Mindy Kinnan, Ali Dominick, Michelle

Heater,

Hannah Hauliska, & Kim Rose

The Pardoner’s Tale

THE PARDONER

Extremely untrustworthy

Lost in a world of his own vice, greed and self

righteousness

Hypocritical and manipulative

Complex.

Uses psychological means to benefit himself

Good preacher, but a terrible person

INTRODUCTION

After a drink the Pardoner begins to tell of his

occupation

“Radix malorum est Cupiditas” or “greed (love of

money) is the root of all evil”

Uses manipulations to take people’s money

Only preaches for money, not to correct sin

Cares about deepening his pockets, not the well-

being of others

HIS TALE’S BEGINNING

Asked to tell a tale with a moral

In Flanders, during the Black Plague

Involves three drunken rioters

Witness an occurring funeral

Find out Death killed their friend

THE JOURNEY TO KILL DEATH

Plan to find and kill Death

Instead of finding Death they find eight bushels of

gold coins

One tells the must now travel at night

Greed overwhelms them

BETRAYAL

When one leaves, the other two plan to kill him

He returns with wine

The other two kill the man

Not knowing the wine is poisoned, the other two

are also killed

CONCLUSION

Beware avarice, it only brings treachery and Death• The great greed of riches

SUMMARY

There were three men who lived in Flanders who did

nothing but sinful things. The three drunkards were in a

tavern one night, and, hearing a bell ring, looked

outside to see men carrying a corpse to its grave. One

of them called to his slave to go and ask who the corpse

was: he was told by a boy that the corpse was an old

fellow whose heart was smashed in two by a secret thief

called Death. The three then made a vow to find Death

and slay him.

Not far on their journey they met an old, poor man, who greeted them courteously. One of them asked the man rudely why he was still alive at such a ripe age. The old man answered that he was alive, because he could not find anyone who would exchange their youth for his age - and, although he knocked on the ground, begging it to let him in, he still did not die. The old man also mentioned it was not nice of them to speak so rudely towards him.

Another one of the men stated rudely that the old man was to tell them where Death was, or regret not telling them dearly. The old man, still polite, told the drunkards they could find Death up the crooked way and underneath an oak tree.

The drunkards ran to the tree, finding eight bushels of gold coins. They picked the youngest to go to town to get bread and wine while the other two men stayed to watch the treasure. The two men began plotting to stab the youngest on his return. While the youngest was in town he bought poison to kill the other two men keeping the gold for himself.

Exactly as the other two had planned it, it befell. They killed him on his return, and sat down to enjoy the wine before burying his body – and, as it happened, drank the poison and died. The tale ends with a short sermon against sin, asking God to forgive the trespass of good men, and warning them against the sin of avarice, before inviting the congregation to “come up” and offer their wool in return for pardons.

The tale finished, the Pardoner suddenly remembers that he has forgotten one thing - that he is carrying relics and pardons in his bag and begins to invite the pilgrims forward to receive pardon, he tells the pilgrims the value of his relics and asks for contributions—even though he has just told them the relics are fake. He offers the Host the first chance to come forth and kiss the relics, since the Host is clearly the most enveloped in sin. The Host is outraged and proposes to make a relic out of the Pardoner’s genitals, but the Knight calms everybody down. The Host and Pardoner kiss and make up, and all have a good laugh as they continue on their way.

CHURCH TURMOIL

The Catholic Church had all authority in spiritual mattersSociety, in the 14th century, was mainly influenced by the churchThe Church was also rich and powerful in a way, and that power was often misused (the Pardoner)The Presbyterian church came into play causing religious confusionChaucer highlights the hypocrisy of the Medieval Church in his depiction of the Pardoner.