Geoffrey Chaucer, The Pardoner’s Prologue (1387–1400)

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342–1400) wore many hats in his native England: soldier, diplomat, customs official, and politician. Yet it was his talent as a poet deeply in tune with pressing social and religious issues that gained him fame. In the late fourteenth century, he composed one of the great works of world literature, The Canterbury Tales, in Middle English. Here he claims to narrate the story of thirty pilgrims who embark on a journey to Thomas Becket’s shrine at Canterbury. Each pilgrim is supposed to tell two stories to pass the time. The men and women, collectively representing most social classes and professions of the day, tell tales that are bawdy parodies of society, religion, and gender roles. Yet, at the same time, the stories also provide shrewd insights into human behavior and social evils. The following tale, told by the Pardoner, a medieval indulgence preacher, represents the worst of religion at a time of crisis in the church. Known as the Great Schism (1378–1417), two men claimed their right to the papacy, sparking increasingly vocal calls for reform. The Pardoner personified what many Christians regarded as the clergy’s failings. Instead of using his preaching skills to teach the Christian life, the Pardoner is a con artist and hypocrite who willingly deceives to enrich himself and to eat well—two of Catholic Christianity’s deadly sins: avarice and gluttony.

From Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, trans. into modern English J. U. Nicolson (New York: Covici Friede Publishers, 1870), 293–96.

“Masters,” quoth he, “in churches, when I preach,

I am at pains that all shall hear my speech,

And ring it out as roundly as a bell,

For I know all by heart the thing I tell.

My theme is always one, and ever was:

‘Radix malorum est cupiditas.’¹

“First I announce the place whence I have come,

And then I show my pardons, all and some.

Our liege-lord’s seal on my patent perfect,

I show that first, my safety to protect,

And then no man’s so bold, no priest nor clerk,

As to disturb me in Christ’s holy work;

And after that my tales I marshal all.

Indulgences of pope and cardinal,

Of patriarch and bishop, these I do

Show, and in Latin speak some words, a few,

To spice therewith a bit my sermoning

And stir men to devotion, marveling.

Then show I forth my hollow crystal-stones,

Which are crammed full of rags, aye, and of bones;

Relics are these, as they think, every one.

Then I’ve in latten box a shoulder bone

Which came out of a holy Hebrew’s sheep.

‘Good men,’ say I, ‘my words in memory keep;

If this bone shall be washed in any well,

Then if a cow, calf, sheep, or ox should swell

That’s eaten snake, or been by serpent stung,

Take water of that well and wash its tongue,

And ’twill be well anon; and furthermore,

Of pox and scab and every other sore

Shall every sheep be healed that of this well

Drinks but one draught; take heed of what I tell.

And if the man that owns the beasts, I trow,

Shall every week, and that before cock-crow,

And before breakfast, drink thereof a draught,

As that Jew taught of yore in his priestcraft,

His beasts and all his store shall multiply.

And, good sirs, it’s a cure for jealousy;

For though a man be fallen in jealous rage,

Let one make of this water his pottage

And nevermore shall he his wife mistrust,

Though he may know the truth of all her lust,

Even though she’d taken two priests, aye, or three.

“ ‘Here is a mitten, too, that you may see.

Who puts his hand therein, I say again,

He shall have increased harvest of his grain,

After he’s sown, be it of wheat or oats,

Just so he offers pence or offers groats.

“ ‘Good men and women, one thing I warn you,

If any man be here in church right now

That’s done a sin so horrible that he

Dare not, for shame, of that sin shriven be,

Or any woman, be she young or old,

That’s made her husband into a cuckold,

Such folk shall have no power and no grace

To offer to my relics in this place.

But whoso finds himself without such blame,

He will come up and offer, in God’s name,

And I’ll absolve him by authority

That has, by bull, been granted unto me.’

“By this fraud have I won me, year by year,

A hundred marks, since I’ve been pardoner.

I stand up like a scholar in pulpit,

And when the ignorant people all do sit,

I preach, as you have heard me say before,

And tell a hundred false japes, less or more.

I am at pains, then, to stretch forth my neck,

And east and west upon the folk I beck,

As does a dove that’s sitting on a barn.

With hands and swift tongue, then, do I so yarn

That it’s a joy to see my busyness.

Of avarice and of all such wickedness

Is all my preaching, thus to make them free

With offered pence, the which pence come to me.

For my intent is only pence to win,

And not at all for punishment of sin.

When they are dead, for all I think thereon

Their souls may well black-berrying have gone!

For, certainly, there’s many a sermon grows

Ofttimes from evil purpose, as one knows;

Some for folks’ pleasure and for flattery,

To be advanced by all hypocrisy,

And some for vainglory, and some for hate.

For, when I dare not otherwise debate,

Then do I sharpen well my tongue and sting

The man in sermons, and upon him fling

My lying defamations, if but he

Has wronged my brethren or—much worse—wronged me.

For though I mention not his proper name,

Men know whom I refer to, all the same,

By signs I make and other circumstances.

Thus I pay those who do us displeasances.

Thus spit I out my venom under hue

Of holiness, to seem both good and true.

“But briefly my intention I’ll express;

I preach no sermon, save for covetousness.

For that my theme is yet, and ever was,

‘Radix malorum est cupiditas.’

Thus can I preach against that self-same vice

Which I indulge, and that is avarice.

But though myself be guilty of that sin,

Yet can I cause these other folk to win

From avarice and really to repent.

But that is not my principal intent.

I preach no sermon, save for covetousness;

This should suffice of that, though, as I guess.

“Then do I cite examples, many a one,

Out of old stories and of time long gone,

For vulgar people all love stories old;

Such things they can re-tell well and can hold.

What? Think you that because I’m good at preaching

And win me gold and silver by my teaching

I’ll live of my free will in poverty?

No, no, that’s never been my policy!

For I will preach and beg in sundry lands;

I will not work and labor with my hands,

Nor baskets weave and try to live thereby,

Because I will not beg in vain, say I.

I will none of the apostles counterfeit;

I will have money, wool, and cheese, and wheat,

Though it be given by the poorest page,

Or by the poorest widow in village,

And though her children perish of famine.

Nay! I will drink good liquor of the vine

And have a pretty wench in every town.

But hearken, masters, to conclusion shown:

Your wish is that I tell you all a tale.

Now that I’ve drunk a draught of musty ale,

By God, I hope that I can tell something

That shall, in reason, be to your liking.

For though I am myself a vicious man,

Yet I would tell a moral tale, and can,

The which I’m wont to preach more gold to win.

Now hold your peace! my tale I will begin.”

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