The Catholic Church and Chaucer

Published: 2022-10-06
The Catholic Church and Chaucer
Type of paper:  Term paper
Categories:  History Economics Medicine
Pages: 7
Wordcount: 1771 words
15 min read
143 views

The Catholic Church in England was established many years ago. Just like the churches continue to face many challenges today, the same case happened years back. Chaucer is the author of the book Canterbury Tale that discusses various contemporary issues that occurred in the Catholic Church. In his book Chaucer as acts as the eye-opener to the society on continued immorality that took place in the Catholic Church in England. This paper summarizes and analyzes the various topics in the Canterbury Tale.

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Conerly, Kerre. "Chaucer and Medieval Religious Figures." (1990).

The authors of this article describe the genesis of The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. According to the author, Chaucer was concerned with the behaviour of the religious clergies in the Catholic Church. Being an orthodox religious follower Chaucer exposed the evils that were happening behind the scenes. The article notes, Chaucer's investigation revealed that the Catholic religious leaders in England were not only sexual immoral but they were also various forms of greediness, Lack of humility, and massive corruption for money.

Analysis of the article

From the article, it is crystal clear that the Catholic leadership is full of immorality. The church has been preaching water to members but the leaders have been drinking wine. The article asserts that during Chaucer's lifetime, the popes were more concerned with the money but failed to lead the followers to the spiritual life. The article notes that the leaders in the Catholic Church had disingenuous methods of collecting large sums of money from the members of the church including those ailing helplessly in deathbeds. Another evil that that embedded the church, is the sexual immorality that pervaded among the priest. Instead of living their celibacy life, some clergies lived with their concubines. The article depicts that Chaucer narrated his Canterbury addressed various issues such as corruption and greediness and sexual immorality

The article shows the impacts of Chaucer's investigation. Religious vendettas between various churches emerged. Chaucer's investigations increase the intensity of the rivalry between the church of orthodox and the Catholic Church. Additionally, the education system shook as the authority of church wet in shambles.

Roman, Christopher Roman. Opencanterburytales.Dsl.Lsu.Edu, 2018, https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Religious-Debate-and-Polemic-in-the-Retraction.pdf. Accessed 11 Nov 2018.

The author of the article is concerned with one of the last few work Chaucer known as retraction in his collections known as The Canterbury Tales. The author asserts that works of Chaucer retraction are an issue that involves the conflicts between the world and the divine. This article explains the insight of Chaucer on the issue of penance. Chaucer raises more concerns on the penance process and invalidates the mediation role assumed by the priest which formalizes the process. Chaucer opinion is that confession should be between man and God since it is a private issue.

Analysis of the article

The article expounds Chaucer's concern on the practice of penance during the middle age which revolves around contrition, confession and repentance. The article declares that the works of Chaucer help to boost morality and are not focused on the worldly materials.

The main issue in this article is about the role of religion and confession in the christen life. The act of confession may be guided by the unGodly and in a secular manner way. The penitential practice raises various questions such as of whether the confession could fill to ask the right questions. There could be a confusion between the Christian sinner and how the church's definition of a sinner. Additionally, the repentance loses its meaning when Christians do it since become it becomes a formal process, instead it should be a private affair that should involve between God and the sinner. Additionally, from this article, it is clear that Chaucer raises questions on the power to forgive through confessions. However, some others propose the issue of confessions of the church by arguing that the priests are only mediators between a man and God.

Shores, Travis. "Radical Chaucer: Critique Of Church As Devilry". Academia.Edu, 2013, http://www.academia.edu/4394242/Radical_Chaucer_Critique_of_Church_as_Devilry. Accessed 10 Nov 2018.

This article analyzes the critiques Chaucer has against the church in his in his Canterbury Tales. The author evaluates Chaucer his book Millers Tale. This article tries to show how Absalom in the Chaucer's represents the disconnection between the normal lives of the church members and the major offences they commit.

Analysis of the Article

The Millers Tale is overflowing with explicit associations and delusions to villain sympathizers who are symbolic in the characters they take. The Miller's story comes full circle with Nicholas in bed with the craftsman's significant other. She uncovered herself to Absolom in the vent window of her home, whereby he kisses her on what is undetermined as her vagina or anus. This is a symbol of the evil nature of human beings. The woman in the tale can be compared the one that in the bible who tricked man to sin. An Essential viewpoint to consider is that: as much as there is an extremity accepted by each kiss made reference to, both sacred and foul, there is no lie. Through this tale, Chaucer shows the existence of infidelity, false magic and sodomy that were present in his lifetime. The Canterbury Tales at that point especially are a tribute to Chaucer's prejudice of faked goals and evasion inside the everyday lives of his counterparts and serve to feature Chaucer's keenly created unexpected social critique.

Creighton, J. J. (1957). Chaucer's Presentation of the Church in the Canterbury Tales.

In this article, the author explains how Chaucer opened the eyes of many in expounding the real events that took such as the people's lives, customs and issues that took place in the 14th century. The interest of the author in this article is to look at what really impelled Chaucer to write the book Canterbury Tales and the impacts of his work to the community in England. Additionally, the author aimed to look at the position of Chaucer towards the church in relation to various principles, males Christians of the Canterbury Tales, and the Orthodox Catholic. The article also tried to answer the question of what could have shared the vast knowledge that is so essential to the historians.

The analysis of the Article

The article depicts that the literacy intelligence that Chaucer possess. The Canterbury Tales vividly shows that Chaucer wrote his books not addressing any particular for successors or for the entire contemporary populace of England, but for a bunch of retainers, men of their word, churchmen, proficient men, authorities, and urban traders. Assortment and clarity with a wide range of literature styles in the Canterbury Tale is the writer's way to progress as a good writer. Through his skilful and writing he is able to envisage the reader perfect wording imageries about the 14th century. He creates a clear image to the reader about the position of men and women, the religious people in England and who did little to enhance spirituality in England. Additionally, he hides some of the truths in the book, the style that enhances the reader to read more about the book Canterbury Tales.

His creativity in envisaging the 14th century's events portray the real characters of the clergy. Through his work people are able to understand the deplorable commodities that embedded the church England. He opened the eyes to the society in England bout the hypocritical nature of the religious leaders. In the middle of the shameful moment, the gifted pen

of an immortal poet portrayed the churchmen of the times. This description enhances the reader, understand Chaucer's opinion towards the Church. With that equivalent insight, he commends the principled movement of the Poor Parson. Besides, no place in the Chaucer's work Chaucer considers the spiritual influence of the Church co-extensive with the human delicacy of her individuals. The pervasive use of satires and ironies by the author help to expound the traditions, the social class and the power of the societies In England.

Murchison, Krista A. "The Parson'S Tale - The Open Access Companion To The Canterbury Tales". Opencanterburytales.Dsl.Lsu.Edu, 2017, https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu/parst1/. Accessed 11 Nov 2018.

In this article relates the emergence of the app about confessions in the Itunes store to the Parson's tales I the Canterbury Tale. The article has raised a lot of debate in society. Parson explains his tale by dividing it into three major parts, which include a feeling of regret for a sin, unfolding the sin to the cleric, the process of amending the sin. The article continues to receive the process of confessions for the people in England. The topic on whether the Parson's Tale world to ruin the system of the ancient confession is may also relate to the Chaucer's resistance church in his lifetime. The rise of the Protestant has been as a result against the established church in England.

Analysis of the Article

In this article, the process of penitence may seem to have a problem. The Christians may not have understood the particular types of sins they ought to have repented for. The clergy encouraged the sinners to undertake the minor and the fewer sins important sins. This article suggests that if by encouraging individualizing because it would help people to form

In comparison to the Chaucer' use of the satire and irony, the Parsons Tale hardly uses any style of expresses dissatisfaction. However, the question of the tale has not been received well by all groups Wiclif's society strongly rejected the medieval confession. Additionally, some scholars argue against this article since it would weaken the foundation of the church.

In conclusion, Immorality in the Catholic Church in England demonstrated the hypocrisy that continued behind the scenes of the Christians. Chaucer was bold enough through his works are able to address the public the evil actions that the clergy did through his writings. The book Canterbury Tale raises many opinions about the conduct of the Catholic Church on issues such as penance, and immorality. He uses literary styles such as satire and irony to help the reader envisage what really happened during the 14th century.

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Work Cited

Conerly, Kerre. "Chaucer and Medieval Religious Figures." (1990).

Creighton, J. J. (1957). Chaucer's Presentation of the Church in the Canterbury Tales.

Murchison, Krista A. "The Parson'S Tale - The Open Access Companion To The Canterbury Tales". Opencanterburytales.Dsl.Lsu.Edu, 2017, https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu/parst1/. Accessed 11 Nov 2018.

Roman, Christopher Roman. Opencanterburytales.Dsl.Lsu.Edu, 2018, https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Religious-Debate-and-Polemic-in-the-Retraction.pdf. Accessed 11 Nov 2018.

Shores, Travis. "Radical Chaucer: Critique Of Church As Devilry". Academia.Edu, 2013, http://www.academia.edu/4394242/Radical_Chaucer_Critique_of_Church_as_Devilry. Accessed 10 Nov 2018.

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