Spenser And Religion—Yet Again

This essay argues that scholars have invariably misrepresented Spenser's religious views by concentrating only on his doctrinal and confessional allegiances. Spenser's religion needs to be seen as a response to the Reformation and the realization that marriage was now the institution in which everyone had to live. Using the work of John Calvin in particular, the essay argues that the first edition of The Faerie Queene charts the transformation of religious values after the Reformation, showing that Holiness could no longer be seen as a virtue isolated from all others, a realization that, as the poem demonstrates, had far-reaching consequences.