Chaucer’s Pardoner and His Relics

Chaucer's Pardoner and His Relics Siegfried Wenzel University ofPennsylvania IN nus NOTE I wish to call attention to some hitherto unnoticed evidence that in Chaucer's time the association of pardoners with fake relics was not as uncommon or even unparalleled as is currently believed. Chau­ cer's Pardoner is a "seller" of indulgences; that is, he collects the money or other goods offered him by people desiring to receive the indulgences he has been authorized to communicate. 1 To receive such offerings, he preaches in parish churches, stirring his audiences' hearts and advertising the power and value of his indulgences. In addition, he carries relics with him which he displays and uses similarly to elicit offerings. His relics are false, yet in showing them to the congregations, he exalts their supposed magic powers: they can heal sick animals, protect against jealousy, multiply grain, and so on. All this he reports to his fellow pilgrims in the Prologue to his tale. At the end of the tale as well as in the ensuing addition he demonstrates the climax of his solicitation twice, directing it first to an imaginary congregation to whom he has preached and told the tale of the three rioters, and second to his fellow pilgrims, particularly the Host. Chaucer's depiction of a false pardoner in search of money is in agree­ ment with criticism and prohibitions issued by contemporary church ofli­ cials2 and parallels the satire directed against such men by Langland. 3 Displaying fake relics with the accompanying commendation of their powers and the request for offerings is a similarly traditional theme.4 But 1 The basic andbest-informedstudy ofindulgencesand pardoners in English is still Alfred L. Kellogg and Louis A. Haselmayer, "Chaucer's Satire ofthe Pardoner," in Alfred L. Kellogg, ed., Chaucer; Langland, Arthur: Essays in Middle English Literature (New Brunswick, N.J., 1972), pp. 212-44; originally published in PMLA 66 (1951):251-77. ' The Pardoner is "false" because he promises absolution "a poena et culpa." For official prohibitions, see the literature cited by Christine Ryan Hilary, in Larry D. Benson, gen. ed., The Riverside Chaucer, 3d ed. (Boston, 1987), p. 823 l PiersPlowman, B.Prol.68-77, 2.220-23, 5.639-40, in the edition by A. V C. Schmidt (London, 1978). 4Jill Mann, ChaucerandMedievalEstatesSatire(Cambridge,1973),pp. 150-52. Butnote that her examples come from France and Italy. 37 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER the combination of a pardoner with the display of fake relics, as it appears in Chaucer's portrait, seems to have few if any parallels outside The Canterbury Tales. Intheirexamination ofcanonical and pastoral literature, Kellogg and Haselmayer came to the conclusion that "the carrying of false relics was an abuse so rare that no contemporary manual even discusses it, while allusions to the practice are only very infrequently to be met with elsewhere."5 This view has been generally accepted and has found its way intoJill Mann's study ofmedieval estates satire6 as well as the most recent annotated edition of The Canterbury Tales.7 Hence it may seem that the display of false relics is an additional characteristic, like the Pardoner's eunuchry or his coming from "Rouncivale," with which Chaucer has "in­ creased the vividness and suggestiveness" of his otherwise conventional satire of the Pardoner's profession.8 There is, however, some hitherto unattended evidence that the connec­ tion of false relics with pardoners was not unusual in Chaucer's time, which will obviously have some consequences for our appraisal of Chaucer's creativity and satire. Before presenting this evidence, I wouldlike to correct a minor but pervasive misapprehension connected with the Pardoner's activity. Critics frequently speak of his selling relics.9 This is correct only if one takes the verbsell in the meaning of "persuading someone to accept" or "convincing someone of the value of an object" or the like. It is patently false in the primary sense of "transferring goods in exchange for money." The Pardoner certainly makes a lot of money with his relics (GP A.701704 ), but he does so by showing them forth (PardTC.347), providing some physical contact with them (touch, kiss), and requesting a...