Scrupulosity

Scrupulosity.—Like to the scrupulous conscience is the state of scrupulosity, which manifests itself in moral matters especially as a vain fear or anxiety concerning the presence or magnitude of sin in one’s act. A psychopathic state, scrupulosity is usually listed as a form of psychasthenia which is characterized by weakness of soul, inability to cope with problems, and a lack of psychic energy. Clinically examined, the psychasthenic presents the following characteristics: (1) physically, he is listless and always tired; (2) intellectually, his tiredness makes it impossible for him to concentrate for long periods of time; (c) psychologically, he is an introvert concerned with himself as the center of his interests and activities.

The more common manifestations of the psychasthenic’s difficulties include: self-diffidence, uncertainty, hesitation, obsessions and scruples. A species of psychasthenia, scrupulosity may be described as an inordinate preoccupation with the moral and religious order, a special type of worry directed toward the morality of actions.

(a) scrupulosity must be distinguished, however, from the scrupulous conscience, inasmuch as scrupulosity is not a judgment, but a fear that accompanies one’s judgment. Example: A scrupulous person knows very well that it is not a sin to omit grace, nor a grave sin to pray with some voluntary distraction; but he worries over these things as if they were sins, or grave sins.

(b) scrupulosity must be distinguished from the tender conscience, inasmuch as scrupulosity is an exaggerated and harmful solicitude. A person of tender conscience is careful even in smaller duties, but in a quiet and recollected way, whereas the scrupulous person is all excitement and distraction.

(c) scrupulosity must be distinguished from the anxious or doubtful or guilty conscience, inasmuch as scrupulosity is a baseless fear or phobia. Examples: A person who has practised injustice for many years, has good reason to be perturbed in conscience when he reflects that restitution or reparation is a prerequisite to pardon; but a mother who did all she could to train her children well, is scrupulous, if she is constantly reproaching herself that she should have done better. A person who makes a contract while fearing that it may be unlawful, because good authorities hold its unlawfulness, acts with a doubtful conscience; but if he fears that the contract is unlawful, in spite of the fact that others regard it as lawful and that his only reason for doubt is that they may be wrong, he is scrupulous. The Egyptians at the time of the plagues could reasonably forecast grievous chastisements on account of their wickedness (Wis., xvii. 10); but a good person who worries constantly over the possibility of being damned must be scrupulous.

Scruples may be divided in various ways, but the simplest division seems to be by virtue of object, extension and duration. By reason of object, scruples may center on only one or, at most, a few moral activities, e.g., duties of charity, or sins against chastity, or they may embrace the whole moral life of the individual. By reason of extension, some scruples are limited to interior actions, others extend to external manifestations. By reason of duration, scruples may be classified as intermittent, or temporary, and quasi-permanent which is characteristic of the constitutionally scrupulous person whose physical and psychical disposition incline him to scrupulosity.

The signs or external manifestations of scrupulosity have been variously divided, but a simplified division into intellectual, or cognitive, affective, or volitional, and compulsive suffices for our present purpose.

(a) Intellectual: habitual abulia, i.e., an inability to decide, coupled with and interacting with constant doubt.

(b) Affective: closely allied to the intellectual state is the feeling of insufficiency which extends to actions, to the individual’s own personality, to his desire for higher goals, to his abilities, etc. This fosters and strengthens the inability to decide. Inordinate fears, anxieties and sadness contribute to the genesis and growth of the sense of inadequacy.

(c) Compulsive: numerous compulsion factors are present in more serious cases of scrupulosity, e.g., obsessions, phobias, and compulsions properly so called, which concern external actions or rituals.

Obsessions include irresistible, persistent and irrational ideas accompanied by feelings of tension and fear. These ideas which plague the individual are “discordant,” that is, out of harmony with his habitual attitude, and “impulsive,” tending to reduce themselves spontaneously to action. The scrupulous person is frightened and flustered by the thought of doing a thing for which he has a positive abhorrence and by his inability to get the thought out of his mind.

Phobias refer to habitual, irrational fears of a definite entity associated with a high degree of anxiety and unwarranted by objective reality. They are very intense fears, completely out of proportion to their causes or objects.

Finally, compulsions strictly so called may be defined as irresistible, unreasonable urges to perform actions to free the individual from an obsessing idea. Tension and anxiety are associated if the act or external ritual is not performed.

For the confessor, the recognition of a scrupulous person is not too difficult. The penitent’s own difficulties present the first and most obvious sign, e.g., irrational doubts about consent to temptation, as to the gravity of a sin, etc., and undue concern about circumstances. Concomitant signs confirming the judgment that a person is scrupulous include:

(a) Obstinacy of judgment; Although the scrupulous person seeks advice, frequently from many confessors, he tends to follow his own judgment. He is inclined to think that the confessor has not understood him, that he has not given a complete picture of his state of soul, etc.

(b) Inconstancy in acting owing to inability to judge rightly and the consequent frequent changes of judgment for light reasons.

(c) Irrelevant accusations of multiple circumstances that tend to lose the sin in the maze of circumstances.

(d) External motions by which the individual tries to do away with the fear, sin, or other difficulty.

Causes of a scrupulous Conscience.—Although the signs of scrupulosity are easily recognizable, the causes are not clearly defined, and authors are not entirely agreed in this matter. A listing of probable causes would include internal causes:

(a) physical—the physical causes are virtually unknown. Most authors admit a constitutional disposition to scrupulosity, just as there is one to its quasi-genus, psychasthenia. Reductively this might involve disorders in the vago-sympathetic nervous system and the neuro-endocrine system. (b) psychical—the cause is attributed to too low a psychic tension. The inability to cope with obsessions and the attacks of phobias serve to exhaust the individual; (c) moral—perhaps a suspicious and melancholy character, a disposition that is overly impressionable and changeable, or a self-opinionated nature, overconfident of its own ability.

The external causes of scrupulosity are: (a) the devil, who excites vain fears in order to diminish devotion, to discourage the use of prayer and of the Sacraments, to drive to tepidity and despair; (b) the neighbor, who teaches scrupulosity by his words or example; association with persons who are scrupulous; the reading of spiritual books of a rigoristic character; assistance by persons of a timid character at terrifying sermons on the divine justice; overly protective and overly rigorous education.

Though God cannot be the cause of scrupulosity in the same way as the evil spirits (who use it for man’s destruction), nor in the same way as human agencies (which are unable to bring good out of the evil they cause), He does in exceptional cases directly permit even saintly persons to be vexed by scrupulosity that they may thereby satisfy for sin, or exercise themselves in humility and patience, or shake off spiritual torpor.

Scrupulosity that is supernatural in origin is much rarer than that which has a natural source, and it can be usually recognized by certain signs, like the following; (a) when it cannot be accounted for by natural causes, and is generally short in duration; (b) if it is from the evil spirits, it leaves the soul shaken or dismayed, if from God, it is followed by light and peace.

Dangers of scrupulosity.—The evil results of indulged scrupulosity are as follows: (a) temporal evils—the constant fears and worries of the scrupulous affect the brain and nerves, break down the bodily vigor, and lead to neurasthenia, hysteria, insanity or monomania; (b) spiritual evils—time is wasted in useless regrets and anxieties, prayer becomes a torture, confidence in God decreases, and, seeing they do not find consolation in virtue, the scrupulous often end in vice and despair.

Rules to be observed by the scrupulous.—(a) They must not yield to their scruples. As was said above, scrupulosity is not a conscience, but only the counterfeit appearance of a conscience; not a help to the soul, but a grave drawback and danger. Hence, the scrupulous must learn to despise their foolish fears and imaginations. (b) They must follow blindly the commands of a prudent spiritual director. To attempt to make decisions for themselves is a harrowing experience for scrupulous persons, and one fraught with great peril. They must protect themselves, therefore, by following the decisions made for them by one who will guide them aright. Gradually, as their condition improves, however, they must learn to take the initiative and thus prepare themselves to act as responsible persons capable of forming a correct judgment.

Not to follow their scruples means: (a) that scrupulous persons should recognize their scruples for what they really are (i.e., for a spiritual disorder), and that they should firmly resolve to use the means to get rid of them; (b) that they will prevent scruples from arising by keeping themselves occupied with external things, or by interesting themselves with matters that will exclude the worrisome thoughts; (c) that they will banish scruples at once, as they would a temptation. The two key aims of the scrupulous individual is to counteract his introversion by greater social activity and to re-train his faculty so that he will be in control at all times.

Though the scrupulous are obliged not to heed their scruples, they rarely sin by heeding them, because their condition is such that they are not responsible. For, as was said above (40 sqq.), fear and other passions lessen or remove deliberation and the voluntariness of acts.

To give absolute obedience to the spiritual director means: (a) that scrupulous persons should recognize that it is wrong for them to depend on their own prudence, whereas they are absolutely safe in following the advice and precepts of the spiritual father who holds the place of God; (b) that they should avoid changing directors, and should adhere strictly to the rules prescribed for them.

Qualities required for a successful direction of the scrupulous are:

(a) Knowledge. The spiritual physician must be able to distinguish scrupulosity from spiritual diseases or conditions that are similar, lest he prescribe what is not suitable for the case. Example: A person of tender conscience should continue in that state, a person of scrupulous conscience needs instruction that he may put aside his erroneous views; a scrupulous person stands in need of special guidance. He must also recognize that scrupulosity is a mental illness that at times requires the expert treatment of a psychiatrist. Knowing his own limitations and the need of expert therapy, he should not hesitate to send the penitent to a competent doctor.

(b) Prudence. Some persons pretend scrupulosity in order to get a name for holiness, or to make a good impression; needless to say, they must be dealt with cautiously, as they often prove very unscrupulous. With a person who is really scrupulous, the spiritual director must carefully obtain all the knowledge necessary to ascertain the true state of soul, prudently bring the individual to recognize that he is a sick person, help to restore his confidence in himself, in his confessor, in God, etc.

(c) Patience. The scrupulous are almost as troublesome to their directors as they are to themselves; but they are heavily burdened and are unable to help themselves. The law of charity applies. They have the same right to charitable treatment as others who are physically suffering and needy.

(d) Firmness. Disobedience will defeat every effort of a director to help a scrupulous person. On this point, therefore, there must be no leniency: the rules laid down must be insisted on, the reasons should not be given, and no argument or discussion should be allowed. The director should speak with certainty and authority; he should be brief, and, if he must repeat, he will do well to use the same words.

(e) Good judgment. After deciding that a person is scrupulous, the director must discover what is the particular form of scrupulosity in the case, and must apply remedies that are suitable.

Rules Concerning Persons Scrupulous about Past Confessions.—(a) For the first time the confessor may permit a general confession of the past life, if the scrupulous penitent has fears about previous confessions and has not already made such a general confession. Let the individual relate his whole story at once, with all its details and complications. This might perhaps take more than one confession to complete, but the full recital is necessary if the scrupulous person is to have confidence in his director’s knowledge of his exact state of soul. (b) After this general confession, no mention of past confession must be permitted, unless the scrupulous person is ready to swear without hesitation that he is sure that a sin certainly grave was committed by him and never rightly confessed.

Rules Concerning Persons scrupulous about Present Confessions.—(a) Before confession, the penitent must be content with a certain brief space of time appointed by the confessor for making his examination of conscience and act of contrition. A longer time spent in these preparations is useful to other penitents, but harmful to the scrupulous.

(b) During confession only those sins need be mentioned which are seen from a brief examen to be both certain and grave, and only those circumstances whose declaration is absolutely necessary. If the scrupulous penitent begins to speak of doubtful sins or irrelevant details, the confessor must forbid him to go on; for though confessions must be complete, whenever possible, doubts and details must not be permitted in the case of such scrupulous persons (see Vol. II).

(c) After confession, if the confessor judges that there is not sufficient matter for absolution, he must not yield to the penitent’s fears, but must assure him that he does not need absolution and that he may go to the Sacraments Without it.

Rules Concerning Persons scrupulous about the Performance of Duties.—(a) The scrupulous person should be instructed that positive laws, divine as well as human, do not oblige in case of moral impossibility (i.e., when their observance is too burdensome); that the matter about which he has scruples has become too difficult for him, and hence that he is not obliged to it as others are.

(b) The scrupulous person should be commanded to leave undone what his vain fear calls on him to do; and, if this does not suffice, he should be told that he is not bound by the duty which causes him such anxiety. Example: Titus is scrupulous about the performance of obligatory prayers, so much so that he is not satisfied until he has repeated them several times, lest some syllable may have been omitted or hurried over, or the intention or attention may have been lost sight of at some part of the prayer, or the devotional posture may not have been observed throughout. If Titus cannot learn to say these prayers without making senseless repetitions, he should be told that the obligation has ceased until such time as he is able to fulfill it without torture to himself or others.

Of course, if harm is done to another by the incomplete performance of a duty, even a scrupulous person cannot be dispensed from repetition. Example: If a priest has not pronounced a sacramental form correctly, the fact that he is scrupulous does not excuse him from repeating the form correctly.

Rules Concerning Persons Scrupulous about the Commission Of Sin.—(a) The scrupulous person should be told that he is scrupulous, that his scrupulosity is not a conscience that he is obliged to follow, but a vain fear which he is obliged to struggle against by observing the directions given him.

(b) He should be directed not to deliberate long before acting, but to do what seems right to him at first; not to conclude after acting that he has committed sin, unless this appears certain and evident. Since the scrupulous are over-careful, the presumption is in their favor, and they can act and judge prudently by disregarding their fears and doubts. If by deciding offhand they sometimes sin or fail to recognize sin in a past act, this will come from invincible ignorance, and they will be excused from responsibility.

Since a disease is best cured by removing its cause, the confessor, when he has diagnosed a case of scruples, should prescribe remedies that are opposed to the source of the trouble.

(a) If scrupulosity seems to come from God, the penitent should be encouraged to regard it as a means of satisfaction for past negligences or as an occasion of virtue and progress, to pray incessantly for light and assistance, and to follow the guidance which God has provided. (b) If scrupulosity appears to be the result of diabolical obsession, and exorcism seems to be called for, the sufferer should not be told this. (c) If scrupulosity comes from associations or reading, the sufferer should avoid these occasions, and cultivate the companionship of persons or books that are cheerful and that give a hopeful outlook on one’s duty and destiny.

Remedies for Scruples That Are Mental in Origin.—(a) Those who suffer from fixed ideas, phobias, and delusions, should not be reproved harshly and told that their fears are insane, but should be treated with kindness and firmness. In ministering to these troubled minds, the best course seems to be kind assurance that they have nothing to fear, along with insistence that they imitate the example of the generality of good people, avoid singular practices of piety, discuss their anxieties only with their director, and give themselves to some occupation that will distract their attention from their manias.

(b) Those whose minds are over-active and given to doubts and objections must avoid introspection and the study of moral problems that are too difficult for them; they must take a proper amount of suitable recreation, think and plan how they may help others who are in need, and avoid idleness.

Remedies for Scruples Whose Origin is Moral.—(a) If scruples arise from a stubbornness of character, the penitent must be told that the confessor is better fitted to judge the case, and that it is the height of rashness and presumption for a scrupulous person to prefer his ideas to those of the priest.

(b) If a melancholy or timid nature accounts for the existence of scruples, confidence and cheerfulness should be inculcated, and the penitent should be encouraged to meditate frequently on the goodness of God, and to remember always that God is not a harsh taskmaster, but a kind Father.

(c) Those who are scrupulous because their character is fickle and easily moved by every suggestion or imagination, need to cultivate seriousness, and to hold strongly to their judgments and resolves deliberately formed. Obedience to their director will be of more lasting benefit to these and other psychical scrupulants than psychiatric treatments through hypnotism, mental suggestion, and psychoanalysis; observance of the rules prescribed is an excellent cultivation of will-power, and it is sustained and perfected by the motives and helps which religion alone can supply.

Remedies for scrupulosity Whose Cause Is Physical.—(a) The physician is the proper person to care for bodily ills; hence, a scrupulous person who is troubled with headaches, dizziness, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, nervousness, hallucinations, etc., should go to a competent and conscientious specialist in the healing art. Removal of the causes of hurry and worry, moderate but sufficient diet, fresh air and exercise, and especially congenial occupation and surroundings are by general consent included among the best natural cures.

(b) The confessor, if he perceives that illness is the cause of scruples, should forbid any spiritual practices that cause or aggravate the malady. Example: scrupulous penitents should not be permitted to practise mortification by depriving themselves of necessary sleep, food, exercise or fresh air, or to use devotions or austerities for which they are physically unfit.

Persons who are scrupulous and lax at the same time need to be directed so as to overcome both spiritual maladies.

(a) If they are more scrupulous than lax, the case is less difficult, as they incline rather to the safer side, and it will suffice to apply the remedies indicated above for laxity and scrupulosity, as they are needed. Example: Titus, on account of scrupulosity, spends too much time at his prayers, and thus neglects the exercise and recreation which are necessary for his health. He should be instructed to limit his devotions, to have a regular time for them each day, and to realize that he has an obligation to take proper care of his health.

(b) If persons are more lax than scrupulous, the case is difficult, as they incline more to evil; indeed, if the trouble is Pharisaism, it is well-nigh incurable, on account of the pride and blindness that oppose resistance to every effort to cure. These persons need to be treated with severity, since nothing else will make any impression; they should be told in plain language how they stand and what is in store for them, unless they repent. Examples: Caius is extremely careful not to be guilty of sins of commission, but he thinks nothing of sins of omission; he would not take a postage stamp without express permission of the owner, but he neglects from year to year to pay bills, and sees nothing wrong in this. Titus thinks himself a saint because he worships the letter of the law, when it is to be applied to others; but he cares nothing about its spirit, and, though indulgent to self, is a tyrant with others. Both these men need to be told that, far from being good, they are very bad; that, far from being secure, they are in great danger. If insensible to reproofs, they should be reminded of the woes that await the wilfully blind (Matt., xxiii. 13 sqq.).

171. A scruple is an empty apprehension, and the fear and anxiety arising from this, that there is sin somewhere where there is none; or grave sin, where there is only light sin. Therefore a scrupulous conscience is that conscience which, from some vain cause, doubts concerning the honesty of some action, and therefore fears concerning sin. Fear of this kind can very well stand with a determinate judgment concerning the honesty of the thing; for it rests only on a light and empty motive. But if that fear is with a determinate judgment that something is a sin which in reality is not, this judgment, insofar as it proceeds from an empty motive and afflicts and troubles the soul, can indeed be called a scruple, or a scrupulous conscience, speaking broadly; but properly it is a vincibly erroneous conscience. Likewise there can be a scruple with a true practical doubt whether this is a sin or not, from an empty motive, suspecting perhaps that there is sin, without any determinate judgment that it is or is not a sin. And thus again it is a scruple or scrupulous conscience broadly so called, but properly it is a doubtful conscience. - Ferraris Supplem. v. Scrupulus.

Scrupulous conscience differs from tender conscience. For the latter is a conscience recognizing, fearing, and fleeing both grave and light sins; and it also strives to avoid simple imperfections, as much as it can with divine grace.

172. Is it lawful to act with a scrupulous conscience? - The response is clear from the two following propositions in this number and the next. - It is lawful to act with a scrupulous conscience, while the scruple remains, provided that it is judged to be a scruple and is contemned as such. Nor indeed is it necessary that, for individual acts, this express judgment be formed, that it is a scruple; but it suffices that one act against it from the judgment of experience of past acts. - Reason 1 is that the scrupulous person acting thus has a prudent motive for contemning the dictate of a scrupulous conscience; because a scruple proceeds from a light foundation, and consequently does not take away a judgment otherwise certain or probable; and because confessors and theologians commonly say that scruples are to be laid aside, or, if they cannot be laid aside, are to be contemned. Reason 2 is that then there is had at least a virtual judgment of that contempt of scruples. - Suarez tr. 3, d. 12, s. ult.; L. l. 1, n. 18, 19.

He who is scrupulous, without knowing or noticing that he is scrupulous, or at least scrupulous in this action, cannot act against the scrupulous conscience, if a judgment concerning sin is formed, or a doubt concerning it is had. - The reason is that such a person would freely choose that which he judges evil, or concerning which he doubts whether it is evil.

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.

174. What are the signs of a scrupulous conscience? - "1. Obstinacy of judgment, by which the scrupulous person refuses to obey the counsels of the wise, consults various persons, but acquiesces in the judgment of none; indeed, the more persons he hears, 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 instance in the celebration of Mass, etc. - 3. To have impertinent reflections upon many circumstances which were present in the action or could have been present." L. l. 1, n. 11. - 4. If he thinks that he sins in that in which pious men find no sin at all; if he recites his prayers anxiously and continually begins them anew; if he makes no end of examining his conscience, and explains every smallest thing, and often even repeats it in Confession. - 5. If he uses ridiculous signs, gestures, and other ways for laying aside scruples. - 6. If the confessor, or another prudent man, has judged him scrupulous. - La-Croix l. 1, n. 515 seqq.

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.

176. It will also be useful to know the privileges of the scrupulous: 1. that a scrupulous person in acting is not bound to apply examination and diligence except a very moderate one, nor so much as others; and that, while a scruple troubles him and counsel is not at hand, he can freely do what he wishes, unless it is certain and evident that it is a sin. Cf. Vasquez in 1. 2, d. 57. - 2. That he is bound to repeat nothing from past Confessions, unless he certainly knows that it was mortal and that he was not rightly confessed. But he is not certain so long as he doubts. Hence Laymann advises that a scrupulous person never confess doubts and scruples. And Sa, v. dubium, and others say that he is not bound to confess except those things which he can swear to be mortal and never to have been confessed. - The reason of each privilege is that in the scrupulous person reason is disturbed by excessive fear of sinning, so that he cannot rightly examine the matter. Hence, granted that he has not confessed something, nevertheless he is not bound, with such great harm and danger of perpetual anxiety, to procure the integrity of confession, since lesser difficulties often excuse from it. L. l. 6, n. 476, 477. - 3. "Indeed, sometimes someone can be so troubled by scruples that, although it seems certain to him that he has not said certain things, still he is not bound to confess them." L. l. 1, n. 16.

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.

179. If the first, let him command the penitent that he altogether despise fears of this kind, and teach him that not depraved thoughts, but depraved consents, are sins. Often it will also be expedient to impose on the scrupulous person that the penitent abstain from Confession of thoughts of this kind, unless he knows so certainly that he consented to them that he can at once swear it. "Nor is there reason that we be terrified because of the duration of time, or the vehemence of the thought, for these also often are natural and involuntary, and sometimes from fear afterwards appear greater than they really were." Suarez d. 12, s. ult. "See to it, however, that you diligently notice that the demon, or sense itself, sometimes injects temptations into certain persons, especially the scrupulous, under an utterance expressing consent, in this or a similar way: I will to sin, I will to consent; although nevertheless no consent of the will is present, which is not to be sought from incidental words, but from the proper act itself of the higher will." Ithur. Cas. 18, n. 5; Elbel de Act. hum. 226 seqq.

And Lehmkuhl, Cases of Conscience, ed. 3, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1907, On Human Acts, Concup., (1), Case (9), R. 2: "The mind can be occupied for a sufficiently long time with those impure matters, without full advertence and full consent being present, which nevertheless is required for mortal sin." And if someone, "noticing more fully, struck by fear, flees to prayer, it sufficiently shows that he had not previously fully consented, nor is guilty of mortal sin." And concerning the Rule of Human Acts, Scrupulous Conscience, Case (17), R. 2: "If someone is habitually in that state in which he would rather die than offend God, he ought by no means to be troubled by those various temptations against chastity, nor by those which have progressed even to a sense of joy and satisfaction (or of natural desire). For this affection and that sense is not yet voluntary consent, in which alone sin consists. It can indeed happen that sometimes some venial negligence insinuates itself; but this is human misery, which should teach continual humility and vigilance, not fear and anxiety." And again concerning Sin, Advertence necessary for sin, Case (37), R. 2: "It can altogether happen that someone clings for a sufficiently long time to a thought of preceding delectation, before full advertence of mortal malice has in reality been present."

180. If the second, and the penitent has already at another time completed a general Confession, or for some notable time has been accustomed to approach Penance diligently and piously, let him impose on this person that he no longer think about past faults, nor say any more word about them, unless he can swear that he certainly perpetrated those mortal sins, and never laid them down in Confession. But if after a Confession duly made he returns, then let the confessor dismiss him unheard, commanding him to approach Communion. Thus St. Bernard conducted himself, who is said to have said to a certain priest who wished to abstain from the celebration of Mass because of scruples: Go and celebrate on my faith, and he was freed. Nor say: Would that he who speaks thus were another Bernard! "Whoever says this," says St. Antoninus from Gerson, "errs: for you have not committed yourself into the hands of a man because he is learned, because he is pious; but because he is placed over you."

181. If the third, let the confessor impose that he act freely and despise scruples; indeed that he operate against them as often as evident sin does not appear; because, generally speaking, these persons, because of reason disturbed by that excessive fear, think sin is present where it is not. Hence it is necessary to enjoin on them a precept that they overcome scruples, lest they become useless both to themselves and to others; and that afterwards they by no means accuse themselves in Confession concerning such actions. "For it is not necessary that a scruple be driven away speculatively, but practically, nor in such a way that it is not felt, but that it is not consented to through a determinate judgment." Suarez l. c., n. 4. In this matter it is to be noted that even if it can happen that they sometimes err materially by acting thus, nevertheless they will not sin formally by reason of the obedience which they render to the confessor; because then they do not obey man, but God saying: He who hears you, hears me, and he who despises you, despises me. Nor indeed "in moral matters is omnimodal certainty to be sought, and doubt, which perhaps in others would be reasonable, is to be judged as nothing in the scrupulous person." Suarez l. c., n. 6. - L. l. 1, n. 12, 19; La-Croix l. 1, n. 527 seqq.

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.

Scrupulosity or scrupulousness is a peculiar irregularity by which the conscience is led to exaggerate obligations or to regard harmless actions as sinful. A scrupulous man is harassed by groundless doubts and worries, which sometimes cause desperation or religious dementia.

Scrupulosity is often simulated by penitents for egoistic ends, e. g., to make a good impression on the confessor. A prudent confessor will therefore treat such cases with great caution, especially when women are involved. What appears to be a scrupulous conscience is sometimes mere hypocrisy, which, after the manner of the Pharisees, strains at gnats and swallows camels, i. e., pretends to worship the letter of the law without regard for its spirit, and loads down others with burdens which it declines to assume itself.¹ Such a conscience is called conscientia pharisaica, and is almost impossible to cure because it springs from that most tenacious of all vices, —pride.

¹ Cfr. Matth. XXIII, 2 sqq., 13 sqq.; John XVIII, 28.

A scrupulous conscience, on the other hand, can usually be cured by the timely application of suitable remedies.

a) The first step to take is to determine the cause. In the majority of cases the confessor will discover a pathological condition of either the body or the mind. The penitent must be enjoined under strict obedience to remove the cause of his scruples by applying the remedies suggested to him. There is no other cure because the victim of scrupulosity nearly always seeks the cause of his disorder outside himself. Where scruples are merely a trial of the soul, or a penalty for previously committed sins, or a test of virtue, they may be regarded as a disposition of Providence, and the penitent should be admonished to be patient, humbly put his trust in God, and use his affliction as a means of acquiring greater perfection.

If scrupulosity is the result of diabolical obsession and the confessor decides to perform an exorcism, he should not let the penitent know anything about it.

A second reason for enjoining strict obedience to the directions of the confessor is the inclination of scrupulous persons to reject the advice of others and obstinately adhere to their own notions. Such people need, and generally desire, a firm guide, and it is safe to say that a scrupulous penitent will never sin if he follows the advice of his confessor. For the same reason a prudent confessor should inexorably send a scrupulous penitent back to his former confessor, or, when this is impossible, accept him only on condition that he promises strict obedience, Priests do well to be lenient toward scrupulous penitents in all other things, but they should punish disobedience with firmness, even by denying absolution. b) The specific remedies indicated in each individual case must be applied after a careful consideration of all the symptoms. When a scrupulous person is haunted by temptations against purity, or by the fear of consenting to blasphemous thoughts, he should be instructed to accuse himself of such things only if he can make oath to the effect that he has consented. Men and women who have a tender conscience do not usually commit a grievous sin without being aware of the fact. Where scruples have reference to past confessions, they are generally caused by a false notion of the requirements of valid confession or by the apprehension of losing the right disposition at any moment. In such cases it may be advisable to instruct the penitent regarding the necessary requisites of confession. If a general confession is likely to afford relief, let it be suggested or permitted, on condition that the penitent confess no sins of his previous life, unless he is ready to take an oath that he actually committed and never confessed them before. As a rule scrupulous penitents should be dissuaded from brooding over or mentioning past sins. This is a wise rule to follow, because, even though something serious may occasionally be left out, the preservation of bodily and spiritual health is a higher duty than the material integrity of sacramental confession.

Another class of persons labor under the fear of committing a sin every time they act. These should be advised to disregard their apprehensions and to go ahead resolutely without trying to solve their doubts, because no one who earnestly strives to serve God is likely to commit a grave sin without being aware of the fact.

The rule bidding men to abstain from acting as long as their conscience is in a state of doubt, does not apply to the scrupulous. If it did, they would never act at all, as they are never free from doubt. Such persons should be taught to disregard the maxim, "In dubio pars tutior est sequenda," and they will rarely sin, except in a material sense, because they will not act against conscience, but merely against unreasonable fears and scruples.

Finally, scrupulous persons should be forbidden to repeat prayers, penances, etc., which they think they have performed imperfectly. Of course, where harm has resulted to another by an incomplete performance of duties, even the scrupulant can not be dispensed from repetition, e. g., if a scrupulous priest had mispronounced the formula of absolution, he would be bound to repeat the same. Usually, however, scrupulous persons only think they have erred in such cases, and since their doubts are unfounded, there is no obligation to repeat. E. Boyd Barrett, S. J., pleads “for a frank recognition of the fact that 'scruples' is a mere nerve disease, though concerned with facts of the moral order. The central interest of the pious man or woman,” he says, “is his state of soul. The obsession that grips his exhausted or weakened mind deals naturally with the chief interest of his life, religion, and hence the 'content' of the obsession of a pious person concerns sin.” (The New Psychology, N. Y. 1925, p. 118).

READINGS.—Thos. Slater, S.J., A Manual of Moral Theology, Vol. I, pp. 76 sqq.—IDEM, Questions of Moral Theology, New York 1915, pp. 329 sqq.—J. F. Delany in the Cath. Encyclopedia, Vol. III, pp. 640 sq.—Sabetti-Barrett, S.J., Compendium Theologiae Moralis, 27th ed., New York 1919, pp. 39 sqq.—De Lehen, S.J., The Way of Interior Peace, New York 1888, pp. 268 sqq.—A. Lehmkuhl, S.J., Theologia Moralis, 11th ed., Vol. I, pp. 76 sqq.—A. Konings, C.SS.R., Theologia Moralis, 2nd ed., Vol. I, New York 1876, pp. 19 sqq.—Fr. a Barbens, O. M. Cap., Introductio Pathologica in Studium Theol. Mor., Tarracona 1917, pp. 121 sqq.—Aug. Gemelli, O.F.M., De Scrupulis, Florence 1913.—A. Eymieu, Le Gouvernement de Soi-même, Essai de Psychologie Pratique, 2 vols., esp. Vol. II, Obsessions et Scrupules, Paris, 27th ed., 1922.—A. Poulain, S.J., The Graces of Interior Prayer, tr. by S. Yorke Smith, 2nd ed., London s. a., pp. 420 sqq.—N. Turco, Il Trattamento “Morale” dello Scrupolo e dell’ Ossessione Morbosa, 2 vols., Turin 1920.—L’Ange Conducteur des Ames Scrupuleuses ou Craintives, Bruges 1905.—E. Boyd Barrett, S.J., The New Psychology, N. Y. 1925, pp. 103 sqq.

V. Harmful effects of scruples. - The harmful effects are many, and very great temporal and spiritual damages can come from scruples to which consent is given, from whatever cause they arise. And indeed:

1. in bodily life, agitation and anxiety attenuate 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 rectitude of judgment; indeed they lead to insanity if they are universal, to monomania if they turn about one object;

3. in social life, they diminish consideration of the 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 attacking empty phantasms, negligence and inequality 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, dejection of soul, and desperation arise, which sometimes leads to suicide or unbridled lust.

VIII. A scrupulous conscience is not a rule of acting prudently, both because it is uncertain and because it is vincibly erroneous; but it is to be put aside, at least by a judgment from indirect principles handed down by the confessor, e.g., in the following manner: Whatever may be the case concerning the material liceity or illicitness of this action, it is certain that in such doubts one must obey the confessor; that I can and must act as the confessor said; that I can neglect my doubt or judgment; that by obeying I cannot sin, etc. But in the case such a doubt or such an apprehension is present. Therefore...⁷

⁷ You will find this proposed among theologians in various formulas. Thus, for example, Lessius: "Although I, as regards myself, would rather judge this to be sin, nevertheless because my confessor says the contrary, I can and will do this which he told me, since he is for me the interpreter of the divine will." And Reuter, o. c., n. 263, remedy 2: "Although I judge this to be sin, nevertheless because my judgment is fallible, and the confessor told me that this is licit for me, I can and will do what he told me must be done, and I am certain that I do well, because God wills that I obey him"; and remedy 7: "In rightly forming conscience there is no difficulty or danger. Only think: 1) that it is the will of God that I contemn scruples; theologians indicate this to me..., my confessor who bears the place of God; but by following the will of God I cannot sin, and if it should happen that I erred materially, this cannot be imputed, since I follow directors given by God. 2) Besides, by yielding to scruples I harm body and soul, I render myself inept for God's service and become burdensome to the neighbor: I will live in perpetual torture... God does not oblige me to these things. For what brings excessive difficulty is morally impossible, nor does God oblige to it... 3) What I see prudent and upright persons do or contemn as trifles, this is licit also for me; I see prudent and upright persons do this or contemn it as trifles; therefore, etc."

Hence, although to act against a scrupulous conscience is not licit, nevertheless one can act against scruples; indeed, lest he incur grave damage, sometimes he is bound to do so even under grave obligation. Not indeed if he remains in full doubt, for to act with a doubtful conscience is illicit, but provided that he in some way puts this aside and forms for himself a certain conscience, by judging, e.g., from the judgment of the confessor, that it is a scruple and by contemning it. For a scruple, because it is an empty apprehension of phantasy, does not render the doubt serious, and does not impede the judgment of conscience previously formed from being practically certain. Lessius, de Prud., c. 1, n. 2, is to the point:

"Prudence is not always able to exclude scruple totally. For this often perseveres with the judgment of prudence; nevertheless in order that then the judgment be prudent, it must be reputed a scruple, and thus prudence also in a certain way excludes the scruple. For although the imagination of sin perseveres with a certain anxiety, nevertheless through prudence it is reputed a shadow, not truth."

But one need not always actually remember the principles and rules handed down above and by them form for oneself an actual dictate concerning the honesty of the action, because this is often morally impossible for the scrupulous person. As St. Alphonsus says, Th. M., l. I, n. 19:

"Nor is there need that in each particular act he form this judgment... for it is enough that from the judgment once formed he act against the scruple; because on account of past experience that judgment exists virtually or habitually in his conscience, although obscured by darkness. Moreover while the scrupulous person operates in that confusion, often he does not operate with scruple or deliberate fear, for ordinarily he would not wish to omit what he knew to be pleasing to the divine will."

From this certain conclusions for practice can be noted with Fr. Vermeersch, Th. mor. I, n. 382:

1. After he has been admonished by the confessor concerning scruples, the consents which he says he has given, whether into an interior depraved suggestion, or into a purpose here and now of acting even if it is evil, or into a purpose of sinning, are to be ascribed to the phantastic order. For the scrupulous person imagines himself to say: I will this, or: thus I will do, whether it is good or evil, or I will sin and then expiate the sin by confession. But phantasy represented an assent of this kind to him, so that he seemed to himself as if to behold himself thus acting. Nevertheless, not otherwise than in a dream, he gave no free consent to those suggestions or purposes; and perhaps he made this use of the foreseen confession, that from it he might become more courageous for acting against scruples. Therefore for the scrupulous person who, e.g., from the counsel of the confessor, knows habitually that his doubts must be contemned by himself, it is lawful to act while the scruple remains. For that knowledge provides him a certain conscience...

2. It can happen that in the process of his doubts and little reasonings the scrupulous person labors for a long time, and is thus wearied and disturbed from the struggle, so that he rushes into the action in a blind manner: then he is deprived of true liberty necessary at least for sinning gravely.

3. Similarly, promises, vows, and blasphemies which some imagine they have often, indeed almost daily, made or said can be held as fictitious. Let the confessor simply refuse to hear or esteem these things.

4. Although the obligation of acting against scruples can be grave, since from them grave damage can be feared in spiritual progress, abandonment of spiritual exercises, desperation, suicide, or in nervous depression and health of body or mind, nevertheless the scrupulous person scarcely incurs subjective fault provided that with his infirm will he wishes to strive against scruples in general; indeed often it is not expedient to insist, lest a new disturbance and perplexity arise, and danger of desperation, which is especially to be feared in the sensitive.

127. Special principles to be used for directing the scrupulous are:

I. The scrupulous person cannot be ruled by his own judgment, because his reason is impotent for this; therefore nothing remains except that he be governed by the reason of another, for example, of a superior or confessor, who says: that he is scrupulous and in what matter,⁶ and that in that matter he can and ought to follow the judgment of the superior and cannot sin by obeying, unless he is wholly 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 everywhere he has evidence of obligation and sin, provided it is established that he is so scrupulous that his imagination forms for him the idea 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 lax. "From pusillanimity it follows that someone is withdrawn from works of the virtues on account of fear of sinning. Indeed sometimes, in order to avoid light sins, he is carried toward 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 accounted as nothing, and with a scrupulous conscience a lax conscience is nourished. Nothing strange, since they proceed from the same root, namely, from smallness and levity of soul; for example, it not rarely happens that one anxiously repeating the words of consecration does not care about the cleanness of the vessels or of the corporal, nor attend to other duties of his office." Thus 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 the regimen, and that he cannot impose such a rule, and that the obedience is illicit. And the scrupulous person can follow such a universal rule, as being wholly necessary to him for a healthy moral life, even if from it in a particular case error could follow, or material sin: that effect can be considered as accidental and legitimately permitted on account of a proportionate cause. For he has the right to employ efficacious means, and means honest in themselves, for being healed.

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

Let him not examine such doubts carefully in order to arrive at certitude: for he cannot arrive at this, and no one is held to what is useless. Whence it must be said to him that he may act freely, unless he is wholly 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 his imagination forms for him the idea that he is certain.

III. A positive obligation, namely of an affirmative precept, for example, of integrally confessing sins, examining conscience, saying the hours, making fraternal correction, does not oblige with great inconvenience, whence the scrupulous person can more easily be exempted from it.

128. Thesis. Scrupulous conscience is not the rule of acting prudently, but must be laid aside at least by a judgment formed from indirect principles handed down by a confessor.

It is proved: It is not a rule of acting because it is uncertain and vincibly erroneous.

But it can be laid aside from some reflex principle which has been indicated by the director of conscience or by the confessor; for example, in the following way:

"Whatever may be the case concerning the material liceity or illicitness of this action, it is certain to me that in such doubts the confessor must be obeyed; or: that I can and ought to act as the confessor has said; or: that I can neglect my doubt or judgment; or: that by obeying I cannot sin, etc.

"But, in the case, such a doubt or such an apprehension is present.

"Therefore, in the case, it is certain to me that I can and ought to act as the confessor has said, etc."

Hence, although it is not licit to act against a scrupulous conscience, nevertheless one can act against scruples; indeed, lest he incur grave damage, he is sometimes bound, even under grave obligation: not indeed if he remains in full doubt, for to act with a doubtful conscience is illicit; but provided he in some way lays aside the doubt and forms for himself a certain conscience, by judging, for example from the judgment of the confessor, that it is a scruple and by contemning it. For a scruple, because it is an empty apprehension of the imagination, does not render the doubt serious, and does not prevent the judgment of conscience previously formed from being practically certain. Lessius speaks to the point, de Prud., c. 1, n. 2:

"Prudence is not always able totally to exclude a scruple. For this often perseveres with the judgment of prudence; nevertheless, in order that the judgment then be prudent, it must be accounted a scruple, and thus prudence also in some way excludes the scruple. For although the imagination of sin perseveres with a certain anxiety, nevertheless through prudence it is accounted a shadow, not truth."

But one must not always actually remember the principles and rules handed down above, and from them form for oneself an actual dictate concerning the honesty of the action, because this is often morally impossible for the scrupulous person. As St. Alphonsus says, Th. M., l. I, n. 19:

"Nor is there need that in each particular act he form this judgment... for it is enough that he act against the scruple from the judgment once formed; because, on account of past experience, that judgment exists in his conscience virtually or habitually, although obscured by darkness. Moreover, while the scrupulous person acts in that confusion, he often does not act with a scruple or deliberate fear, for ordinarily he would not wish to omit what he knew to be pleasing to the divine will."

Hence for practice certain conclusions must be noted:⁷

⁷ Vermeersch, Th. M., I, n. 382.

1. After the scrupulous person has been warned concerning scruples, the consents which he says he has given are to be ascribed to the phantastic order, whether to a wicked interior suggestion, or to a purpose here and now of acting even if it is evil, or to a purpose of sinning. For the scrupulous person imagines himself to say: I will; or: thus I will do, whether it be good or evil; or: I will sin and then expiate the sin by confession. But the imagination represented to him an assent of this kind, so that he seemed to himself as it were to behold himself thus acting. Nevertheless, no otherwise than in a dream, he gave no free consent to those suggestions or purposes; but perhaps he made this use of foreseen confession, that thence he might become more courageous for acting against scruples. Therefore for the scrupulous person who, for example from the counsel of the confessor, knows habitually that his doubts are to be contemned, it is lawful to act while the scruple remains. For this knowledge gives him a certain conscience.

2. It can happen that in the process of his doubts and little reasons the scrupulous person labors for a long time, and is so wearied and disturbed from the struggle that he rushes blindly into the action: then he lacks the true liberty necessary, at least for sinning gravely.

3. Similarly, promises, vows, and blasphemies can be held as fictitious, which some persons dream they have often, indeed almost daily, made or said. The confessor should simply refuse to hear or weigh these things.

4. Although the obligation of acting against scruples can be grave, since from them grave damage can be feared in spiritual progress (abandonment of spiritual exercises, despair, suicide) or in nervous depression and the health of body or mind, nevertheless the scrupulous person scarcely incurs subjective fault, provided that with his infirm will he wishes to strive against scruples in general; indeed it is often not expedient to insist, lest a new disturbance and perplexity arise and the danger of despair, which is especially to be feared in sensitive persons.

129. A threefold class of the scrupulous is chiefly distinguished:

1. Some are distressed by wicked thoughts concerning faith, chastity, charity (for example, by a rash judgment or a feeling of aversion), or concerning future things to be done under condition, or by blasphemies internally uttered, to which they often fear they have assented.

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

2. Others are anxious concerning duties A. already fulfilled:

a) Either on account of the integrity or contrition of past confessions; to these, if at some time they have made a general confession, or for a notable time have diligently made their confessions, it must be imposed that they no longer think at all about all those things nor say 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 while they committed it it was mortal, and that certainly they had forgotten it. But if they do not at once affirm or swear, they are no longer to be heard; and even if they swear, they are not for that reason 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) Besides, those who suffer perpetual and grave anxieties concerning these things, on account of the great inconveniences of scruples, are excused from the material integrity of confession or of the hours, so that they are not bound to spend more time on the hours than upright persons are accustomed to spend, and they can omit the rest; indeed sometimes a part or the whole of the office could be prohibited to them, or a determinate space of time assigned, or the recitation suspended for a time.

B. Likewise the scrupulous are anxious concerning duties to be fulfilled:

a) Concerning the integrity or contrition of the confession to be made; upon these there must be imposed a moderate examination of conscience (or even the time of examination must be determined), an accusation concerning a few points or concerning exterior sins alone, and the simple recitation of the act of contrition.

b) Concerning fraternal correction; they must suppose themselves not bound to it unless they are wholly certain.

c) Concerning the intention of Mass, of the hours, of the sacrament, etc.; these cannot elicit any intention, but must begin absolutely and materially, and continue without hesitation and delay, without precipitation, strain of the head, or anxious solicitude: the very fear lest the intention has been lost or not renewed is a certain sign that the intention is present; - moreover, the intention of satisfying is not required, but of saying the office, hearing Mass, etc.; but it is as it were impossible that one using reason should 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 per accidens they would likely obtain grace.

In all these matters a moderate diligence must be employed.

3. Others fear sinning in almost every action.

Upon these it must be imposed: a) that they act freely, without deliberation and according to the first glance, despise scruples and act against them, where evident sin does not appear, indeed even against evidence, if they were so scrupulous that their imagination formed for them the idea that they had such evidence; -

b) and it must be commanded that they conquer scruples, lest they become insane or wholly useless for acting; -

c) and that they abstain in confession from accusing themselves of such actions: 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 some particular genus, the same holds for this genus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The principal causes of scruples are the following:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Martha, a devout woman, resolves to avoid all deliberate sins, even venial ones. She proceeds well for a certain space of time; afterward, however—either by divine permission, perhaps because of some petty vainglory, or by an impulse of the demon—she is oppressed by excessive anxiety. Then she thinks that she sins in almost every action, for she detects some disorder in her manner of walking or looking around, scandal to others in her clothing, some gluttony in eating, and something depraved in her thoughts, whether against charity or against chastity. Indeed, while she fights against scruples, she sometimes does what she believes to be mortal sin. She falls almost into despair, for she fears that because of her unfaithfulness God has abandoned her. Since the confessor sees that the scruples greatly harm the penitent, he never permits her to confess more than two sins, although he believes that for this reason the penitent sometimes omits mortal sins, and although the penitent says that she is in doubt whether she sins by omitting the rest and that consequently it is necessary for her to confess the others also, because in doubt it is not lawful to act against the law. Hence it is asked:

1. What are the signs of scrupulosity?

2. How in general are scrupulous persons to be treated by a confessor?

3. What is to be said concerning the case?

1. What are the signs of scrupulosity ?

The confessor should know how to distinguish a really scrupulous person from one who only says that he is scrupulous or wishes to appear so. With this end in view theologians give certain signs by which scrupulosity may be known. The definition of a scruple will help us. A scruple is an idle fear and consequent anxiety that there is sin where it does not exist. The first sign, then, of scrupulosity is a tendency to idle fears and irrational dread of committing sin by a harmless action. Such idle fears and dreads are well known to physicians, and they seem only to differ from mental delusions in that a scrupulous person knows the folly he is guilty of, while one who suffers from delusions does not. Another sign of scrupulosity is that sin becomes a bugbear and is seen everywhere. The scrupulous person is fickle and inconstant in his judgment and consequent action; in fact he loses his power of forming a sane judgment on the point on which he is scrupulous. In spite of this he finds it difficult to surrender himself to the guidance of another, and is obstinately self-willed. He seems bent on torturing himself, and for this purpose apparently he fixes upon trivial points in the case which only a perverse ingenuity could suppose to be of importance.

2. How, in general, are scrupulous people to be treated by the confessor ?

The confessor should first of all make sure that the case is one of scruples, and this he will be able to do by attending to the signs of scrupulosity. Then, as the cure of scruples takes time, it will be well for him to ask the penitent whether he is prepared to follow his advice and to come to him regularly for confession. If he agrees, the confessor should give him some general rules of conduct, such as, never to be idle, not to read rigoristic books or frequent the society of the scrupulous, to take care of his bodily health, to mortify his pride and cultivate a spirit of humble submission to God’s will. Then he will note in what precisely the penitent is scrupulous and teach him how to act against his scruples and gradually overcome them by forming contrary habits.

3. The case. Martha, a pious woman, made a resolution to avoid all deliberate sin, whether mortal or venial. As she was a pious woman we may suppose that she was not in the habit of falling into mortal sin. To aim at avoiding all deliberate venial sin is not indeed to aim at the impossible, but to attain it means a high degree of perfection which is not reached without great graces from God and long and faithful endeavor. It would have been better for Martha to take one step at a time and try to conquer her faults one by one. There was probably too much self-reliance, some spirit of pride, in her otherwise good resolve, and her indiscreet fervor caused her to fall a victim to scrupulosity, of which she exhibits one of the ordinary signs. She tries to fight against her scruples, and in doing this she sometimes does what she thinks is a mortal sin. We must suppose that her scrupulous conscience makes her think that she commits mortal sin against her own better judgment and the advice of her confessor. She should despise these apprehensions and boldly follow her confessor’s advice. Her case is desperate. The confessor should tell her to act freely, that it is foolish to fear sin as she does, and that sin can not be committed without freely consenting to something which is known to be bad. He is right in not allowing her to confess all that she wants to confess, and he may limit her to two sins or even to less, if he thinks it will benefit her. He may do this even though he knows that occasionally her confessions will not be integral, for scrupulosity sometimes excuses the penitent from integrity of confession. Even though Martha says that she doubts whether she is not committing mortal sin by not making an integral confession, the confessor must be firm, and tell her that she is safe in following the advice of her confessor. By degrees if she persists in not confessing and not thinking of her scruples and in acting against them, with the help of God she will recover her sanity.’

1 St. Alphonsus, book i, no. 13.