departs this life, he delegates and confers his authority and
government upon others who are appointed for the purpose. Likewise, he
must have domestics, man-servants and maid-servants, under himself for
the management of the household, so that all whom we call masters are
in the place of parents and must derive their power and authority to
govern from them. Hence also they are all called fathers in the
Scriptures, as those who in their government perform the functions of a
father, and should have a paternal heart toward their subordinates. As
also from antiquity the Romans and other nations called the masters and
mistresses of the household patres- et matresfamiliae that is,
housefathers and housemothers. So also they called their national
rulers and overlords patres patriae, that is fathers of the entire
country, for a great shame to us who would be Christians that we do not
likewise call them so, or, at least do not esteem and honor them as
such.

Now, what a child owes to father and mother, the same owe all who are
embraced in the household. Therefore man-servants and maid-servants
should be careful not only to be obedient to their masters and
mistresses but also to honor them as their own fathers and mothers, and
to do everything which they know is expected of them, not from
compulsion and with reluctance, but with pleasure and joy for the cause
just mentioned, namely that it is God's command and is pleasing to Him
above all other works. Therefore they ought rather to pay wages in
addition and be glad that they may obtain masters and mistresses to
have such joyful consciences and to know how they may do truly golden
works; a matter which has hitherto been neglected and despised, when,
instead, everybody ran in the devil's name, into convents or to
pilgrimages and indulgences, with loss [of time and money] and with an
evil conscience.