ginal
possession. It became individual. It was inspired by a social endeavour,
and for the world at large it made of charity a new thing.

St Thomas Aquinas took up St Bernard's position. Renunciation of
property, voluntary poverty, was in his view also a necessary means of
reaching the perfect life; and the feeling that was akin to this
renunciation and prompted it was charity. "All perfection of the
Christian life was to be attained according to charity," and charity
united us to God.

In the system elaborated by St Thomas Aquinas two lines of thought are
wrought into a kind of harmony. The one stands for Aristotle and
nature, the other for Christian tradition and theology. We have thus a
duplicate theory of thought and action throughout, both rational and
theologic virtues, and a duplicate beatitude or state of happiness
correspondent to each. On the one hand it is argued that the good act
is an act which, in relation to its object, wholly serves its purpose;
and thus the measure of goodness (_Prima Secundae Summae Theolog. Q._
xviii. 2) is the proportion between action and effect. On the other
hand, the act has to satisfy the twofold law, human reason and eternal
reason. From the point of view of the former the cardinal factor is
desire, which, made proportionate to an end, is love (_amor_); and,
seeking the good of others, it loses its quality of concupiscence and
becomes friendly love (_amor amicitiae_). But this rational love
(_amor_) and charity (_caritas_), the theologic virtue, may meet. All
virtue or goodness is a degree of love (_amor_), if by virtue we mean
the cardinal virtues and refer to the rule of reason only. But there
are also theologic virtues, which are on one side "essential," on the
other side participative. As wood ignited participates in the natural
fire, so does the individual in these virtues (II. II.^ae lxii. l).
Charity is a kind of friendship towards God. It is received _per
infusionem spiritus sancti_, and is the chief and root of the
theologic virtues of faith and hope, and on it the rational virtues
depend. They are not degrees of charity as they are of (_amor_) love,
but charity gives purpose, order and quality to them all. In this
sense the word is applied to the rational virtues--as, for instance,
beneficence. The counterpart of charity in social life is pity
(_misericordia_), the compassion that moves us to supply another's