DEL MEDIEVO AL RENACIMIENTO EN LA LITERATURA INGLESA

The Criticism of the Church

in
The Canterbury Tales


Essay on Chaucer's The General Prologue and
The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale

Marta Seplveda Municio







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The Criticism of the Church in
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales, a collection of tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, was written in
Middle English at the end of the 14
th
century (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2011). It is
considered to be the best work of literature in English in the Middle Ages (Johnston,
1998). This masterpiece is structured in a similar way as Bocaccio's Decameron. The
tales are organized within a frame narrative (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2011) explained
in the General Prologue by the narrator: a group of pilgrims that are going to visit St.
Thomas Becket in Canterbury's Cathedral. These pilgrims are from different estates of
the medieval society: nobility, the church and peasantry (The Norton Anthology, 1993:
76). Through the characters, Chaucer reveals some aspects of the society he lived in. In
other words, instead of creating typical role models, the characters are exaggerated
individuals very different from the prototypical idea to create humour and criticism. For
example, the knight is not the typical medieval soldier the reader would expect. He
avoids conflict being a very romantic person. In a similar way, the characters that are
part of the Church are also very peculiar. At the time when Chaucer wrote this poem,
the Catholic Church was very powerful and rich. The clergy enjoyed great fortunes and
a high quality of life compared with the peasantry who was starving and dying,. In this
essay, I'm going to deal with the criticism towards the Catholic Church analysing the
Prioress, the Monk, the Friar and the Pardoner
Chaucer begins writing about the hypocrisy of the church in the General
Prologue when the Prioress is introduced. The Prioress is a nun with very good manners
(e.g. she wipes her lips before drinking, lines 133-134) that behaves as if she were a
lady of the court (e.g. she speaks French but with a very bad accent, lines 124-125).The
Prioress is also very romantic as we can see in her brooch and her motto: "Love
conquest all" (Dr. Melillo, 1996). She is also very kind and sensitive. For instance, she
cries when a mouse falls in a trap and feeds her dogs meat so they do not starve. This
image of nice person contrasts with the reality of the time. If her words and actions are
analyzed, the audience could understand that this was not the typical behavior of a nun.
In addition she is more worried about her pets than the commoners who actually did
starve and rarely ate meat. the narrator is portraying her in a very nice tone that makes
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the reader like her. Nevertheless, the audience was aware that she is not fulfilling the
aim of the Church: take care of people (The Norton Anthology, 1993:76).
The Monk is the following pilgrim described in the General Prologue.
According to his description he is very interested in hunting and in horses (line 166). A
monk should not be riding and hunting but obeying, praying, copying and studying. In
addition, the Monk is fully aware that his order does not allow these practices and he
admits that he does not follow the rules of his order (Jokinen, 2010) (lines 174-175).
When the portrait of the Monk finishes in the General Prologue, the man described is
bald, fat and well-dressed. Any person in that time that heard this description would
immediately think about a lord not a monk. Although the narrator likes this character
and his description is not very acid, we can see how Chaucer is criticizing some monk's
lives. Monks are supposed to be obedient and to embrace vow of poverty not to reject
rules and live the life they want.
After analyzing two characters that the narrator does not really dislike, I am
going to analyze the Friar and the Pardoner who the narrator describes in a very ironic
and bitter tone. A friar is a roaming priest that begs for living whose goal is to help
beggars and lepers selflessly. On the contrary, this friar really detests this kind of action
because he does not get any benefice from it (lines 242-247). He likes to enjoy life and
pleasures. He shows that he is not like a normal friar implying that he is above (lines
210-211) like an aristocrat (Knapp, 1999). In this sense, he acts like the Prioress does,
pretending not to be who he really is, a beggar. The reader also knows that he accepts
bribes and gives easy penance for extra donations so he can live better. He justifies his
conduct explaining that giving money is a sign of repentance. Nevertheless, the Friar, as
the Monk, is supposed to have done the vow of poverty. Contradicting any
preconceived ideas the reader may have about friars, he has a good quality life thanks to
keeping the money he should give his order and receiving extra incomes. In the
description of the character, the audience understood how Chaucer is condemning the
abuses of the Church by creating a person who does not follow any of the prototypical
characteristics of a good Christian friar.
Finally, I am going to explain in detail the character of the Pardoner. The
Pardoner resembles the Friar in the fact that both get money from people (with a
religious reason behind) for a living and keep it for themselves. However, there are
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some differences: the Pardoner is not part of an order whereas the Friar is; and he does
not believe in what he does either while the Friar justifies it. The Pardoner is considered
the most hypocrite character of all because he embodies all the sins he preaches against.
He sells papal indulgences in exchange of donation that he keeps for himself showing
avarice (lines 389-391). In addition, he admits that he does not feel guilty and that the
relics he sells are a fraud. Furthermore, he tells the other pilgrims his tricks implying
that he lies and manipulates people to get money. Ironically, after he has admitted that
he is a liar, the Pardoner gives a kind of sermon against gluttony, drunkenness,
gambling and swearing. Moreover, his tale can be considered an exemplum (Patterson,
1976) that warns against avarice and drunkenness. He gives an instance of the kind of
person he is when he tries to sell one of his relics to the Host even when he has already
told them they are forged and useless. Apart from being described as, what we would
call now, a con artist and a sinful person, there are allusions to his condition of
homosexual and eunuch (Jokinen, 1998). All these characteristics make him appear in
the margins of society. As I said before, this character is the one that better represents
the hypocrisy that Chaucer shows in this work. As I said, he represents all the sins he
preaches against: he drinks (his finishes his drink before stating the tale); he lies (about
his relics, line 394), and he is greedy (he keeps the money, line 409). Through this
character, the author shows a very sinful and corrupt church away from their goal.
To conclude, Chaucer shows a very hypocrite and selfish members of the
Church in The Canterbury Tales. In the 14th century, the Catholic Church was very
influential and religion was present in everyday life. The purpose of the Church was
supposed to be the caring of the people. Nonetheless, the characters in this poem do not
worry about anything else that themselves and their actions are directed always to their
own benefit. Through their words and actions, the characters reflect their sins and their
corruption and by extension, the sins and corruption of the Church. It can be concluded
that in The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer makes a social criticism showing the dishonesty
of the Church. However, it should be pointed out that the characters are an exaggerated
version of the original people because the main aim of this work is to be accessible and
enjoyable for the audience.


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References
"The Canterbury Tales." 2010. Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica
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Melillo, Dr E. 1996. 'Chaucer's Prioress'. Web. 23rd October 2011.
http://www.gloriana.nu/prioress.html
Johnston .1998. 'Introduction to "The General Prologue" of The Canterbury Tales'
http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/eng200/chaucer.htm
Jokinen, A. 1998. 'The Pardoner's Tale'. Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature.
http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/pardoner.htm
Jokinen, A. 2010. 'Canterbury Tales': Essay and Articles on Chaucer: Luminarium:
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Knapp, J. 1999. Chaucers Friar: A Portrait of Immorality.
http://www.personal.umich.edu/%7Ejimknapp/papers/Canterbury.html
Patterson, L. 1976. "Chaucerian Confession: Penitential Literature and the Pardoner,"
Medievalia et Humanistica 7. Cited in
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