The master of the house, actually or
virtually, enters into contract with the children, now become major
and masters of themselves; or, if there be no children in the
family, with other free persons constituting the membership of the
household; and thus there is established domestic relationship not
founded on social equality, but such that one commands as master,
and another obeys as servant (imperantis et subjecti domestici).
The domestics or servants may then be regarded by the master of
the household as thus far his. As regards the form or mode of his
possession of them, they belong to him as if by a real right; for if
any of them run away, he is entitled to bring them again under his
power by a unilateral act of his will. But as regards the matter of
his right, or the use he is entitled to make of such persons as his
domestics, he is not entitled to conduct himself towards them as if he
was their proprietor or owner (dominus servi); because they are only
subjected to his power by contract, and by a contract under certain
definite restrictions. For a contract by which the one party renounced
his whole freedom for the advantage of the other, ceasing thereby to
be a person and consequently having no duty even to observe a
contract, is self contradictory, and is therefore of itself null and
void.
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