The Cantebury Tales was Geoffrey Chaucer's Satire Towards the Catholic Church

·   "Why should he study and drive himself crazy, always poring over a book in his cloister, or work and slave with his hands as St. Augustine orders?" (Chaucer Pg. 4-Line 21)

Both the Pardoner and the Friar are portrayed as quick-thinking charlatans. Chaucer does seem to admire the Pardoner’s skill, and skilled he is, but his actions do not befit a man of the cloth. The Pardoner is spoken of as using bogus relics to con “poor up-country parsons” out of their hard-earned cash. These small hustles netted him “more in a day than the parson in a month or two”. When choosing his occupation, I’m sure the Pardoner did not see the light of the lord but rather, dollar signs. Chaucer goes on to say that yes, the pardoner did preach rather well and his stories were quite splendid, however that might be on account that he could “win money from the crowd”.

Greed and religion are two things you would not expect to intermingle, and yet Chaucer is able to develop a greedy religious character known as the Pardoner. There are many religious characters in The Canterbury Tales besides the Pardoner including the Prioress, the Monk, the Friar, and the Parson. Each character carries their own good and bad characteristics, but the Pardoner is obviously greedy. This character brings into question the greediness of the Church and Chaucer’s views. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer explores the theme of greed in relation to religion through The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale. Despite his religious position, the Pardoner will demonstrate his greed by outlining the tricks he often plays on his listeners through his prologue and tale.

Chaucer demonstrates corruption of the clergy through the pardoner who is a sinner since he deceives the innocent through greed, which at the time was a mortal sin. Chaucer describes the pardoner as having a bunch of relics in his pouch such as “a croys of latoun, full of stones” (GP 699). However, Chaucer retorts,

The pardons that the Pardoner was to sell were pieces of paper that the bishop's signature on them, permitting the conveyer to pardon for their sins. As the readers kept reading the prologue of the Pardoner, they learned that he did not necessarily care about do his job. The readers learned his character when he told them that greed is the root of all evil. He only cared to make a mockery of everyone else for his selfish needs. The Pardoner wanted to cash in on religion in any way he can, and he did that by selling palpable, substantial objects. His greed controlled his life and took over the wellbeing he once had in him. His greedy ways only were going to hurt him, but he sold any relic he could for profit. Whether it were slips of paper that promise forgiveness of pardons or animal bones that people can twine around their necklines as charms against the evil spirit. The greed the Pardoner had in him played a significant role when it came to the tale he told while traveling to

While in complete honesty to the other travelers, the Pardoner confesses that he preaches “for nothing but for greed of gain” and that he uses “the same old text” to “preach against the very vice that (he) makes (his) living out of - avarice.” The greed of the Pardoner is so extreme that he claims that he would scam and steal money from the “poorest village widow” with “a string of starving children.” The Pardoner informs the other pilgrims that he uses the same tale every time, in an attempt to deceive his audience into paying him money and supplying him with a living. He uses the story to preach that greed is the root of all evil, so his listeners should donate their money to him. Although the Pardoner pretends to be a man of God and to offer forgiveness of sins and salvation, but he is just greedy himself, and wants money, which is the epitome of hypocrisy and

The Pardoner is just a big liar and he only wants money he is greedy for nothing but money the story makes it believable that the Pardoner is a cheap man he preaches sermons about evil and greed and then gets men and women to to donate to the clergy and leaves the clergy with his pockets full of money. The Pardoner is somewhat similar to to a bum that does nothing but begs it's just that the Pardoner doesn't beg he just cons people out of their money with his lies the Pardoner tells the people what they want to hear so he he can get their

Through travels on the countryside, the hills are filled with the Pardoner’s sweet “honey tongue” (Chaucer 141, line 732) as he rides to sell church pardons for forgiveness, or so it seems. A man of the church should have a holy mission to serve his lord and spread the prosperity of the church. The Pardoner, on the other hand, uses his title and ability to achieve devious deeds. No matter how many times he claims to have acted morally just, this man always has an ulterior motive to quench his greed. A man such as the Pardoner has drifted so far away from the path of being noble.

One could suggest that one of the main reasons why Church was such

The funds to build this enormous cathedral came partly from the laity, many of whom wanted to see a fitting place for the housing of the cloak of the Virgin. Many people came to worship the objects connected with religious figures, called relics, that were stored in cathedrals through Europe during the Middle Ages. One of the most widely known relics was housed in Chartres cathedral. This cloak, which was supposed to have been worn by the

Have you ever wondered how life was being on a pilgrimage in the 15th century? Around 476 AD, there were long voyages taken on by religious folk called pilgrims. These people would go on journeys to holy places that would hold a type of value to these pilgrims. In the 1500s, people living in Europe thought that the world would come to an end. As that time came, the world did not cease to exist. The people went into utter chaos and started questioning the Christian Church. The people living in Europe at the time were told that they could experience salvation if they went on a religious journey to a holy relic. Thus beginning the pilgrimages. Because of the belief that traveling to a holy place could save themselves from their sins, pilgrimages became very common between the rich and poor. Therefore, pilgrims are the world’s most accomplished and competent travelers of all time because of their skills of navigating all throughout Europe.

When anyone is described as an animal that is not respected or is seen to be high in class one can assume that the descriptor does not like the person being described. The narrator of The Canterbury Tales gives the readers a fair description of the Pardoner; comparing his hair

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, using his characters as the mouthpiece for his iconoclastic views. Chaucer had serious issues with the hypocrisy of the church as well as, many other sacred institutions. The only reason that Chaucer was not exiled or even imprisoned for his views is the way in which he exposed them. Through the allegorical meanings of this text and Chaucer’s claim that he is simply retelling the events of his pilgrimage to Canterbury as it occurred, Chaucer is saved from extreme persecution. From the beginning of time there has always been issues with challenging the higher order; allowing people to make their own decisions and separate themselves from the way of the church often lead to death. In 1350 the

“The Pardoner’s Tale” suggests a profile of the Pardoner as a moral man, a man of God. The narrator is viewed as a wise, gentle, and truthful man who wants to share his story in a respectful tone. His story reveals his message, which is that greed leads to destruction and the corruption of all things good. The Pardoner

The aim of any true satirical work is to poke fun at a certain aspect of society, while also inspiring reform to that very same aspect in one way or another. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Chaucer satirizes the Medieval Church and those associated with the church. Medieval society was centered largely around the Church. Ideally, the people were expected to understand that earthly possessions were meaningless when compared to the prospect of closeness with God. Man was expected to work until he died, at which time he would receive eternal salvation. This eternal salvation was achieved by obeying God's commandments. This theory, however, was becoming progressively corrupted as hypocrisy began to pollute the Church, particularly at the higher