Editing Great chain of being (section)

== Divisions ==
The chain of being hierarchy has God at the top,<ref>{{cite book |last=Lovejoy |first=Arthur O. |author-link=Arthur Lovejoy |title=The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea |date=1936 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |page=60 |isbn=978-0-674-36153-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/greatchainofbein0000love_b9m4/page/60/mode/2up}}</ref> above angels, which like him are entirely [[Spirit (animating force)|spirit]], without material bodies, and hence [[immutability (theology)|unchangeable]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lovejoy |first1=Arthur O. |author-link=Arthur Lovejoy |title=The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea |date=1936 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |page=80 |isbn=978-0-674-36153-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/greatchainofbein0000love_b9m4/page/60/mode/2up}}</ref> Beneath them are humans, consisting both of spirit and matter; they change and die, and are thus essentially impermanent.{{sfn|Tillyard|1943|p=26}} Lower are animals and plants. At the bottom are the mineral materials of the earth itself; they consist only of matter. Thus, the higher the being is in the chain, the more attributes it has, including all the attributes of the beings below it.{{sfn|Tillyard|1943|pp=25–26}} The minerals are, in the medieval mind, a possible exception to the [[immutability (theology)|immutability]] of the material beings in the chain, as [[alchemy]] promised to turn lower elements like [[lead]] into those higher up the chain, like [[silver]] or [[gold]].{{sfn|Tillyard|1943|p=59}}