The Faerie Queene Religion Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Book, canto, stanza

Quote #7

By [Concord] the heauen is in his course contained,/ And all the world in state vnmoued stands,/ As their Almightie maker first ordained,/ And bound them with inuiolable bands. (IV.x.35)

Satyrane describes his almost visionary experience in the Temple of Venus, where Venus is no longer associated solely with love and lovers, but with religious power over the universe and heaven.

Quote #8

[People] liue, they die, like as [God] doth ordaine,/ Ne euer any asketh reason why/ The hils doe not the lowly dales disdaine;/ The dales doe not the lofty hils enuy./ He maketh Kings to sit in souerainty;/ He maketh subiects to their powre obay. (V.ii.41)

Debating with the (pretty socialist) Giant with the Scales, Arthegall appeals to God and religious authority as justification for the inequality in the world.

Quote #9

Well therefore did the antique world inuent,/ That Iustice was a God of soueraine grace… Calling him great Osyris, of the race/ Of th'old Ægyptian Kings, that whylome were;/ With fayned colours shading a true case. (V.vii.2)

In the Temple of Isis, where Britomart goes to receive a vision of her future, we see a vision of non-Christian, pagan religion, like the religion of ancient Egypt, in which Christian values like justice can be expressed even in non-Christian religious terms.