the human acts in which the bird is associated in the poem: the Christian greeting; the friendly, trusting response of the Albatross; the sharing of food; the play between bird and crew. The Mariner's crime is a crime against the most precious qualities of humanity. Clearly, the most noticeable elements of religious faith in the poem are those of Medieval Catholicism: the Virgin Mary, the petitions to saints, and the practices of confession and absolution. But the poem is filled with religious ideas and religious feeling in a much larger sense. There are demons and spirits, representations of religious consciousness in a much too primitive sense to be circumscribed within the bounds of any one denominational framework. In this regard, I find it to be remarkable that when Coleridge talks about the moral in the poem (Lowes 150), he does so not with reference to Medieval Catholicism nor to Biblical Faith nor to Protestant Christianity, but, rather, with reference to a story in the Arabian Nights, hardly a religious story in any orthodox sense. In writing the poem, Coleridge does not stop being what he is as a person with ideas and attitudes. The basic theology in the poem, the pervading theological understanding underneath the trappings of MedievalCatholicism, is that of the Protestant Reformation generally and that of John Calvin more particularly (however, one may take Calvinistic theology and with certain clever, though ultimately dishonest, maneuvers turn it into a Greek scheme of Fate). The world in which the Mariner has lived during the experiences that his story is about is more a nightmare world than it isn't. But, then, whenever the Sovereignty of God, the God to Whom the Biblical Scriptures make testimony, is made ultimate and man's will is in all things made subject to His Will, any world can become a nightmare world, and usually does. This is why the moral "tag" in the last Part of the poem is in line with the business ...
