Ah, the Church Militant! Two thoughts, which of course could be late-night and
post-airplane fantasy: first, I have become more and more convinced that
Spenser knew and was in part shaped by Erasmus' Enchiridion and Archimago's
taking over the Pauline armor for me seems a general parody, of course, but
also a perversion of the knighthood that Erasmus so compellingly describes.
It's as though You opened up Durer's knight and found that wonderful devil
wasn't on the path threatening him but actually inside the armor. Second,
hadn't Ignatius been a soldier? I may be making that up, but I do know that
Jesuits have sometimes been called the Pope's army. Anne Prescott.
>===== Original Message From Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
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>Hello! I'm suddenly wondering about thesources and cultural-historical
>resonance of Archimago's impersonation of RCK, in particular his dressing as
>(transforming into?) a knight ; provided we read Arch. as a priestly figure
>or --better-- as a monk or friar, does anyone know of contemporary European
>historical or past and present fictional characters with distinctly
>ecclesiastical (Catholic or Prot or even Judaic and Muslim) establishment
>identities who dress as warriors? Including, perhaps, images of an armored
>Pope? I understand that Arch. is impersonating the One True Faith wrapped
>in its Paul-to-Ephesians spiritual armor, thus is a covert-recusant Catholic
>with all that implied politically in 1580's England, but is there another
>reference here?
>
>--Tom Herron
>
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anne prescott
english, barnard college
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