Corruption In The Pardoner's Tale

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“The Pardoner’s Tale” shows the corruption in the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages by using the example of selling relics and indulgences. The Catholic Church used to sell indulgences to people, in exchange for money, and the Church would take time off of people’s stays in purgatory (“Relics and Indulgences”). “Relics are body parts or things that either come from a recognized Saint or have come into contact with a Saint” (“Relics and Indulgences”). In “The Pardoner’s Tale” the Pardoner would sale both relics and indulgences, the Pardoner mentions the statement “all the people believe them to be holy relics” (Chaucer 350-351). Meaning the Pardoner, a holy man, was selling them knowing that they were fake and would do nothing good for anyone. The Pardoner preached “My theme is and …show more content…
They no longer sought then after Death, but each was so glad at the sight, for the florins were so beautiful and bright, that they sat themselves down by this precious hoard (Chaucer 771-775).
The two started planning how to get rid of the other one and how to sneak the money out themselves. They decide they will get the money out at night when no one can see and that they will murder the other man (Chaucer 824-858). The man went to go to the town and while he was there he decided he should poison both men, and when he returned with poisoned wine the men slayed him. They unknowingly drank the wine that was poisoned and both died (Chaucer 859-894). “The Pardoner’s Tale”, shows the corruption in the Catholic Church in order to reveal a little bit about the character of the people in the Middle Ages. The corruption was showing through both the Pardoner’s actions and others actions. Many people trusted people, such as the Pardoner, and their trust was broken. Actions like this lead up to the reformation in the Catholic

The Moral Corruption In The Pardoner's Tale

Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a book from the medieval time period, that still reflects this occurrence, mainly through the embedded story, “The Pardoner’s Tale”. Chaucer sets the hypocritical person to be the Pardoner in that tale, and his hypocritical actions are evident by the story he tells. The Pardoner is just as morally bad a human being as the men he describes in his story, which would depict the The Pardoner tells a tale of three men who have clear moral corruption. The three…

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