The Pardoner and the Problem of Evil: Assignment regarding how Chaucer creates character.
PREPARATION FOR THE PARDONER AND MEDIEVAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION, and UNDERSTANDING HOW CHAUCER CREATES CHARACTER
Medieval England seemed to enjoy a political structure different from the tribal units of the Anglo-Saxon period, at least as Hollywood has portrayed the period. In reality, competing Feudal barons ruled by force and justified their power base according to "might-makes-right" as ordained by God, so if suffering did occur, the answer was that God must have intended it to be so.
An organizational concept known as the 'great chain of being' evolved from the Greeks as augmented by the church, and it seemed to sanction a hierarchy placing those who were rich and powerful at the top, all according to God's will...The time period begins in 1066.
CLASS SOCIETY: THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING:
GOD
KING = POPE
LORD = BISHOP
KNIGHT = ABBOTT
SERF= PARSON AND PLOWMEN = GOOD AND PARDONER = ?
THEOLOGY: very very conservative. The question becomes, how did the Pardoner fit into the scheme of a order sanctioned by the church as mandated by God...Chaucer's world, as it ironically relates to the chain of being, would seem to suggest that God was either willing but not able, or able not willing to prevent evil in the world. Some key events of the times....
1200--rise of the Monastic orders
1267--trade guilds (goldsmiths and tailors) riot in the streets
1278--278 Jews hanged in London for "financial exploitation" Christians guilty of the same offenses fined
1280--In Flanders, the textile workers revolted against their employers
1308--In France, the first indoor tennis court built by King Philip IV
1327--a fire destroys Munich
1332--the plague begins in India
1347--the plague destroys much of Europe
1349--one third of the population of England dies of the plague (total death will be 75 million people)
1370--the crossbow is invented as a weapon of war
1372--Oxford university flourishes--center of Philosophy and scholasticism
1381--the peasants' revolt in England
1407--"Bedlam" is founded in London as an insane asylum
1454--Indulgences printed
What would these 'facts' tell us about the problem this course is addressing>
SOME DETAILS...
Sources:
Barnes, D. (ed.). For Court Manor and Church. Minneapolis: Burgess Publishing Co., 1971.
Pardon, L.O. The Pardoner's Old Man and the Second Death. The University of North Carolina Press, 1992.
THE KNIGHT: WHAT DID CHAUCER KNOW ABOUT KNIGHTS IN THE "REAL" WORLD? TWO PHILOSOPHICAL TERMS WILL HELP: REALISM MEANS LOOKING UP ON THE CHAIN TOWARD GOD, WHILE NOMINALISM MEANS LOOKING DOWN AT THE MATERIAL WORLD. THE QUESTION IS WHICH REALITY IS THE REAL ONE, AND WHAT DOES THE DISTINCTION HAVE TO DO WITH THE THEME OF THE CLASS?
NOTE BELOW IN THE SECTION DEALING WITH DEALING WITH HOW CHAUCER CREATES CHARACTER THAT THE 'NOMINALISM'/'REALISM' DISTINCTION IS IMPORTANT.
REALISM: MAKE OBEDIENCE TO YOUR LORD ALWAYS...IF YOU SEE YOUR LORD DRINKING, KEEP SILENCE, WITHOUT LOUD LAUGHTER, CHATTERING...OR INSOLENCE...TELL NO DISHONEST TALE...BE HUMBLE AND MERRY...NOT CHIDING AS IF YOU READY FOR A FIGHT...ATTEND MASS DEVOUTLY AND ACCEPT THE TEACHINGS OF THE PRIESTS...THE KNIGHT MUST DEFEND THE CHURCH, TO ASSAIL INFIDELITY, TO VENERATE THE PRIESTHOOD, TO PROTECT THE POOR FROM INJURIES, TO POUR OUT THEIR BLOOD FOR THE BROTHERS...THE HIGH PRAISES OF GOD ARE IN THEIR THROATS, AND TWO EDGED-SWORDS ARE IN THEIR HANDS.
NOMINALISM: AN ACT OF INFIDELITY WAS NO DISGRACE, ALWAYS PROVIDED THAT ONE PRESERVED THE FORM OF POLITE SOCIETY...ANY KNIGHT WHO CONTENTED HIMSELF WITH WEDDING A VIRGIN BEFORE HIMSELF HAVING GROWN PRACTICED IN ADULTERY AND CARRIED OFF SEVERAL TROPHIES OF THE CHASE WAS UNWORTHY OF HIS SPURS. ADULTERY WAS A SOCIAL DIVERSION FOR THE UPPER CLASSES. A KNIGHT HAD TO HAVE A LADY WHOM HE WORSHIPED...CHURCH AND STATE TOLERATED THE ADULTEROUS RELATIONSHIP...IT WAS THE THING TO CHOOSE A CELESTIAL PATRONESS, AND THE USUAL PRACTICE WAS TO INVOKE THE VIRGIN MARY...
BLOODSHED WAS MADE HONORABLE BY THE INSTITUTION OF CHIVALRY WHICH RITUALIZED VIOLENCE. THE GENUINE KNIGHTLY VIRTUES OF COURAGE AND FIDELITY WERE INFLUENCED WITH CHRISTIAN IDEAS...THE KNIGHT BECAME SIR GALAHAD OR A SQUIRE OF THE VIRGIN MARY...NEVERTHELESS THE KNIGHT REMAINED AT HEART A RUDE WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CHIEFLY FOR THE LOVE OF FIGHTING...REPORTS ARE FILLED WITH EXAMPLES OF LUST AND GREED AND HIS HABIT OF PILLAGING OR SLAUGHTERING THE PEASANTRY...
THE CRUSADES:
URBAN II WANTED TO DEFEND CHRISTIAN SOCIETY. IN LAUNCHING THE FIRST CRUSADE, URBAN SAID: "YOU MUST CARRY AID TO YOUR BROTHERS DWELLING IN THE EAST...THE TURKS HAVE ATTACKED THEM...THEY HAVE DESTROYED CHURCHES..." EN ROUTE TO THE HOLY LAND, CRUSADING MOBS DESTROYED JEWISH COMMUNITIES RAPING, PLUNDERING AND MURDERING. IN THE HOLY LAND NONCOMBATANTS, WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE SLAUGHTERED.
THE PRIESTHOOD AND THE PARDONER: WHAT DID CHAUCER KNOW ABOUT THE CLERGY IN THE "REAL" WORLD?...
REALISM {FROM THE RULE OF ST. AUGUSTINE / BENEDICT}...
1.THE MAIN PURPOSE FOR YOUR HAVING COME TOGETHER IS TO LIVE HARMONIOUSLY IN YOUR HOUSE, INTENT UPON GOD IN THE ONENESS OF MIND AND HEART. 2. SUBDUE THE FLESH AS FOR AS YOUR HEALTH PERMITS, BY FASTING AND ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD AND DRINK 3. THERE SHOULD BE NOTHING ABOUT YOUR CLOTHING TO ATTRACT ATTENTION. 4. ALTHOUGH YOUR EYES MAY CHANCE TO REST UPON SOME WOMAN OR OTHER, YOU MUST NOT FIX YOUR GAZE UPON ANY WOMAN...IT IS SINFUL TO TO DESIRE THEM OR TO WISH THEM TO DESIRE YOU...LUSTFUL DESIRES ARISE. 5. NO ONE SHALL PERFORM ANY TASK FOR HIS OWN BENEFIT BUT ALL YOUR WORK SHALL BE DONE FOR THE COMMON GOOD FOR CHARITY IS NOT SELF SEEKING
NOMINALISM: WHERE IS THE ROAD OR THE VILLAGE IN WHICH ONE DOES NOT SEE THE MONK ON HORSEBACK?...IS THERE A FEAST, A FAIR OR A MARKETPLACE WHERE MONKS DO NOT APPEAR? THER ARE TO BE SEEN IN ALL ASSEMBLIES, IN ALL BATTLES...MONKS SWARM EVERYWHERE THAT KINGS ASSEMBLE...
THE PROFESSION OF THE PARDONER:
THE PARDONER WAS A MEDIEVAL OFFICIAL. HE WAS ENGAGED IN THREE ACTIVITIES: 1--SELLING INDULGENCES, 2-SELLING RELICS AND 3-PREACHING. INDULGENCES MEANT AT FIRST THAT TIME IN PURGATORY WOULD BE REMITTED IF ONE PRAYED FOR THE SOULS THERE AND MADE A DONATION TO THE CHURCH. EVENTUALLY, THE PRACTICE BECAME SORT OF A ÔPROTECTION RACKETÕ WHICH PROMISES HEAVEN WITHOUT AN ENTRANCE PENALTY [PURGATORY] TO THOSE WHO HAD THE BIGGEST CHECKBOOK. [LUTHER WOULD EVENTUALLY BREAK FROM THE CHURCH DUE TO THIS PRACTICE.] THE PENALTIES WITHOUT ÔREMISSIONÕ COULD BE SEVERE: BANDS OF PEOPLE WANDERED THROUGH TOWNS AND COUNTRYSIDE DOING PENANCE IN PUBLIC. THEY INFLUENCED ALL SORTS OF PUNISHMENTS UPON THEMSELVES, TRYING TO ATONE FOR THE EVIL IN THE WORLD...STRIPPED TO THE WAIST, THEY FORMED CIRCLES AND BEAT UPON THEIR BACKS WITH WEIGHTED WHIPS, REJOICING...SOME MADE THEMSELVES BLEED VERY BADLY BETWEEN THE SHOULDER BLADES AND SOME WOMEN HAD CLOTHS READY TO CATCH THE BLOOD AND SMEAR IT ON THEIR EYES SAYING IT WAS MIRACULOUS BLOOD...
DETAILS:
1--THE CHURCH AUTHORIZED INDIVIDUALS TO COLLECT THE MONEY.
2--ABUSES--INDULGENCES WERE FORGED BY CRIMINALS, PARDONERS KEPT THE MONEY FOR THEMSELVES.
3--PARDONS WERE SOLD TO CON MEN
4--THE ROLE OF THE SACRAMENTS WERE SUBVERTED
5--SAMPLE PARDON:
This letter grants to the recipient the right to choose a confessor who can absolve him from all sins, however enormous, as often as he wishes, though those which are reserved to the pope can be absolved only once, and to grant him full remission and indulgence once during life and again at death. Then follows the formula of absolution, showing that is was customary to perform this at once, by the pardoner or one of his assistants.
6--Note that the sample says nothing about confession or that God alone will pardon sins.
7--Many con men used whatever they could find to pass off as relics on a gullible public.[see Chaucer on this.] Pope Boniface IX in 1390 [ten years before Chaucer's death] condemned these practices., He particularly condemned the fact that these individuals were authorized by Rome, probably with false credentials [see Chaucer on this.]
8--Pardoners were great preachers--[see The Pardoner's Tale]
9--This Pardoner claims to be from Roncesvalles...
a. a hospital and chapel was established there
b. The monastic order there spread from Spain to England, following the rule of Augustine
c. the selling of indulgences to raise money for the hospital was a well known in Chaucer's day.
d. John of Gaunt, the patron of Chaucer and most powerful nobleman in England, was a hospital sponsor
e. In 1379, the financial abuses were so bad that the crown seized the buildings and arrested those involved, and thereafter, activities were under suspicion.
f. In 1387, a scandal concerning the sale of indulgences was 'headline news' so Chaucer's choice of a location made sense
g. The criminal activities of the Pardoner would be well known
RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES AND REFORMS:
THE LOLLARDS [FOLLOWERS OF THE RELIGIOUS REFORMER, JOHN WYCLIF] ARGUED WHETHER A CORRUPT OFFICIAL LIKE THE PARDONER COULD VALIDLY PERFORM ANY GOOD WORKS. THIS RAISED ISSUES OF WHO WAS A SAINT, A SINNER AND WHAT OUGHT TO BE DONE REGARDING HERETICS. OFTEN THE CHURCH SEEMED TO BE ON THE DEFENSIVE...WYCLIFF, FOR EXAMPLE, ATTACKED PAPAL CORRUPTION, BASED RELIGION ON READING THE BIBLE, AND OPPOSED THE PRIESTHOOD ETC. AS CORRUPT, AND WYCLIF CONDEMNED THE THEORY OF INDULGENCES AND SPEAK OF LICENSED PARDONERS AS DECEITFUL.
ONE LOLLARD, FOR EXAMPLE, SAYS INDIGNANTLY [SPELLING NOT MODERNIZED]...
...there cometh a pardoner with stollen bullis and false relekis, grauntynge mo yeris of pardon than comen bifore domes day for gevynge of worldly catel to riche placis where is no nede ... And this pardoner schalle telle of more power than evere Christ grauntid to Peter or Paul or ony apostle, to drawe the almes fro pore bedrede neigheboris that ben knowen feble and pore, and to gete it to hem self and wasten it ful synfulli in ydelnesse and glotonye and lecherie . .
The orthodox reformer accepts the theory, but despises the practice. One such homilist, in enumerating different kinds of thieves, says in disgust:
Sothell [sic] theves beth the men that slyly can robbe men with many queynt sotell wordes, and with fals behestynge; and sum with fals letters and seeles, with crosses, and reliques that thei bere abowten them, and sei that thei be of seyntes bones or of holy mens clothinpe, and behoteth myche mede that will offre to hem, and hire the ]etters of pardon, ichon of other, as a kowe or a nox that men lat to hure; the wiche thei sell all for the penny, and of no man's mede, with many fals lesynges, as the feend here maister techeth hem, for to robbe the pore pepull sotelly of ther goodes."
And an article cited above states:
Whereas the shameless pardoners purchase their vile traffic in farm with Simon, sell Indulgences with Gehazi, and squander their gains in disgraceful fashion with the Prodigal Son: but what is more detestable still, although not in holy orders, they preach publicly, and pretend falsely that they have full powers of absolving both living and dead alike from punishment and guilt, along with other blasphemies, j by means of which they plunder and seduce the people, and in all probability drag them down with their own person to the infernal "legions, by affording them frivolous hope and an audacity to commit 'in: therefore, let the abuses of this pestilential sect be blotted out from the threshold of the Church."
Although he writes in strong disapproval of the sins of pardoners, Chaucer is silent about the theory that gave rise to their office, so the religious tradition would be that the Pardoner is damned. Chaucer may have, according to some critics, chose a pardoner to avoid taking sides against the church by picking a priest, or for the church since everyone would condemn a pardoner as did the church, eventually outlawing the practice in the Council of Trent.
THE LITERARY GENRE OF CHAUCER: HOW CHAUCER CREATES CHARACTER
Note that the work called the Canterbury Tales consists of a "General Prologue" or introduction in which Chaucer describes: 1-The circumstances resulting in all the pilgrims being together 2- Each pilgrim who is going along (to where? 3 -A series of tales that the individual pilgrim tells such as the "The PARDONER'S TALE" etc.
TO GET THE FULL IMPACT OF WHAT CHAUCER WAS DOING, YOU SHOULD READ THE FOLLOWING IN THE EDITION OF CHAUCER YOU HAVE.
1-THE GENERAL PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES, NOTING ESPECIALLY CHAUCER THE POETÕS DESCRIPTION OF THE PARDONER
2-THE PARDONER'S PROLOGUE TO HIS TALE, WHICH IS HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY
3-THE TALE THAT THE PARDONER TELLS ABOUT THE OLD MAN AND THE THEFT.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS BASED ON THE READINGS:
1. What is a frame story? (Recall the Book of Job.) How does Chaucer use it?
2. What figures of speech predominate?
3. What do you notice Chaucer doing regarding the role of God in human affair in relation to suffering and the problem of evil? In so doing, relate what Chaucer does to the following: Nominalism and realism and the philosophy of the day, and the social structure--the chain of being in evidence
4. Who is the "I" referred to in The General Prologue?
5. Provide definitions for the following terms and note their relationship to Chaucer:
a. irony
b. satire
c. persona--NOTE THE CHAUCER POET/PILGRIM DISTINCTION
d. frame story
e. physiognomy--this one is especially important for The Pardoner
f. metaphor
g. understatement
THE OPENING OF THE GENERAL PROLOGUE derives its effectiveness from Chaucer's use of allusion to Biblical and classical sources. Note the applications of the following:
BIBLICAL:
Then God remembered the animals that were with him in the ark, so God made a wind sweep on the earth and the waters began to subside.
CLASSICAL:
In classical mythology, a theory holds that natural forces are personified to be made intelligible--thunder god, river god etc. The god of the west wind was ZEPHYR. Psyche (life spirit or soul) was so lovely that the goddess of love, Venus , grew quite jealous and determined to punish her. She asked Cupid (love / peace/ order / non-violence---resides in the heart) to use his famous arrow to make her fall in love with something grotesque. Ironically two unexpected events occurred. Cupid fell in love with Psyche, and Psyche herself grew aloof and loved no one her herself. Apollo (wisdom, order, truth) said it was in reaction to Cupid's story. Apollo mandated that she had to remain apart until a horrid monster would marry her. As she sat alone, ...a swift breath of air came through the stillness, the gentle breath of Zepher, sweet and mildest of winds." The wind transported her to a beautiful field full rich in flowers. She awoke from a sleep with a premonition that she would see her future husband soon. At night, her husband came but as a test warned her that she could never attempt to see him. Urged to do so by her jealous sisters, she broke her promise and discovered her love was none other than Cupid. The god awoke from his sleep, saw her and fled saying there could be no love where trust was lacking. Heartbroken, Psyche searched for Cupid and ultimately had to ask Venus herself for assistance. Venus responded by making her undergo a series of impossible trials, one of which was to bring her "golden wool" from sheep grazing near a river. Looking at the water, she thought, "...to throw herself into it and end all her fear and pain.: She did not. Meanwhile, Cupid who had been imprisoned by the jealous Venus escaped (love cannot be held captive) and demanded from Zeus (idea of divine justice) that the marriage be allowed. Psyche was made immortal by Zeus who gave her ambrosia, and Venus no longer objected.
MEDICAL INFORMATION:
It would be useful to understand the meaning of the word physiognomy, and apply its meaning to Chaucer's description of the Pardoner. This is especially important. Look for one key line especially.