Paper Summary:

The paper examines Geoffrey Chaucer's views on the vhurch in his day as depicted in his,"Canterbury Tales" which, although being a massive influence on daily life, was fairly corrupt and inefficient. It looks at how the narrator gently satirises the neglectful Monk, but saves his sharpest barbs for the greedy, lecherous and selfishly amoral Friar.

From the Paper:

"If it can be strongly argued that Chaucer does not dislike the monk, the friar is the opposite. Chaucer reserves his most biting satire for the friar, who comes next in the three ecclesiastical figures in the Prologue. This is due to the fact that, unlike the monk, the friar's corruption harms others, and he abuses larger responsibilities in a greedier and more thoughtless way. Chaucer highlights the friar's selfish greed, self-serving superficiality and lechery, leaving me with a very dim view of his character and deeds. The friar's greed is shown in lines 223-224: "he was an esy man to yeve penaunce,/Ther as he wiste to have a good pitaunce", as he would sell absolutions to people very readily to get gifts and money."

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