CHAPTER IV: On the Mutual Obligations of Inferiors and Superiors

Encyclical Rerum novarum (ed. Herder), p. 28; authors cited at the beginning; Biederlack, Die soz. Fr., p. 154; Willems, III, p. 415 seqq.; Cathrein, Moralphil., II, p. 436 seqq.; Burg, Vie sociale des nat. mod., p. 437; Koch, Moraltheol., 2160, 167; Schindler, Moraltheol., II, 714, 761 seqq.; Forster, Schule u. Character.

The duties which are proper either to inferiors or to Superiors, some arise from justice, from the contract of hiring work, and are positive; others from observance which is to be given to personal dignity, and are rather completive and negative, insofar as it is licit to attempt nothing against this superiority. Concerning the former there will be treatment below (n. 1153); concerning the latter there was discussion when we were speaking of the virtue of observance (cf. n. 689). It remains that we here add a few things: 1. concerning the mutual obligations of servants and masters; 2. concerning the obligations of disciples and teachers toward each other.

As regards the duties of parish priests and of those who bear a public office, see n. 2250, 2265, 2282 seqq.