Order and chaos

The Renaissance worldview was firmly based on the Christian worldview that was promoted by the Church. This worldview is often referred to as the Great Chain of Being. All of creation was placed into a chain. At the top of the chain was God, the Creator. Going down the chain, you would first find the angels, then human beings, then animals, then plants and at the bottom: the lifeless matter. The whole universe was structured according to this hierarchy. This hierarchy created order and rest. Everything and everyone had its fixed place in this order. Order was everywhere, in nature, in the heavens (there were nine ranks of angels) in the seasons and also in society. Many people believed that when this order was interrupted, there would be chaos.

In Shakespeare’s play Troilus and Cressida, there is a famous speech about this order (also called: degree): The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre, Observe degree, priority, and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Office, and custom, in all line of order; […] But when the planets In evil mixture to disorder wander, What plagues and what portents, what mutiny, What raging of the sea, shaking of earth, Commotion in the winds! Frights, changes, horrors, Divert and crack, rend and deracinate, The unity and married calm of states Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is shak'd, Which is the ladder of all high designs, The enterprise is sick! How could communities, Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities, Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, The primogenity and due of birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, But by degree, stand in authentic place? Take but degree away, untune that string, And hark what discord follows! (1.3.85-127)