power is act. Power is thus said to be perfect according to the action it engenders. Aquinas explains this by noting that there are two kinds of power, the power in reference to being and the power in reference to act. Aquinas divides the essence of the human being into body and soul, into the body that man has in common with other animals and the soul which includes the rational forces that are peculiar to man. Human virtue is something that the animals cannot possess, and therefore it belongs to the soul and not to the body. Human virtue thus does not refer to being but to act, and human virtue is thus an operative habit.
In the Middle Ages, the concept of the state as a secular entity was developing, and this was matched by a period of Church resurgence as the spheres of the Church and the state began to pull apart. The earlier view had been that the state had at its center something unholy, human sin, and so at best it was seen as a necessary evil. Now, the view returned to that of St. Paul, who saw the state as an insti
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