Footnote 30
Part II, §4.  The ascendent at any given moment is that degree of the zodiac which is then seen upon the Eastern horizon.  Chaucer says that astrologers reckoned in also 5 degrees of the zodiac above, and 25 below; the object being to extend the planet's influence over a whole `house', which is a space of the same length as a sign, viz. 30°.  See §36 below.