1 / 12

The Great Chain of Being

Medieval metaphor illustrating hierarchy of being from God to the lowliest non-being Chain stretched from foot of God’s throne to the tiniest particle of sand: a place for everything, and everything in its place. The Great Chain of Being. Hierarchy.

wang-bradford
Download Presentation

The Great Chain of Being

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Medieval metaphor illustrating hierarchy of being from God to the lowliest non-being Chain stretched from foot of God’s throne to the tiniest particle of sand: a place for everything, and everything in its place The Great Chain of Being

  2. Hierarchy • Top of chain represents perfection—God, according to Medieval Christian thinking • Every living and unliving thing had its place, its role and its “natural” way of being

  3. Angels • Just below God • Had reason and spirit, but no body • With no body, did not die • Could fall by free will (so the devil was a fallen angel)

  4. Humanity in the Hierarchy • Just below the angels • Could aspire to greater perfection (angelic or god-like) • Had reason in common with angels • Had body (mortality), unlike angels; had feeling, understanding • Could fall to the level of beast (free will)

  5. Higher Sensitive Class • Below human (no reason; no soul) • Hierarchy within each subset: Highest mammal? Highest fish? Highest bird?

  6. Lower Sensitive class • Have life and feeling • Creatures having touch but no feeling or memory (parasites or shellfish, for example) • Creatures having movement but not hearing, such as ants

  7. Vegetative Class • Existence and life, but no feeling, understanding, movement

  8. Inanimate • Elements, liquids and metals • No sensation, but durable for centuries • Water higher than earth • Four elements: earth, air, fire, water

  9. Order and Chaos • So long as every member of every class followed its specialty, stayed within its realm, order reigned in a sort of cosmic dance • Which being would violate this order, do you suppose?

  10. Disruption • Once man disrupted the order through sin or crime… • This unnatural disturbance shook the chain and disrupted every other class, especially if the human was high in his class (king or prince)

  11. In the Meantime • Chaos-disorder-corruption is reflected in all other realms (spirits wandering; corruption; madness) • Order must be restored • Truth must be revealed

  12. William was sure to include Haley’s Comet in the Bayeux Tapestry to show that Harold had disrupted the chain of being.

More Related