The Sleepwalkers (43 page)

The
medieval
universe,
as
a
modern
scholar
remarked,
is
thus
not
really
geocentric,
but
"diabolocentric".
⁶
Its
centre,
once
the
Hearth
of
Zeus,
is
now
occupied
by
Hell.
In
spite
of
the
continuous
nature
of
the
chain,
the
earth,
compared
to
the
incorruptible
heavens,
still
occupies
the
lowest
place,
described
by
Montaigne
as
"the
filth
and
mire
of
the
world,
the
worst,
lowest,
most
lifeless
part
of
the
universe,
the
bottom
storey
of
the
house".
⁷
In
a
similar
vein
his
contemporary,
Spenser,
bemoans
the
sway
of
the
Goddess
Mutability
over
the
earth,
which
makes
him:

Loathe
this
state
of
life
so
tickle
And
love
of
things
so
vain
to
cast
away;
Whose
flow'ring
pride,
so
fading
and
so
fickle,
–
Short
time
shall
soon
cut
down
with
his
consuming
sickle.
⁸

The
extraordinary
power
of
this
medieval
vision
of
the
universe
is
illustrated
by
the
fact
that
it
had
the
same,
undiminished
hold
on
the
imagination
of
the
Elizabethan
poets
at
the
turn
of
the
sixteenth
century,
as
it
had
on
Dante's
at
the
turn
of
the
thirteenth;
and
it
is
still
echoed,
in
a
famous
passage
by
Pope,
in
the
nineteenth.
The
concluding
half
of
the
quotation
provides
a
clue
to
the
understanding
of
the
great
stability
of
the
system:

Vast
chain
of
being!
which
from
God
began,
Natures
aethereal,
human,
angel,
man,
Beast,
bird,
fish,
insect
...
...
from
Infinite
to
thee,
From
thee
to
nothing.
–
On
superior
pow'rs
Were
we
to
press,
inferior
might
on
ours;
Or
in
the
full
creation
leave
a
void,
Where,
one
step
broken,
the
great
scale's
destroy'd;
From
Nature's
chain
whatever
link
you
strike,
Tenth,
or
ten
thousandth,
breaks
the
chain
alike.
⁹

The
consequence
of
such
a
break
would
be
disintegration
of
the
cosmic
order.
The
same
moral,
the
same
warning
of
the
catastrophic
consequences
of
any
change,
however
small,
in
the
rigid,
graded
hierarchy,
of
any
disturbance
in
the
fixed
order
of
things,
returns,
as
a
leitmotif,
in
Ulysses's
speech
in
"Troilus
and
Cressida"
and
in
countless
other
places.
The
secret
of
the
medieval
universe
is
that
it
is
static,
immune
against
change;
that
every
item
in
the
cosmic
inventory
has
its
permanent
place
and
rank
assigned
to
it
on
a
rung
of
the
ladder.
It
reminds
one
of
the
pecking
hierarchy
in
a
henyard.
There
is
no
evolution
of
biological
species,
and
no
social
progress;
no
traffic
moves
up
or
down
the
ladder.
Man
may
aspire
to
a
higher
life
or
condemn
himself
to
an
even
lower
one;
but
he
will
only
move
up
or
down
the
ladder
after
his
death;
while
he
is
in
this
world,
his
preordained
rank
and
place
cannot
be
altered.
Thus
blessed
immutability
is
made
to
prevail
even
in
the
lowly
world
of
mutability
and
corruption.
The
social
order
is
part
of
the
chain,
the
part
which
connects
the
hierarchy
of
angels
with
the
hierarchy
of
animal,
vegetable
and
mineral.
To
quote
another
Elizabethan,
Raleigh
–
in
straight
prose
for
a
change:

"Shall
we
therefore
value
honour
and
riches
at
nothing
and
neglect
them
as
unnecessary
and
vain?
Certainly
not.
For
that
infinite
wisdom
of
God,
which
hath
distinguished
his
angels
by
degrees,
which
hath
given
greater
and
less
light
and
beauty
to
heavenly
bodies,
which
hath
made
differences
between
beasts
and
birds,
created
the
eagle
and
the
fly,
the
cedar
and
the
shrub,
and
among
stones
given
the
fairest
tincture
to
the
ruby
and
the
quickest
light
to
the
diamond,
hath
also
ordained
kings,
dukes
or
leaders
of
the
people,
magistrates,
judges,
and
other
degrees
among
men."
¹⁰

Not
only
Kings
and
Barons,
Knights
and
Squires,
have
their
fixed
place
in
the
cosmic
hierarchy;
the
Chain
of
Being
runs
even
through
the
kitchen:

"Who
is
to
take
the
chief
cook's
place
in
case
he
is
absent:
the
spit-master
or
the
soup-master?
Why
do
the
breadbearers
and
cup-bearers
form
the
first
and
second
ranks,
above
carvers
and
cooks?
–
Because
they
are
in
charge
of
bread
and
wine,
to
which
the
sanctity
of
the
sacrament
gives
a
holy
character."
¹¹