What Is The Imperfection Of The Catholic Church In The 14th Century

Authors often have an agenda when creating their works. These authors create their work with a specific agenda in mind to serve the purpose of making their own personal views apparent to readers. The Canterbury Tales--a collection of tales told by various people throughout a pilgrimage to Canterbury--serves as Geoffrey Chaucer’s own lament about the corruption of the Catholic Church in 14th century Europe.The pilgrims taking part in this pilgrimage are not necessarily the most pious pilgrims in the world: for many of the travelers, this pilgrimage is a tourist expedition rather than a devout religious quest.Chaucer utilizes this anthology of works to develop his ideas about the imperfections of the Catholic Church and how many people viewed
the Church.
Often referred to as the “Disastrous 14th century”, this time period saw corruption run rampant through all aspects of the Church.
Rapidly increasing in mathematical and intellectual sophistications, Europe was well on it’s way to rapid expansion. The 14th Century was a time of turmoil, diminished expectations, loss of confidence in institutions, and feelings of helplessness at forces beyond the people’s own control. In historian Barbara Tuchman’s novel, A Distant Mirror, she discusses how many of our modern problems had counterparts in the 14th Century. In the midst of turmoil between the French Catholics and Italian Catholics, the Church was scarcely in a position to offer comfort. Since 1309, the Pope had resided at Avignon in southern France due to these secular issues, rather than Rome. Consequently, Avignon was governed by one simple rule: absolutely everything in the Church was for sale, ecclesiastical offices, pardons for sins, and even the most sacred holy relics. Eventually in 1377, Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome in an effort to maintain the
Church.
The Pardoner, a pilgrim in The Canterbury Tales, is associated with the corruption of the Catholic Church. In the General Prologue, the reader learns of the corruption behind the Pardoner. The Pardoner sells pardons to people from the Catholic Church, also known as indulgences. He kept his pocket "brimful of pardons from Rome" (21). Indulgences were tickets people bought that forgave them from their sins and put them on the right path towards heaven. Critics of indulgences hated them because, although they believed wholeheartedly in Christianity, they knew people could not buy forgiveness from God. With many criticisms of the Catholic Church, indulgences caused a lot of uproar and eventually a religious Reformation. Making him seem immoral, Chaucer used the Pardoner’s appearance as a swipe to the Catholic Church. The Pardoner has "hair as yellow as wax" in the work. The color yellow is associated with deceit and during the Middle Ages, yellow was symbolized as one of the colors of the devil (21). He would sell indulgences to anyone he could trick into buying them. When it comes to religion, people believe what they are told and remain blissfully ignorant to the truth. Chaucer said the Pardoner "made monkeys of the priest and the congregation" with his sale of pardons (22). According to Chaucer, the Pardoner fooled everybody, as well as those associated with the church. Through the General Prologue, Chaucer aims to show the corruption in the Catholic Church through the Pardoner and his greedy sales of indulgences and his distinct appearance.
“The Friar’s Tale” describes a corrupt summoner.
The summoner in the story would “summons some illiterate/Without a written warrant, on the threat/Of excommunication and Christ’s curse;/And they were glad enough to fill his purse”(184). The summoner did not act on the summons the church gave him; he instead created fake ones to take money from innocent people for his own personal gain. When the summoner meets a yeoman while travelling through the woods, they begin to discuss how to make the most money from their job. The summoner confesses “As God knows, I’ll take anything like a shot/Unless it be too heavy or too hot”(186) and justifies this by saying “I’d starve if I didn’t put the screws on(186). The summoner feels no guilt in his actions; he believes what he does is necessary for his survival and outweighs his duty to the church. When the summoner tries to take money from an old widow, she curses him unless he repents. The summoner responds “‘Not likely, not a hope there, you old cow,/ I’ve no mind to repent’”(191). Here, the summoner shows pride and greed in his refusal to renounce his evil ways. The descriptions and stories of these members of the church all focus around greed. Each of these pilgrims gained in some personal way from their positions in the church. Chaucer did this intentionally to reflect the widespread corruption in the Catholic Church during the 14th
century.
The religious figures in The Canterbury Tales highlight many of the problems found in the Catholic Church. Many of these characters deviate in one way or another from what was traditionally expected of them. In both of the tales discussed, the characters are corrupt church officials revealing their true natures and their greed by taking advantage of the common folk they are bound to serve. Religion was made into a business during this time period which created the feeling of mistrust in many people towards the Catholic Church.