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TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN THE PARDONER'S TALE Joseph R. Millichap Although the complexity of Chaucer's most puzzling pilgrim, the Pardoner , has elicited a variety of critical reactions, the best recent scholarship elucidates the religious patterns in his portrait and tale.1 For example, A. L. Kellog studies the Pardoner as an illustration in Augustinian terms of spiritual degeneration, the secret punishment of sin,2 and Robert P. Miller interprets the Pardoner's character through comparison widi the Scriptural eunuch, concluding that he is spiritually, as well as physically, impotent.3 The present study extends this religious approach by considering imagery of transubstantiation and transformation in the Pardoner's Tale. In traditional Christian terms, the Pardoner, unable to participate in Christ's sacrificial act through the transubstantiation rite of the Mass, transforms his works into meaningless material successes only, not into spiritual achievement . Interestingly enough, the dynamics of this personality development are corroborated by the modern religious psychology of Carl Jung. The positioning of the Pardoner's typical sermon within the sacrifice of the Mass creates religious implications of considerable importance in a reading of his character. Unfortunately, criticism has not considered the typical setting of die Pardoner's histrionics as thoroughly as the scene of the recorded performance on die Canterbury pilgrimage. The General Prologue demonstrates that he usually speaks at the Offertory of the Mass: But alderbest he song an ofTertorie; For wel he wiste, whan that song was songe, He moste prêche and wel affile his tonge To wynne silver, as he ful wel koude; Therefore he song the murierly and loude. (I, 710-714)4 His description of die blessings provided by his wares parodies the Bidding Prayer, not so much a prayer as a bidding of the congregation's prayers as a v Albert C. Baugh, Chaucer, Goldentree Bibliographies (New York, 1968) provides a thorough listing of scholarship. The bibliographical issues o£ PMLA and Chaucer Review will bring it to date. " "An Augustinian Interpretation of Chaucer's Pardoner," Speculum, XXVI (1951), 465-481. 3 "Chaucer's Pardoner, the Scriptural Eunuch, and the Pardoner's Tale," Speculum, XXX (1955), 180-199. 1 Citations from Chaucer in my text arc to The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2nd edition, cd. Fred N. Robinson (Cambridge, Mass., 1957). 102 Transubstantiation in the Pardoner's Tale103 reward for those who have offered gifts; this "prayer" was in the vernacular and followed the Latin Offertory verse.5 The General Prologue confirms the link between the collection for the support of the local diocese and parish and the offering for the Pardoner's wares : But with thise relikes, whan that he fond A povre person dwellyng upon lond, Upon a day he gat hym moore moneye Than that the person gat in monthes tweye. (I, 701-704) His profits must be part of the congregation's offering at Mass, and the sacrilegious appropriation of these gifts for his own selfish purposes symbolizes the waste of his whole being. The Pardoner's peculation also exemplifies the inversion of earthly goods described by medieval authorities including St. Augustine. In De Doctrina Christiana (Book 3, Part 10, Paragraph 16) Augustine states: "I call 'charity' the motion of the soul toward the enjoyment of God for His own sake, and the enjoyment of one's self and of one's neighbor for the sake of God; but 'cupidity' is a motion of the soul toward the enjoyment of one's self, one's neighbor, or any corporal thing for the sake of somediing other than God."8 The Christian charity exhibited by the faidiful in the giving of offerings is distorted by die Pardoner into the amoral cupidity of his misappropriation of die offerings, and as he tells his audience again and again, "Radix malorum est Cupiditas." This connection of the Pardoner's conduct and personality can be clarified further by an examination of the nature of the Mass and its centrality in Christian worship.7 The Mass is a memorial rite which celebrates Christ's redemptive act of sacrifice. Sacrifice universally consists in man's presentation to God of an object which stands for everything he possesses, including his own selfhood; in its ultimate extension...

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