Elizabethan England - The Great Chain of Being

The great chain of being was a Christian concept whose major premise was that every existing object in the universe had its place in a planned hierarchical order. Such an object’s place depended on its relative proportion of ‘spirit’ and ‘matter’. If an object contained less spirit and more matter, the lower on the order it stood. At the bottom of this scale stood various kinds of inanimate objects, such as metals, stones, and the four elements (water, fire, earth, and air). They would fall under the minerals category, creations of the Earth that lacked the plant’s ability to grow and reproduce. Minerals also lacked mental and sensory attributes and organs found in beings higher on the Chain. Nevertheless, there were considerations of unique ‘gifts’ that minerals were deemed to possess unusual solidity and strength. In fact, many minerals were thought to possess magical powers, particularly gems. Within the mineral category, diamond is considered primate.
The next group that stood above the minerals on the great chain of being were plants. Plants, alike other living creatures, possessed the ability to grow in size and reproduce. However, just like the minerals, they lacked mental attributes and had no sensory organs. Instead, their gift was photosynthesis, however such a phenomenon was poorly understood in the Elizabethan era, hence the phenomenon was determined to be the ability to ‘eat’ soil, air, and heat. Plants were considered to have greater tolerances for different temperature ranges, and an immunity to certain pain that impacts most animals. Each plant is thought to be gifted with various edible or medical virtues unique to its own type. At the very bottom within its own category was fungus and moss, lacking leaf and blossom, and was so limited in form that Renaissance thinkers thought that they were barely above the mineral category in the order. The primate of this category was the oak tree, and other objects that fell under this category include