Reform, Corruption and the Tormented Soul: Chaucer's Vision of the Medieval Church in The Canterbury Tales

Abstract

The Canterbury Tales can be interpreted in many contexts, but when we reach the unusual end of the collection, the extensive discourse of the Parson and its sharp departure from the entertaining "Tales" before it invite us to interpret its purpose in relation to the other pilgrims' tales. It is my contention that "The Parson's Tale" can be read in conjunction with "The Pardoner's Tale," as the two are very different discourses on sin as related by representatives of the Church who are both in the business of absolution. Such a reading presents, in the Parson, Chaucer's vision of the medieval Church as it was ideally meant to be and, in the figure of the Pardoner, the obstacles it faced in medieval England and the resulting corruption and decline of its authority. . . . The Parson is clinical and educated, repeating the lessons of the Church as a parish priest should, but he lacks characterization and personal qualities. He is a representative of the Church as an institution. The Pardoner, on the other hand, represents the product of the Church and society as it was in the fourteenth century. He uses a religious facade to make money, knowing that what he has become is against the original tenets of the Church, but he is tainted with corruption from within and cannot break free from sin. If we view the Pardoner's character in this way, Chaucer's focus on penitence makes sense. Penitence is a vehicle for reform, so I argue that Chaucer illustrates the Church's struggle for reform in the thirteenth century by presenting us with the Pardoner, a man trying unsuccessfully to repent. In order to best illustrate my argument, I rely heavily on the analysis of rhetoric in the Parson's and Pardoner's discourse on sin and on the penitential process as it is used in the two tales and distorted by the Pardoner. [From Introduction]