The Pardoner is a disreputable representative of the church. The "General Prologue" describes him as being a lying, swindling hypocrite, and he does not hesitate to tell you this himself. The main theme of his sermons, and "The Pardoner's Tale," is "love of money is the root to all evil," yet his primary motivation in life is money. He dupes his listeners, and gains their acceptance of his authenticity, by displaying fancy religious letters and seals, and occasionally speaking Latin phrases. Once he has the listeners in his grasp, he takes advantage of the poor, naive people in his congregation and invites them to make offerings to be pardoned.

The Pardoner recites whichever memorized sermon he believes will bring him the greatest number of gifts and offerings. He refers to his job as a game and in it only to win profits for himself. He carries many counterfeit relics, such as a mitten, which is supposed to multiply the grains of its possessor, but in reality it does nothing. He carries numerous similar items with the intent of deceiving people and selling the relics for their false powers. His sermons

Chaucer does, however, give a perfect example of how a man of the church is to live. A servant of the Lord should live a life similar to the description of the Parson's life in the "General Prologue." The Parson is "rich in holy thought and work," as well as, benign, diligent, and patient. Acts 20:35 says, "it is more blessed to give than to receive," and the Parson exemplifies that by giving all he can spare to poor parishioners. He travels to pay a call whether "rain or thunder," and is a "perfect Shepherd to his flock." The Parson is never contemptuous of sinful men and lives his life by example, just as all godly men should do. That is why Chaucer says, "there was never a better priest" (17).

are full of tricks and schemes with the sole intent of provoking guilt and duping people into giving offerings. For example, he warns the members of his congregation that unless they are burdened by sins too severe for a public confession, they better come forward to place an offering and be pardoned. The Pardoner says his "exclusive purpose is to win, and not at all to castigate their sin" (243). He does not experience guilt in taking a poor woman's only coin or a s

Some common words found in the essay are:
Pardoner's Tale, Testament Money, Prologue Parson, Tale Pardoner, Church Pardoner, representative church, pardoner's tale, terrible representative church, terrible representative, love money, pardoned pardoner,
Approximate Word count = 794
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)