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wooden-plancks · 6 years

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Pride in Perversion

Chaucer’s comments on corruption with the Pardoner

A quick analysis of Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale.

November 27th, 2017

“Radix malorum est cupiditas,” preaches the Pardoner as he struggles to fit the impoverished’s last pennies into his overflowing pockets.

In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Pardoner is a slimeball of a character. Pardoners were people who travelled selling pardons, which were sheets of paper that absolved people of their sins. The idea behind this was to absolve people of their sins for a price which would then be used for goodwill, but as you can imagine this system became very corrupt very quickly. Pardoners started preaching - something they did not have the authority to do - and appealing to charity and piety to raise a hefty amount of money for themselves.

It wasn’t a big secret back then that Pardoners were corrupt. It was essentially an unwritten truth that everyone agreed on to the point where it wasn’t even scandalous to imply that your local Pardoner was a lying son of a bitch. The importance of this fact lies in that Pardoners are still members of the church, be it low-level ones. Thus, criticizing the obviously corrupt Pardoners acted a bit like a critical gateway drug into more serious speculations on the church.

Chaucer, in this sense, was a drug addict. While his later criticisms were more subtle, it’s clear he had no reservations with his infamous Pardoner character. Apart from openly admitting to being corrupt in the form of literary confession,

393 I preche so as ye han herd bifoore I preach as you have heard before 394 And telle an hundred false japes moore. And tell a hundred more false tales.

403 For myn entente is nat but for to wynne, For my intention is only to make a profit, 404 And nothyng for correccioun of synne. And not at all for correction of sin.

There seem to be some statements he makes that can be seen as things to be extended to the rest of the church.

407 For certes, many a predicacioun For certainly, many a sermon 408 Comth ofte tyme of yvel entencioun; Comes often times from an evil intention; 409 Som for plesance of folk and flaterye, Some for pleasure of folk and flattery, 410 To been avaunced by ypocrisye, To be advanced by hypocrisy, 411 And som for veyne glorie, and som for hate. And some for vain glory, and some for hate.

Focusing back on him specifically again, the Pardoner is especially reprehensible in the calm rationale he uses to justify his actions.

439 What, trowe ye, that whiles I may preche, What, do you suppose, that while I can preach, 440 And wynne gold and silver for I teche, And win gold and silver because I teach, 441 That I wol lyve in poverte wilfully? That I will live in poverty voluntarily? 442 Nay, nay, I thoghte it nevere, trewely! Nay, nay, I never thought it, truly!

447 I wol noon of the apostles countrefete; I will imitate none of the apostles; 448 I wol have moneie, wolle, chese, and whete, I will have money, wool, cheese, and wheat, 449 Al were it yeven of the povereste page, Although it were given by the poorest servant boy, 450 Or of the povereste wydwe in a village, Or by the poorest widow in a village, 451 Al sholde hir children sterve for famyne. Even though her children should die of hunger.

This being said he preaches quite beautifully.

573 But herkneth, lordynges, o word, I yow preye, But listen, gentlemen, one word, I pray you, 574 That alle the sovereyn actes, dar I seye, That all the great deeds, I dare say, 575 Of victories in the Olde Testament, Of victories in the Old Testament, 576 Thurgh verray God, that is omnipotent, Through true God, who is omnipotent, 577 Were doon in abstinence and in preyere. Were done in abstinence and in prayer. 578 Looketh the Bible, and ther ye may it leere. Look in the Bible, and there you can learn it.

Although he does neglect the notion that people outside the Church were not allowed to own a Bible.

He denounces gluttony, then lust, then gambling, then swearing.

His tale of three gambling scoundrels starts with their quest to defeat Death, who had taken over the town they live in. In their journey to find him they stumble across an old man and jest at him for being alive in his old age - the man repents and says he is hoping that his mother would take him back. He points them towards a place where Death would be found after they claim he is Death’s spy, and there they find a huge pile of gold. Of course, their greed soon turns these sworn brothers into scheming enemies. Their story ends with a triple homicide and leads straight into his moral of rejecting wealth.

The motive behind this is conspicuous, as he encourages everyone to claim his pardon with gifts. This train of thought continues as the Pardoner reminds them that it is best to be prepared for accidents that may take one's life - specifically, it is best to keep your soul clean so that if you die suddenly your soul will go to heaven. This, of course, can be ensured with the rejection of wealth and a formal pardon, which are both things that the Pardoner is (conveniently, coincidentally?) a resource for.

The Host isn’t taking any of this, especially when the Pardoner singles him out and tries to sell him on the idea that for a fee he would offer a relic that will absolve any sings. The Host calls him a fraud, which upsets the Pardoner strangely, and only at the request of the Knight do they kiss and make up.

The tale is a structured attack on the Church’s hypocrisy through a figure that doesn’t practice what he preaches. The Pardoner confesses to his sin of green and goes on to tell a cautionary tale about the dangers of the love of money and excess, and furthers this message by asking listeners to give up their wealth to avoid being damned. There is no shame in his actions, and he seems to be fully aware of his contradiction and at the same time fully comfortable with it. This is perhaps what is most contemptuous of the character - the glaring injustice has no relief and is simply a festering, blatant evil.

The injustice rooted in the rest of the Church is not so easy to address. Obvious or not, the principles on which the Church is built and the overwhelming societal power it wields makes its self-serving leaders an unstoppable force. The corruption that would be seen in all aspects of the Church would be akin to that found in the Pardoner. As people are powerless to prevent the Pardoner from doing his deed, so are people powerless in the face of the higher Church. Chaucer’s tale is a subtle attack on the Church, exposing the divide between the principles that govern Christianity and the actions of the religious leaders.

The Pardoner’s Tale is an underhanded way to plant the idea that the Church might not be as virtuous as it paints itself to be and to give voice to an opinion that would, if applied to any other character, end the author’s life.

#english #chaucher

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