an irrational animal; so that even as an ox or a
horse belongs to someone who, according to the civil law, can use
them when he likes, as his own instrument, so, according to the
natural law, a son, before coming to the use of reason, is under his
father's care. Hence it would be contrary to natural justice, if a
child, before coming to the use of reason, were to be taken away from
its parents' custody, or anything done to it against its parents'
wish. As soon, however, as it begins to have the use of its
free-will, it begins to belong to itself, and is able to look after
itself, in matters concerning the Divine or the natural law, and then
it should be induced, not by compulsion but by persuasion, to embrace
the faith: it can then consent to the faith, and be baptized, even
against its parents' wish; but not before it comes to the use of
reason. Hence it is said of the children of the fathers of old that
they were saved in the faith of their parents; whereby we are given
to understand that it is the parents' duty to look after the
salvation of their children, especially before they come to the use
of reason.

Reply Obj. 1: In the marriage bond, both husband and wife have the
use of the free-will, and each can assent to the faith without the
other's consent. But this does not apply to a child before it comes
to the use of reason: yet the comparison holds good after the child
has come to the use of reason, if it is willing to be converted.

Reply Obj. 2: No one should be snatched from natural death against
the order of civil law: for instance, if a man were condemned by the
judge to temporal death, nobody ought to rescue him by violence:
hence no one ought to break the order of the natural law, whereby a
child is in the custody of its father, in order to rescue it from
the danger of everlasting death.

Reply Obj. 3: Jews are bondsmen of princes by civil bondage, which
does not exclude the order of natural or Divine law.

Reply Obj. 4: Man is directed to God by his reason, whereby he can
know Him. Hence a child before coming to the use of reason, in the
natural order of things, is directed to God by its parents' reason,
under whose care it lies by nature: and it is for them to dispose
of the child in all matters relating to God.

Reply Obj. 5: The peril that ensues from the omission of preaching,
threatens only those who are entrusted with the duty of preaching.
Hence it had already been said (Ezech. 3:17): "I have