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Chain of Being
The name given to an ancient belief in an immutable order in creation, ranging from the highest spiritual levels to the lowest inanimate objects on earth. This chain, or hierarchy, of beings is visualized as stretching as it were from the Throne of God to the very center of the earth.
Developed as a philosophical idea by Plato, added to by Aristotle, elaborated by the Neo-Platonists, this has become a stock image underlying many philosophies and cosmological conceptions. Hell alone (because it had rebelled from the order of things) was not connected to this chain, yet the vision of Dante, resting as it did upon the redemptive thesis of theology, embraced even Hell in his view of the chain. At the bottom of the ladder is inanimate matter (i.e. dirt and rocks). At the top of the latter are immaterial, spiritual beings like the gods. Half way up the ladder are humans, which are half material and half immaterial spirit.
Also the Medieval thought as to where man fit in the universe. It was believed that people were born in their place and meant to stay there by God's will. Moving up or down on the chain was considered to be an affront to God's plan. Noblemen were supposed to accept their duty to God and country and act in a noble manner, just as peasants were not to seek to escape from their situation and reach above themselves in pursuit of a better life.
From Occultopedia
Other source The Great Chain of Being
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