The Sleepwalkers (42 page)

The
emanation-theory
was
put
into
a
more
specifically
Christian
shape
in
The
Celestial
Hierarchy
and
The
Ecclesiastical
Hierarchy
by
the
second
most
influential
among
the
Neoplatonists,
known
as
the
Pseudo-Dionysius.
He
lived
probably
in
the
fifth
century,
and
perpetrated
the
most
successful
pious
hoax
in
religious
history
by
pretending
that
the
author
of
his
works
was
Dionysius
Areopagite,
the
Athenian
mentioned
in
Acts
XVII,
34,
as
a
convert
of
St.
Paul's.
He
was
translated
into
Latin
in
the
ninth
century
by
John
the
Scot,
and
from
then
on
exerted
an
immense
influence
on
medieval
thought.
It
was
he
who
provided
the
upper
reaches
of
the
ladder
with
a
fixed
hierarchy
of
angels,
which
afterwards
were
attached
to
the
star
spheres
to
keep
them
in
motion:
the
Seraphim
turning
the
Primum
Mobile,
²
the
Cherubim
the
sphere
of
the
fixed
stars,
the
Thrones
the
sphere
of
Saturn;
the
Dominations,
Virtues,
and
Powers
the
spheres
of
Jupiter,
Mars,
and
the
sun;
the
Principalities
and
Archangels
the
spheres
of
Venus
and
Mercury,
while
the
lower
Angels
look
after
the
moon.
³

If
the
upper
half
of
the
ladder
was
Platonic
in
origin,
the
lower
rungs
were
provided
by
Aristotelian
biology,
which
was
rediscovered
around
A.D.
1200.
Particularly
important
became
his
"principle
of
continuity"
between
apparently
divided
realms
of
nature:

"Nature
passes
so
gradually
from
the
inanimate
to
the
animate
that
their
continuity
renders
the
boundary
between
them
indistinguishable;
and
there
is
a
middle
kind
that
belongs
to
both
orders.
For
plants
come
immediately
after
inanimate
things;
and
plants
differ
from
one
another
in
the
degree
in
which
they
appear
to
participate
in
life.
For
the
class
taken
as
a
whole
seems,
in
comparison
with
other
bodies,
to
be
clearly
animate;
but
compared
with
animals
to
be
inanimate.
And
the
transition
from
plants
to
animals
is
continuous;
for
one
might
question
whether
some
marine
forms
are
animals
or
plants,
since
many
of
them
are
attached
to
the
rock
and
perish
if
they
are
separated
from
it."
⁴

The
"principle
of
continuity"
made
it
not
only
possible
to
arrange
all
living
beings
into
a
hierarchy
according
to
criteria
such
as
"degrees
of
perfection",
"powers
of
soul"
or
"realization
of
potentialities"
(which,
of
course,
were
never
exactly
defined).
It
also
made
it
possible
to
connect
the
two
halves
of
the
chain
–
the
sub-lunary
and
the
celestial
–
into
a
single,
continuous
one,
without
denying
the
essential
difference
between
them.
The
connecting
link
was
found,
by
St.
Thomas
Aquinas,
in
the
dual
nature
of
man.
In
the
continuity
of
all
that
exists,
"the
lowest
member
of
the
higher
genus
is
always
found
to
border
upon
the
highest
member
of
the
lower
genus";
this
is
true
of
the
zoophytes,
which
are
half
plant,
half
animal,
and
it
is
equally
true
of
man,
who
"has
in
equal
degree
the
characters
of
both
classes,
since
he
attains
to
the
lowest
member
of
the
class
above
bodies,
namely,
the
human
soul,
which
is
at
the
bottom
of
the
series
of
intellectual
beings
–
and
is
said,
therefore,
to
be
the
horizon
and
boundary
line
of
things
corporeal
and
incorporeal."
⁵

The
chain,
thus
unified,
now
reached
from
God's
throne
down
to
the
meanest
worm.
It
was
further
extended
downward
through
the
hierarchy
of
the
four
elements
into
inanimate
nature.
Where
no
obvious
clues
could
be
found
to
determine
an
object's
"degree
of
excellence",
astrology
and
alchemy
provided
the
answer
by
establishing
"correspondences"
and
"influences",
so
that
each
planet
became
associated
with
a
day
of
the
week,
a
metal,
a
colour,
a
stone,
a
plant,
defining
their
rank
in
the
hierarchy.
A
further
downward
extension
led
into
the
conic
cavity
in
the
earth,
around
whose
narrowing
slopes
the
nine
hierarchies
of
devils
were
arranged
in
circles,
duplicating
the
nine
heavenly
spheres;
Lucifer,
occupying
the
apex
of
the
cone
in
the
precise
centre
of
the
earth,
marked
the
bitter
end
of
the
chain.