Book Fourth. On the Fourth Precept of the Decalogue

¹ "Honor thy father and thy mother."

Ex. 20:12.

This precept, insofar as it is affirmative, directly commands that due worship be shown to parents; but indirectly it also commands those things to which parents are bound toward their children. And insofar as it is negative, it forbids that the same parents be affected by irreverence or injury. By the name of parents come not only carnal parents, who properly are so called, but also all other superiors, both spiritual and secular, who improperly are called parents, because they are in some way participants of paternal dignity and authority.

The fourth precept, which orders and determines relation toward other men, and those superiors who are for us the principle of life and governance, prescribes the social obligations which belong to man insofar as he is a member of a twofold society, namely the family and the state. In fulfilling these obligations he chiefly exercises the virtue of piety. This virtue, since it shows worship to those who are for us the principle of life, has obtained the promise of life: "Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest be long-lived upon the earth."²

¹ St. Thomas, II-II, q. 101-105. St. Alphonsus, l. 2, n. 333-355. Lessius, De iustitia, l. 2, c. 46. Sporer-Bierbaum, Theologia moralis decalog., I, tract. 3, n. 612-690. Ballerini-Palmieri, Opus theol. mor.^3, II, n. 815-847. Genicot, Theologiae moralis instit.^6, I, n. 345-359.

² Ex. 20:12; Eph. 6:2 s.