Guyon's Faint and the Elizabethan Soteriological Debate: Double Predestination in "The Faerie Queene, book 2, canto 8"

• Autores: Samuel R. Kessler
• Localización: Sixteenth century journal: the journal of Early Modern Studies, ISSN 0361-0160, Nº. 1, 2012, págs. 19-46
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Taking its cue from the language and plot of book 2, canto 8, of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, this article considers Guyon's faint and Arthur's battle with Pyrochles and Cymochles in the light of the soteriological debate surrounding predestination in England, which bwegan as early as the 1570s and increasingly claimed the nation's attention into the 1590s and beyond. Against this backdrop, and by adducing contemporary printed works to suggest a framework for the various theological statements and biblical resonances in Spenser's poem, this article interprets the narrative in canto 8 as an allegory of double predestination, namely, Pyrochles's reprobation and Guyon's election. Then briefly considering this reading in the wider context of book 2, the article identifies the regenerative grace of canto 8 as just one of many graces with which Guyon is presented in the Legend of Tempreance, and it positions these findings within the spectrum of recent scholarship on Spenser and theology.