The Summoner And The Pardoner In The Canterbury Tales

Both the Summoner and the Pardoner are corrupt religious officials. A Summoners job is to bring people before the church so that they can confess their sins, and were typically lower class. The Summoner in The Canterbury Tales, does not do his job well. He let’s men keep their mistresses for a year just for a quart of wine. The Summoner does this because he too is guilty of these sins. He would drink a lot, and when he got drunk he would attempt to speak Latin in order to sound smart, which proved his ignorance. Geoffrey Chaucer describes him as a scoundrel and a very dishonest man. The Pardoner was also dishonest with no moral principles. A Pardoner is supposed to sell indulgences, but this Pardoner sold fake religious relics under false pretenses.
His admits to this in his own tale, and then proceeds to try and sell his fake relics to the other pilgrims. The Pardoner implies if you buy his indulgences you sins will be forgiven, and instead of going to hell, you’ll go to purgatory. In the prologue to the Pardoner’s Tale, he continuously tries to trap people into buying things from him with lies and deception. The Pardoner and the Summoner also have the looks to go with their ugly personalities. The Summoner has a red face covered with carbuncles, which are large pimple-like lump caused by a skin infection. He had scabby eyebrows, a thin beard, and he always looked like the sun was shining in his face. He was so ugly that children were scared to be around him. The Pardoner wasn’t any better when it came to looks. He had long, greasy blond hair, beady rat eyes, and no beard, which was uncommon in Chaucer’s time. In fact, his feminine features suggests he was eunuch, which probably added to Chaucer’s hatred towards him. Although these men are similar in nature, the Pardoner was worse. The Summoner was not good at his job, but he never deceived people. He may have let them get away with things, but he wouldn’t trick them. However, the Pardoner would blatantly betray innocent people’s trust. Most of this was shown in the prologue to his tale. For example, he would tell people that if they drank the “special” water from a well then they, and any of their animals, would be cured of anything, including jealousy. He did not want to live a life of poverty, and he didn’t care where the money came from. He would steal money from the poor, and he said that he doesn’t care if they die. He also had a lot of pride. At the end of the prologue, he tells the pilgrims that his preaching is so good, that by the end they will be buying his fake relics. Even after telling the pilgrims about his exploits he still tries to sell his indulgences to them, and believes they are stupid enough to fall for it.