Sentence:  The Angels in turn would exercise similar restraints in respect for the natural preferences and natures of the Earthmen - but they had no faintest notion of man 's perverse habit of passing and enforcing laws which <WSD>were</WSD> contrary to his own preferences and violations of his nature . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)