Editing The Faerie Queene (section)

===Theological structure===
[[File:Florimell saved by Proteus (Crane, 1895-1897).jpg|thumb|''Florimell saved by Proteus'' by [[Walter Crane]], from book III, Part VII of an 1895–1897 edition]]

In Elizabethan England, no subject was more familiar to writers than theology. Elizabethans learned to embrace religious studies in petty school, where they "read from selections from the Book of Common Prayer and memorized Catechisms from the Scriptures".{{sfn|Whitaker|1952|p=151}} This influence is evident in Spenser's text, as demonstrated in the moral allegory of Book I. Here, allegory is organized in the traditional arrangement of Renaissance theological treatises and confessionals. While reading Book I, audiences first encounter original sin, justification and the nature of sin before analysing the church and the sacraments.{{sfn|Whitaker|1952|p=153}} Despite this pattern, Book I is not a theological treatise; within the text, "moral and historical allegories intermingle" and the reader encounters elements of romance.{{sfn|Whitaker|1952|p=154}} However, Spenser's method is not "a rigorous and unyielding allegory", but "a compromise among conflicting elements".{{sfn|Whitaker|1952|p=154}} In Book I of ''The Faerie Queene'' the discussion of the path to salvation begins with original sin and justification, skipping past initial matters of God, the Creeds, and Adam's fall from grace.{{sfn|Whitaker|1952|p=154}} This literary decision is pivotal because these doctrines "center the fundamental theological controversies of the Reformation".{{sfn|Whitaker|1952|p=154}}