The scholars E. M. W. Tillyard and A. O. Lovejoy argued that the medieval and Renaissance world inherited a special worldview, the idea of a hierarchical universe ordained by God. "The Chain of Being" describes this medieval and Renaissance structure as an interconnected web of greater and lesser links. Each link in the Chain was an individual species of being, creature, or object. Those links higher on the Chain possessed greater intellect, mobility, and capability than those lower on the Chain. Accordingly, the higher links had more authority over the lower. For instance, plants only had authority and ability to rule over minerals. Being superior in quality to inert rock and soil, the plants had divine sanction to draw sustenance from them, and grow upon them, while the minerals and soil supported them. Animals--higher on the Chain of Being--were thought to have natural authority over both inanimate plants and minerals. For instance, horses could trample the rocks and earth; they could also eat plants. Humans in turn were thought to possess greater attributes than other animals, and could rule over the rest of the natural world, uprooting weeds and planting gardens, digging up metals and shaping them into tools, and so on. Likewise, spiritual beings like angels and God had greater ability than man, and could rule over and control humanity as well as the rest of the animals and the inanimate world.
The unifying principle holding the Chain together was either (1) rational order, as suggested in earlier classical literature like passages in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and (2) divine love, as evidenced in later Enlightenment writings like Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man. Every being in creation was thought to have its place within this Chain, which entailed a certain degree of authority and a certain degree of responsibility to the rest of the Chain. As long as each being knew its place and did its destined duty for the rest of the Chain, all would be well.
