The Pardoners Corruption In Chaucer's Tale

1136 Words5 Pages
The fourteenth century Church of England was certainly one of the most corrupt periods of the Catholic Church that there ever was and Chaucer certainly makes this known in his tales. The Friars Tale and The Pardoners Tale are two of the best examples of Chaucers clear and present feelings of the church’s corruption. In both story’s, Chaucer shows the fact that the church officials and government were only interested in one thing, money, not even their own morals, and this greed for money ran their lives. Another reason these two stories show the tremendous corruption of the fourteenth century church of england is that Chaucer uses the devil and death to show the contradiction that was evident in the church. These members of the church were…show more content…
In their never ending quest for money and power, the officials were putting everything else that they were called to love last, and this caused many angered and negatively affected people. The Friars Tale is the best example of the pain that was caused to other people. In The Friar's Tale, “The Summoner sets out to extort money from an innocent old woman by means of a false summons” (Ruud). He causes all these people to give up things likes money and even cherished possessions causing many people to see the corruption of the Church. When he goes to the old widowers house she refuses to give him anything saying that he has already taken everything and she has done nothing wrong. As he was riding along, the Summoner becomes “fascinated by the Devil's ability to change shape. He never recognizes that he might be in some danger himself” (Ruud). These officials felt so untouchable that they did not even consider the possibility they could be going to hell. The Summoner soon learns just how real this is because “when the two arrive at the old woman's house and the Summoner attempts to extort money from her, she curses him, and because the curse is truly from her heart, the Devil carries the Summoner off to hell” (Ruud). This can certainly be Chaucer showing where these evil and horrible people belong. After all that they have been doing everything by hurting others and benefiting for
Open Document