Indulgences In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Superior Essays
Before Martin Luther posted his 95th thesis on a church door in Worms, Germany so as to publicly air his grievances against the Church, another prominent figure also criticized the abuses of the Church. This man was no clergyman or ruler; he was a prominent literary figure of his time. This man was Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in part, deals greatly with the abuses and scandalous behaviors of authority figures in the Catholic Church. Before Luther and before changes were made, Chaucer’s novel sheds light on some of the more questionable behaviors of those in the Catholic Church.

An example of Chaucer’s criticisms is visible in the prologue of the Pardoner’s Tale. Here, the pardoner admits with ease his unkemptly practices
…show more content…
Many crooked and greedy men, many including those amongst the clergy, utilized indulgences to fill their coffers. The selling of indulgences quickly became akin to the modern day Ponzi scheme, only this promised spiritual not financial gains. The abuse of indulgences was rampant and commonplace during the late 1300’s, so clearly a learned man like Chaucer would have been disgusted by the crookedness of the Church officials. This practice continued long after Chaucer’s death. Eventually, it began to strike a nerve with fellow clergymen. This practice helped inspire Martin Luther write his 95 theses condemning the abuses and corruption within the Catholic Church. Soon after, the Catholic Church began to take a deep and serious look at this practice. On December 4th, 1563, the Roman Catholic Church convened a council in Trent. The council affirmed that general and original practice of indulgences was still valid, but the council ensured that abuses would not continue. “And being desirous that the abuses which have crept therein, and by occasion of which this honorable name of Indulgences is blasphemed by heretics, be amended and corrected, It ordains generally by this decree, that all evil gains for the obtaining thereof, --whence a most prolific cause of abuses amongst the Christian people has been derived, --be wholly abolished” (Council of Trent). Indeed, Chaucer’s concerns were valid, and his criticisms were based on

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    1. What was the context of the Protestant Reformation? (3) At this point of history there was only one church in the West- Catholic church which was controlled by the pope. The church was corrupted and the pope and cardinal were living like kings.…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Luther's new insight into the New Testament did not immediately lead him to protest against Church doctrine, according to Gonzalez, he also indicates that Luther did not appear to realize that his discovery was a "radical contradiction" that went against the "entire penitential system." After receiving revelation from Romans 1:17 and his conversion, his heart revealed the truth in how the idea of the Catholic Church was selling indulgences or reprieves from penance; evidently, this was critical for Luther. What was so disappointing to him, it was what he saw as the Church's corruption, especially as manifested in the Pope's selling of indulgences. The characteristic of indulgence has a peculiar or a salient attribute that has a quality…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chaucer did an exceptional job with portraying all of the corruption and vices in the secular and non secular societies in The Canterbury Tales. During this time, everything was not as it seemed. Historian Keith Baker claimed that there was a large amount of tension between the church and the state. “If you worked for the church, you believed the state was corrupt, and if you worked for the state, you thought the church was corrupt,”…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The magnitude of characters in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales creates some very interesting relationships. An example of one of these relationships would be the connection between Alisoun of Oxenford and Alisoun of Bath and how these characters fit into the natural sex ideology. In some aspects, these women are very similar, but they also have significant differences. The natural ideology of sex is defined by Alfred David as, “being neither too obsessed with physical gratification and domination, nor too fixated on some goal apart from the pleasure of sex itself” (Zumdahl 2).…

    • 1949 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer initially sets the tone for the prologue by providing the reader with in-depth detail on the setting. He then proceeds to introduce every pilgrim he meets at the Tabard Inn by revealing the characteristics they possess and ranking each individuals’ social status from highest to lowest. Chaucer therefore begins with the highest ranking pilgrim, the Knight, and depicts each pilgrim in detail through the last and lowest ranking character described, the Host. H.S. Bennett said, in reference to Chaucer’s writing, that “no detail was too small for him to observe, and from it he could frequently draw, or suggest, conclusions which would have escaped many.” Bennett’s words emphasize the…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Reformation Dbq

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Reformation is a crucial time period, as the events that occurred during were essential elements in the shaping of European society thereafter. Through the protests of people like Martin Luther, the Roman Catholic Church’s power was significantly weakened, and monarchies rose to be the center of government. With the church moved aside, kings and queens made decisions based on their will for their city-state, rather than the church’s ideas regarding the well-being of society. Previous to the Reformation, priests and preachers sold indulgences, that at one point had a more purposeful meaning, but had become based on collecting profit for the church, and namely, the pope.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Europe changed as a result of the Renaissance and Reformation. The Renaissance, also called the rebirth of Europe, occurred between 1300 and 1600. Between the Renaissance time period, the Reformation happened. It took place between 1517 and 1648. Due to the Renaissance and Reformation taking place, the religious, political, and social conditions changed in Europe.…

    • 284 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Recognized by esteemed awards, counting a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, and grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and the American Philosophical Society, James M. Kittleson used his talent and scholarly successes as an ardent researcher focused on Martin Luther and the Lutheran Reformation. For three decades, he was a frontrunner in the field of Reformation studies, to which he gave generously of his time and talent, serving on the editorial boards of Studies in the Reformation and the Lutheran Quarterly. Kittleson wrote “Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career” in 1986, with the primary purpose, “to tell the story of Martin Luther to readers who are not specialist in the field of Luther studies have no desire to become ensnared in the arguments of specialists (Kittleson, 1986)”. Kittleson does achieve his purpose. Kittleson starts out the book with background information detailing his reason for writing the book.…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Martin Luther is a person commonly known for being the key component of the Reformation. His Ninety-Five Theses Concerning Indulgences, which he posted on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517, grabbed many people’s attention for listing the issues of the corrupt clergy and is commonly known for marking the start the Reformation. However, according to the Sixteenth Century Dutch scholar Erasmus, “The egg was laid. Luther had but to incubate and hatch it.” There was an abundance of underrated people that created huge impacts throughout this time.…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Martin Luther’s 95 Theses he informs us a lot about what the Church was doing during the time of his life. Martin Luther believed that Christ made a world where we lived in a world of repent where we practice the sacrament of confession. Luther believed that the Pope had too much power. Luther’s point of view was that the Pope did not have the power to forgive or excuse penalties unless God remits it.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, the deeper and more prominent idea suggested by Chaucer is that the Church was a corrupt and dishonest institution. The Catholic Church was an enormously powerful force in the medieval period, and extremely wealthy. However, it 's clear that the material provided in The Canterbury tales indicate that the church is more than just dominant, It’s corrupt. Many of the pilgrims Chaucer writes about indicate the corrupt and backward state the institutional church was in.…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    These questions include topics such as what indulgences do, who they affect, and how they forgive sin (Beer, 527). Luther believed that forgiveness came through prayer and that paying for past sin was unnecessary, making indulgences obsolete (Beer, 528-529). The Council disagreed. They stated that paying for sin was necessary to recover loss grace and that granting them was a power of the Pope (Beer, 529-531). Therefore, those who did not support indulgences challenged the power of the Pope, leading to the Council’s reaffirmation of indulgences.…

    • 1510 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A good story should have a good plot and should keep the audience intrigued. In Chaucer’s book, the Canterbury Tales, there is a story telling contest between all of the pilgrims. The Man of Law should win the story telling contest that the Host proposed at the beginning of the Canterbury Tales because of the way he told his tale. His tale was interesting, kept the audience wanting more, and it also made you think about your own Christian way of life and if you are living the correct way. But, the three main reasons that this tale is better than the other tales of Chaucer are these.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A New Kind of Language (A Critique of Chaucer’s Use of Satire in The Pardoner’s Tale and the Wife of Bath’s Tale) Becoming aware of the alternating types of language occurring in everyday speech can help inform and teach others about the wide range of communication. Some of these types of languages could be positive while others are more negative. A negative form of language type is satire, which is defined as the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. Chaucer masters the use of satire in his works of The Canterbury Tales.…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Canterbury Tales Essay

    • 1784 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Strength of Words and the Lessons You Learn During the pilgrimage to Canterbury, 24 tales were told from all different types of people, from the poorest in the city to the richest. In the Canterbury Tales, a famous tale is heard from a Nun’s Priest about a widowed wife left with two daughters to live graciously with what God had given them. One-night Chanticleer: the noblest chicken on their farm, is awoken by a dream, a nightmare of being eaten by a fox.…

    • 1784 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays