The Pardoner And Dante's Eight Circle

Chaucer’s The Pardoner would fit best in Dante’s eighth circle. This is known as the fraud circle. This circle is also broken down into ten different Bolgias. The Pardoner would fall under Bolgia three. Bolgia three is committing the sin of Simony. One commits simony when they sell ecclesiastic favors and offices, to make money for themselves out of what rightfully belongs to God. People would come to the church to repent of their sins, and often would give charitable donations. However, the pardoner began to pock people’s donations. So, before people would just give money out of charity, but then it became required to pay. Basically people were paying to have their sins repented, but instead of the money going to the Church they were going
in The Pardoner’s pockets. The pardoner became so indulged in making money off repenting that he began to sell religious relicts, so more people could be forgiven of their sins. Brass crosses, animal bones, anything that portrayed he was working for God.
In Dante’s eight circle the punishment for Simony is gruesome. The committer is buried head first in a hole, with their legs sticking out of the ground. Their feet are then set on fire, and the size of the flame, heat, and duration depends of the severity pf the sin. Simonies are eventually replaced by worse simonies and the old ones sink into the ground to die. I think The Pardoner deserves to go to hell. If he would have just taken a few people’s donations, then learned his lesson then I do not think he should go to hell. However, he never stopped ripping off people, and the Church. In fact, he just kept getting worse and worse. First it was taking donations. Then he carried around a bag of false relicts to seem religious. Next he proceeded to sell them. Lastly, he begins to preach sermons about greed! Which is quite honestly the biggest contradiction to date. When it came to the burning of The Pardoner’s feet, I would make it whatever the duration of time he committed the Simony, so months, to even years. When it came to the heat of the pain, I would do it just enough to pain him, but also low enough to keep him alive so he can suffer. I do not think the punishment is to harsh, and I think this punishment is justified through The Pardoner’s actions.