How servitude is discharged.
7. Servants immediate to the supreme master, are discharged of their servitude, or subjection, in the same manner that subjects are released of their allegiance in a commonwealth institutive. As first, by release. For he that captiveth, which is done by accepting what the captive transferreth to him, setteth again at liberty, by transferring back the same. And this kind of release is called manumission. Secondly, by exile. For that is no more but manumission given to a servant, not in the way of benefit, but punishment. Thirdly, by a new captivity, where the servant having done his endeavour to defend himself, hath thereby performed his covenant to his former master, and for the safety of his life, entering into new covenant with the conqueror, is bound to do his best endeavour to keep that likewise. Fourthly, ignorance of who is successor to his deceased master, dischargeth him of obedience: for no covenant holdeth longer than a man knoweth to whom he is to perform it. And lastly, that servant that is no longer trusted, but committed to his chains and custody, is thereby discharged of the obligation in foro interno, and therefore if he can get loose, may lawfully go his way.
The middle lord, &c.
8. But servants subordinate, though manumitted by their immediate lord, are not thereby discharged of their subjection to their lord paramount. For the immediate master hath no property in them, having transferred his right before to another, namely, to his own and supreme master. Nor if the chief lord should manumit his immediate servant, doth he thereby release his servants of their obligation to him that is so manumitted. For by this manumission, he recovereth again the absolute dominion he had over them before. For after a release, which is the discharge of a covenant, the right standeth as it did before the covenant was made.
The title of man, &c. over beasts.
9. This right of conquest, as it maketh one man master over another, so also maketh it a man to be master of the irrational creatures. For if a man in the state of nature be in hostility with men, and thereby have lawful title to subdue or kill, according as his own conscience and discretion shall suggest unto him for his safety and benefit, much more may he do the same to beasts; that is to say, save and preserve for his own service, according to his discretion, such as are of nature apt to obey, and commodious for use; and to kill and destroy, with perpetual war, all other, as fierce, and noisome to him. And this dominion is therefore of the law of nature, and not of the divine law positive. For if there had been no such right before the revealing of God’s will in the Scripture, then should no man, to whom the Scripture hath not come, have right to make use of those his creatures, either for his food or sustenance. And it were a hard condition of mankind, that a fierce and savage beast should with more right kill a man, than a man a beast.
CHAPTER IV.
[1.] The dominion over the child, &c. [2.] Pre-eminence of sex giveth not the child to the father, rather than to the mother. [3.] The title of the father or mother, &c. [4.] The child of a woman-servant, &c. [5.] The right to the child given from the mother, &c. [6.] The child of the concubine, &c. [7.] The child of the husband and the wife, &c. [8.] The father, or he or she that bringeth up the child, have absolute power over him. [9.] Freedom in subjects what it is. [10.] A great family is a patrimonial kingdom. [11.] Succession of the sovereign power, &c. [12.] Though the successor be not declared, yet there is always one to be presumed. [13.] The children preferred to the succession, &c. [14.] The males before the females. [15.] The eldest before the rest of the brothers. [16.] The brother next to the children. [17.] The succession of the possessor, &c.
The dominion over the child, &c.