The clergy was notorious for sucking money out of the people any way they could. The wealth of the Church can be compared to the wealth of a whole nation at that time. What made the matters worse was that the Church was not using the skimmed money for legitimate purposes. It was unashamedly obvious that the money ended up in the clergy’s own pocket.
The immorality of the Church was so exposed that it was even reflected in the literature of the period, of which Canterbury Tales are an example.
It was into this clerical atmosphere that Chaucer inserted his two clearest examples of the fabliau genre, The Miller’s Tale and The Reeve’s Tale. Like many of the French and Anglo-Norman fabliau that preceded them, the two tales follow a somewhat predictable pattern of deception and misdeeds couched in irony, vernacular language, sexual innuendo, and a love triangle. Chaucer's Tales ultimately function to challenge the inequities and hypocrisies of the Catholic rule.
In the prologue of the Miller’s Tale, the Miller constructs the author's reaction to the Knight's Tale. The Miller mocks the noble messages of the Knight's Tale, and prepares to tell a tale that he finds equally uplifting. The tale that will follow is unreservedly bawdy and lowbrow, a necessary antidote to the oppressive sense of epic honor that permeates the heavy Knight's tale.
While Chaucer, in The Miller's Tale and Reeve's Tale, nowhere ridicules true religious faith, he exposes hypocrisy, that huge gap between professed ideals and actual actions. In The Miller's Tale, the parish clerk, Absolon, gets the worst of it, not because he goes after a married woman but because he acts against the values he supposedly upholds as a member of the Church hierarchy (RT 3102). Under the guise of generosity towards women, he refuses to take collections from those he hopes will respond favorably to his intentions. He also shows a sort of perverse or unnatural sexuality, a kind of impotence that Chaucer perhaps associates with the Church. As juxtaposition, Alison, on the other hand, is not a hypocrite in the same way. She knows exactly what she is doing and why, unlike Absolon, who deceives himself. Alison consciously uses the system to her best advantage, at the same time holding onto and expressing her "natural" sexual self without apology.
Next to religious hypocrisy, Chaucer seems to abhor the type of "blind faith" exemplified by the carpenter John, who states earnestly, "The unlettered man is blessed indeed, who doesn't know a thing except his Creed!" The underlying irony is unmistakable. The Miller describes John as a "white doke after hire drake," illustrating not only his blind following of Church doctrine, but a sort of feminization, a reduction of power, as well (MT 3576). John's naive and somewhat superstitious faith, along with his ambivalent attitude of both distrust and admiration for Nicholas' "learning," lead him to both a broken arm and round ridicule from the town's inhabitants. In both The Miller's Tale and The Reeve's Tale, the "learned" students, Nicholas, Alan, and John, fare best at the end.
Critics are not in complete agreement about Chaucer’s religious thinking. Although the hypocrisy Chaucer points out in several of the religious pilgrims is obvious, many scholars are hesitant to conclude that Chaucer’s intent was to satirize and criticize the Church as a whole. This view has the right to exist, of course, but after examining the Pardoner and the Friar, Chaucer's condemnation of the institutions of the medieval Church become more convincing. Furthermore, a more complex reading of Chaucer’s religious beliefs is evident when the Parson and the Plowman are juxtaposed to the Pardoner and the Friar. This approach shows that, as well as criticizing the existing Church, Chaucer also provides a vision of what he believed the Church should be.
The excessive personal justification and too much personal interpretation of the Bible portray the Wife of Bath, as a character for whom many in Chaucer’s society might have held some contempt. It is safe to assume that this sort of behavior (abusing the spirit of the Bible by living by its literal meanings) probably occurred quite often; otherwise, Chaucer would not have included such an account. And while Chaucer’s portrait of the Wife of Bath is humorous and good-hearted, it is also clearly negative. This negative portrayal would appear as a reproach of such questionable behavior. Thus, from his negative portrayal of the Wife of Bath it can be concluded that Chaucer is criticizing his society’s tendency to ignore ecclesiastic backgrounds in favor of selfish pleasures (even though at a tertiary glance it seems as if the Wife of Bath has had to behave in such a way in order to survive and prosper in a patriarchal society). At this point in her prologue, the reader does not know the Wife of Bath never mentions children (other than as an excuse to have sex); but as we read on, it is clear that the Wife of Bath is merely fishing around for as many reasons as she can find to justify her behavior. Chaucer may treat the Wife of Bath as a less than scrupulous character, but is he condemning the system that allows such conduct? The Wife of Bath’s corruption seems amateur when compared to a character such as the Friar. Perhaps Chaucer’s condemnation will be more obvious when we examine the Friar’s Tale.
Chaucer paints a reproachable character with the Friar. Here, more than with the Wife of Bath, Chaucer depicts the social decadence occurring in the late 14th century. The Friar’s behavior, however, is even worse than the Wife of Bath: the Friar is supposed to adhere to a more stringent set of morals than is the Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath is more passive whereas the Friar is malevolent. Here we see a critique of not only personal behavior, but a condemnation of the Catholic institution. This denunciation continues as Chaucer shows us the immoral wrangling between the Friar and the Summoner as is evident in the Friar’s Prologue and Tale: So not only do we see the corrupt nature of the Friar as a person, we also see the sickness infecting the church itself as the Friar and the Summoner lash out at each other with viscous tales of sin and greed. Clearly, Chaucer is censuring not only the individuals but also the institution allowing such debased characters to remain as active members of its system.
Chaucer’s portrayal of religious leaders gets worse with the Summoner in the General Prologue where Chaucer merely mentions him in passing along with the Pardoner. His short tale, though, speaks volumes about his morals. In the Summoner’s Prologue, we see to what extent these two churchmen hate each other. And later in the Summoner’s Tale, we see what the Summoner thinks about the Friar’s profession as a whole when the Clerk explains the solution to the problem of distributing Thomas’ gift. Finally, with the most horrid of religious characters, the Pardoner, Chaucer reveals his seeming despondent opinion of the Catholic institution.
Beginning with The Pardoner's Tale, the theme of salvation is truly paramount. Chaucer, being one of the most important medieval authors, uses this prologue and tale to make a statement about buying salvation. The character of the pardoner is one of the most despicable pilgrims, seemingly "along for the ride" to his next "gig" as the seller of relics. As a matter of fact, the pardoner is only in it for the money. In his tale, the Pardoner slips into his role as the holiest of holies and speaks of the dire consequences of gluttony, gambling, and lechery. The Pardoner's place in Chaucer's idea of redemption becomes evident in the epilogue of the tale. After offering the host the first pardon the host berates the pardoner. By this, the idea of the pardoner as the most important man on the pilgrimage is brought to fruition and Chaucer makes the main point of this tale: salvation is not for sale. Another example of the medieval obsession with redemption.
The picture of a corrupt Summoner is Chaucer’s an ultimate portrayal of religious hypocrisy of the Medieval Catholic Church. The man who takes money from people to expunge their sins does it on false pretences, thus being guilty of an act for which, by the rules of the day, he himself should have paid money to the church. But Chaucer is certainly not against religion. Rather, he wishes to expunge the depraved creatures that are bringing it into disrepute, so that its true value can be restored. Perhaps the overall theme is of life as a journey, to heaven helped or, in many cases, hindered, by the acts of the religious professionals.
Works CitedChaucer, Geoffrey. "The Miller's Tale." The Riverside Chaucer. Third Edition. Larry D. Benson, ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987.
---- "The Reeve's Tale." The Riverside Chaucer. Third Edition. Larry D. Benson, ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987.
Davies, Norman. Europe: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.