarcely permits the soul a more intense attention for forming an equitable judgment concerning practical matters;

² Melancholy is numbered among the causes because melancholic persons commonly are sharp in talent and suspicious by nature, and tenacious of the things which they apprehend: thus they are prone to every suspicion of evil, they wish to scrutinize even the smallest things, and with difficulty acquiesce in others; all of which predispose to scruples.

b) immediate causes on the part of the soul, whether in the intellect: subtlety of talent which easily finds reasons for doubting, or seeks mathematical certainty in all things; weakness of mind and defect of judgment (women are more often scrupulous than men); weakness and inconstancy of soul by which it follows vivid imaginations rather than mature judgment; - or in the affection: hidden pride clinging tenaciously to one's own judgment; pusillanimity, which does not know how to contemn fears and loses courage.

There is therefore a twofold kind of the scrupulous: some are rather intellectual, others too sensitive and timid from a certain phobia. In both cases there is present a defect, both 1) of practical judgment, or prudence in estimating particular circumstances; and 2) of energy, or fortitude, perseverance, or constancy, of the will which does not command the intellect to be content with practical and improperly so-called certitude, or does not moderate the imagination and sensitive appetite and thus does not move to a serene examination free from the influence of imagination and anxiety.³

³ Some, such as Grasset and Leroux (in the periodical Revue Eccl. de Liege, 1911-12), reduce scruples to diseases of the will; nevertheless their principle seems to be a defect of practical judgment, which precedes the exercise of the will. Grasset himself admits: "The fixed idea takes over the will an unjust and undeserved, uncontrollable, irresistible, disproportionate, senseless dominion." Besides, there does not seem to be a disease of the will which does not depend on mental disease, since the act of the appetitive power follows cognition and is essentially proportioned to it (cf. Vermeersch, Th. M., I, n. 94, citing St. Thomas, I-II, q. 10, a. 1). But if a disease of practical judgment is called a disease of the will, the manner of speaking is not correct, but the question will be about the name.

2. External causes are: a) God - by not granting light or strength - permitting scruples as punishment of sin, for amendment of conscience, greater generosity of soul, exercise in virtue and confidence, horror of sin, increase of merit, mystical trial, etc., or also on account of the good of others, so that we may learn to direct the scrupulous;

b) the devil exciting scruples in the imagination and sensitive appetite for tormenting the devout (especially by nourishing sadness), so that they may become weary in virtue, seek external consolations until they are led to despair of salvation, by which they decline toward laxity, indeed toward all vices, or even bring death upon themselves;

c) education too constricted or harsh, or too soft, conversation with the scrupulous, and the reading of rigid books or books treating of moral matters by one who does not know how to judge them rightly.⁴

⁴ On the discretion of scruples, whether they are from God, from the devil, or from corruption of nature, see Reuter, Neo-confessarius, n. 258-260.

But the harmful effects, and many and very great temporal and at the same time spiritual damages, can proceed from scruples to which consent is given, from whatever cause they arise. And indeed:

1. in bodily life, agitation and anxiety exhaust the powers, exasperate the nerves, weaken and disturb the nervous system, and prepare the way for neurasthenia, hysteria, and other diseases;

2. in intellectual life, they disturb the rectitude of practical judgment; indeed they lead to insanity if they are universal, to monomania if they are concerned with one object;

3. in social life, they diminish consideration of neighbor, take away aptitude for exercising social relations authoritatively or mercifully, and render one gravely troublesome to others;

4. especially in spiritual life, they cause loss of time in combating empty phantasms, negligence and unsuitability for the duties of state, dry up devotion and turn one away from prayer and reception of the sacraments, excite distrust toward God and pusillanimity of spirit, whence sadness arises, dejection of soul, despair, which sometimes leads to suicide or unbridled lust.

126. Remedies for scruples are:

1st. To remove or lessen their internal causes: melancholy and solitude by consolations and joyful recreations; weakness of the head by counsels of a wise physician; defect of practical judgment by instruction of conscience; pride by humility and submission of judgment; inconstancy and weakness of soul by exercise and strengthening of the will; timidity and pusillanimity by meditation on the goodness of God and confidence in God, etc.

In particular, the intellectually scrupulous should be persuaded that in moral matters mathematical certainty is not to be sought, that attention is not to be paid to all things which can happen, but only to those which will likely occur, and that the anxiety of the appetite is to be carefully distinguished from the judgment or state of the intellect.

On the contrary, let the timid learn to act firmly in every matter, to neglect bravely the anxiety which they experience in acting, trusting in the goodness of the divinity, and to retain in mind and often renew a firm purpose of vigorous battle against scruples.⁵

⁵ Thus for strengthening the will. On this cf. Eymieu, who describes methodically the process of cure, according to which 1) sensations not only sad but merely passive and emotive must be avoided; 2) a physiological cure must be instituted from rest, sleep, distractions, peaceful tranquility, without fatigue, having been sought, and after leaving behind the environment in which ordinary life is moved; 3) activity must be exercised and the will educated, by various means by which the scrupulous person may learn to will, to consent, to attend to physical or intellectual work, to apply effort, to will strongly, firmly, and constantly under a uniform and, whatever things stand in the way, unconquered discipline, and by acts frequently repeated.

2nd. To avoid external causes, that is, scrupulous persons or writings which are the occasion of scruples, and excess of intellectual labor.

3rd. To flee idleness and apply oneself diligently to work, especially that which delights more, in order, that is, to avoid empty thoughts.

4th. With a great and mortified soul to act against scruples, repelling them as evil and harmful thoughts, especially indirectly, by contemning them and applying the soul to other things, and never consenting to them, not even once.

5th. To act as other pious and God-fearing men do.

6th. Especially: to obey a superior or confessor (who must be chosen not as scrupulous, but as prudent, even rather than holy) in a humble, blind, and perfect manner, and often to ask this obedience from God with great confidence; which is almost the only efficacious remedy.

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 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.

It is asked 4° what are the chief causes of scruples.

I answer. That some are intrinsic, some extrinsic. The intrinsic are: First, a natural complexion suspicious and timid, such as is usually the melancholic. Second, weakness and inconstancy of mind, not holding firmly to things once determined, or to practical principles sufficiently known: under this head women are more frequently scrupulous than men. Third, an ignorance whereby one cannot discern between licit and illicit, between temptation and consent; or such subtlety of genius as suffices to devise reasons for doubting, and does not suffice to solve them. Fourth, hidden pride, whereby one, trusting too much to his own judgment, will acquiesce in no counsel. Fifth, excessive austerities, by which, with the head weakened, the mind is easily disturbed.

The chief extrinsic causes are: First, the society of scrupulous men, the direction of a scrupulous confessor, or the reading of cases of conscience in one who is less able to discern. Second, the devil, who by this art tempts, to turn men away from the exercise of the virtues. Third, God himself permitting it so, whether in punishment of past sins, or for the exercise of humility and patience, or to shake off tepidity in his service, or on account of other ends known to himself.

It is asked 5° by what remedies the scrupulous are to be cured.

I answer. 1° Generally speaking, the causes of scruples are to be removed by their contraries; for contraries are cured by contraries. Hence let the melancholic be healed by the help of a physician; let the timorous by frequent meditation contemplate the goodness of God, and apprehend him, not as a hard master or merciless exactor, but as a good Father; let the proud not lean upon their own prudence; and so of the rest. 2° Let him have recourse by frequent and humble prayer to God, the consoler of the afflicted; let him offer to him the troubles of his mind with patience and submissive resignation in satisfaction for his sins, meanwhile conceiving a filial confidence of obtaining help at last, and of tranquillity returning after the storm. 3° Let him take the life and common sense of God-fearing men for his rule, holding it for certain that God does not suffer these to err commonly. 4° Let him beware of idleness and vagrant thoughts, especially about the acts of past life, which open a door to scruples; but let him apply himself diligently to labor, and to that labor above all which best helps and delights the mind, provided it contain nothing evil. 5° But the remedy supremely necessary, and perhaps the only one, for curing the scrupulous, in the common judgment, is blind and absolute obedience to the sayings, counsels and precepts of a prudent and wise man, to whom his conscience has been laid open, namely his confessor or director.

It is asked 6° how the confessor ought to act with a scrupulous person.

I answer. 1° Where the confessor perceives his penitent to be scrupulous (and this he will be able to know from the signs assigned), let him admonish him that he is scrupulous and to be cured according to the rules for the scrupulous, lest perchance, despising scruples, he despise conscience itself.

2° Let him impress upon him the necessity of blind and absolute obedience to all the sayings and precepts of his confessor, his own judgment despised and scruples neglected; and if he be not disposed in mind to render this obedience, or to endeavor after it, he is to be dismissed as incurable, since, as I said, he can scarcely be healed by any other remedy. But that he may persuade him to this obedience entire and blind, let him set before him: 1° that the scrupulous man, having a disturbed judgment and an impaired imagination, cannot be governed by his own judgment; wherefore it was said to him before all others, Prov., I, 5: Lean not upon thy own prudence, since thou art wise in thy own conceit.

2° That it belongs to a proud mind, and is against the rules of prudence and humility, to prefer one's own judgment, especially when so disturbed, to the judgment of the director. 3° That although the director err, the scrupulous man himself will not sin by obeying, according to the unanimous doctrine of the Saints and of spiritual masters; because he will do what is safer and what God requires of him.

3° Let him teach him that positive laws, whether divine or human, do not bind under grave loss and great difficulty, which is called moral impotence; but great anxiety and molestation is great difficulty. Hence let him forbid the scrupulous man who is continually anguished in the recitation of the hours, and always fears that he omitted something or was willingly distracted, to repeat; nay, if he were so scrupulous that there would scarcely be an end of repeating, and that hence he would suffer grave and continual molestations, the recitation of the breviary would be altogether to be interdicted to him, as morally impossible.

4° Let him command him to repute nothing, whether act done or to be done, a mortal sin, unless it stand certain to him to be mortal, and so certainly that he could swear it to be mortal; because in doubt, as the rule of law has it, « concerning matters commonly contingent there is a prudent presumption. » Since therefore the scrupulous man is wont to doubt or imagine that sins exist, or are mortal, which are not, by law they are presumed in doubt not to be such. Moreover, since he doubts even of the most evident things, and suspects evil where there is not even a shadow of evil, the burden would be intolerable if he had to hold in practice for sin whatever falls under his doubt.

5° When the scrupulous man is anxious about past confessions, whether he was sufficiently contrite, whether he confessed all sins and all circumstances, never permit him to repeat them unless these two concur together: first, that he be certain they were mortal; second, that he be equally certain they were not duly confessed. Likewise do not permit him to confess doubtful present sins, but only certain ones, and simply, with the circumstances absolutely necessary; and admonish him not to institute an anxious and utterly exact examination, but only a moderate one: and when he has only doubtful sins, command him to celebrate without being heard, or to approach the holy synaxis. The reason of these things is, because the positive law of the material integrity of confession does not bind under grave loss, as we said above of positive laws in general. Grave, however, would be the loss and damage of the scrupulous man if he should have to confess all doubts, whether present or past; there would be no end of scruples, but rather they would be multiplied and entangled, and thus the anxiety would be perpetual and the torment intolerable; whence, if he omit certain sins, it is not imputed to him.

Finally, for a crown to all, let the confessor remember not to waver in his decisions, as if doubting or merely opining, but let him define and command with certainty; otherwise the anxiety will not be quieted, but rather increased. Moreover, with the timid let him proceed in gentleness of spirit, with the proud somewhat roughly; yet let him not drive them to despair, but mix oil with wine.

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.

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.

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.

There is a general consensus of opinion among the medical faculty that all these troubles are due to one and the same physical cause — degeneracy. Ribot says : —

‘‘The authors that have investigated the determining causes of fixed ideas, all reach the same conclusion; they find it, namely, to be a symptom of degeneration. One might even maintain that not everybody who may wish it can have fixed ideas. A primordial condition—the neuropathic constitution—is requisite. The latter may be inherited, or it may be acquired. Persons of the one class are of the offspring of parents to whom they are indebted for the sad legacy of degenerate organisms. These are by far the most numerous. The others have been exhausted by circumstances and mode of life: physical or intellectual fatigue, emotions, strong passions, sexual or other excesses, anemia, debilitating diseases, etc.”⁷

⁷ The Psychology of Attention, Eng. transl., p. 89.

As we have seen, theologians, too, are prepared to assign to degeneracy, physical or nervous debility, a large share in the production of scruples. However, they mention other causes as well, and in this they would seem to have the support of Dr. Bramwell, who writes : —

‘‘Imperative ideas are usually regarded as being typical of degeneracy, and especially of hereditary degeneracy. Some of my cases seem to confirm this: they were weak mentally and physically, and had unsatisfactory hereditary antecedents. . . . On the other hand, the transition from the normal state to imperative ideas, is almost insensible— the repetition of an insignificant saying being, according to Ribot, the slightest form, and preoccupation, such as anxiety about an examination, a degree higher. Most children, too, have suffered at one time or another from imperative ideas. This appears to arise from an exaggerated sense of the importance of what they say and do, and also from an exaggerated fear regarding the notice taken of them by others. [Is not this allied to the pride and self-conceit mentioned as causes of scruples by theologians?] Some of my patients were physically far above the average, and many of them possessed mental endowments of high quality, and their morbid ideas did not prevent them doing valuable work. Most of them, it is true, were of an emotional nervous type, but is the sensitive, mobile brain necessarily degenerate? May not the accidents to which it is liable be the result of its higher and more complex development? The thoroughbred is more emotional and nervous than the cart-horse, but is this necessarily an evidence of its hereditary degeneracy ?’’ *

In the light of the foregoing study of the nature and causes of scruples, the rules given by theologians for their cure will, if I mistake not, acquire a new value. First and foremost we see the necessity of a prudent, kind, but firm, confessor. He will not get angry or impatient with his scrupulous penitent, the case will rather excite his interest and sympathy. As soon as he has convinced himself that his penitent is really scrupulous, he will try to discover the cause of his malady. Very often the cause will be degeneracy in the medical sense, and the confessor, while prescribing other remedies, will take care to recommend him to see a doctor or he will himself suggest a holiday or feeding up. If the cause is some form of pride he will know how to administer a paternal snubbing when occasion arises. As the scruples are nothing but empty fears, he will briefly point this out to his afflicted penitent, and as the scrupulous state has been formed by indulging those vain fears, the confessor will take care as far as possible to stop the process of fostering them. He will not allow anything to be said about them, they must not be confessed, nor even thought about, if that is possible. With this object in view he will prescribe constant occupation in interesting work of one sort or another. Such indirect remedies are often most effective, but they should be supplemented by direct action against the scrupulous dread, much in the same way as a horse is taught to face objects at which it is inclined to shy. If the scruples have their origin in indiscreet fervor, the penitent should be taught that God asks for a reasonable service, and that spiritual progress, if it is to be solid and lasting, is almost always slow and gradual. An humble consciousness of one’s own weakness and consequent trust in God are great safeguards against the danger of scruples.

8 Hypnotism, p. 255.