The Pilgrims In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, there are a lot of pilgrims who are immoral. The Friar is the least moral because he breaks three of the four vows: poverty, stability and chastity. He breaks poverty by giving women gifts that he has bought. “Sweetly he heard his penitents at shrift/ With pleasant absolution, for a gift” (Chaucer 225-226). By buying girls gifts he is giving worldly possessions which breaks the vow of poverty. Also Chaucer says, “Therefore instead of weeping and of prayer/ One should give silver for a poor Friars care” (235-236). People give him silver so they can receive a lesser time in purgatory. The second vow the Friar breaks is stability. The vow of stability say they have to stay with members of their clergy or the beggars and lepers.
In lines (244-245) Chaucer says, “He knew the tavern very well in every town/ And ever innkeeper and barmaid too.” He also thought he was to good to be with the beggars and lepers. “It was not fitting with the dignity/ Of his position, dealing with scum/ Of wretched lepers; nothing good can come”(Chaucer 248-250). The final vow he broke is chastity. He would buy many gifts and carry them around so he could give any girl he saw a gift. “He kept his tippet stuffed with pens for curls,/ And pocket knifes, to give to pretty girls”(Chaucer 237-238). He also breaks his chastity vow by sleeping with the girls. “He’d fixed up many a marriage, give each/ Of his young women what he could afford” (Chaucer 216-217). When the girls would get pregnant he would pay a guy to marry her. These are the reasons why the Friar is the least moral man in The Canterbury