Along with most commentators, I interpret Una as the Church. Unlike most, however, I understand that Church not as the English Church of Spenser's day (which, needless to say, incorporated nearly all of Elizabeth's subjects), but as the community of the redeemed. This latter community was understood to exist not only within the English Church, but also beyond it. As explained by Robert Nowell in his Catechism of 1570, the visible Church (whose claim to be a Church derives from its “sincere preaching of the gospel,” and its “invocation and administration of the sacraments”) is liable to include hypocrites among its members. It is thus to be distinguished from the invisible Church, which is constituted of “the number of the elect to everlasting life.” The latter, as implied by Nowell's generalized definition of the visible Church and the very concept of an “invisible” body, were not necessarily confined to the Church in England.

The redeemed are, by definition (and here I am adopting the phrasing of one of the Elizabethan Homilies) “partakers of [Christ's] heavenly light.” That Una does indeed “partake of “ divinity is implied by the abstractions that Spenser uses almost as alternatives for her name.