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Elizabethan World View

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The Elizabethan World View and the Great Chain of Being

The Elizabethan world view and the great chain of being happened from approximately 1558 to 1603. This era was full of different view points and ideas being reused from different times, as well as great writers. At this time Queen Elizabeth was on the throne, and during her reign the arts and sciences thrived. This period was also the end of the Renaissance, bringing the industrious revolution, and in the United Kingdom, the Jacobean era.

During the Elizabethan era there were many psychological beliefs; for example, the divine right of kings, the signs of the zodiac, the four elements and humors, and the great chain of being. The divine right of kings stated that kings were closest to god by the chain of being, giving kings monarchical absolutism1. This theory was most likely founded from the old testament where it says that “God removes kings and sets them up2.” The signs of the zodiac were very similar in Elizabethan …show more content…

Later around 230 A.D Plotinus systemized the idea and it became what it is known as today; ‘the great chain of being.’ In the chain there was the basic chain and a ranking inside each part. The bottom of the chain was of course, nothingness. This was followed by rocks and minerals, where geological primates like marble were at the bottom; followed by metallic primates like gold; followed by Lapidarian primates like diamond. After minerals came plants, where at the bottom was fungus, and at the top were trees. Next came animals with muscles like barnacles at the bottom then insects, amphibians, reptiles water animals, avian animals, and at the very top mammals. Then came humans, here the more money and land you owned the higher up the ranking you were the. Next came angelic beings and finally the very top was

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