Go Forth and Sin No More

Go Forth and Sin No More

The consequences of sin have been a long standing theme in world literature. From the serpent’s temptation of gluttony in the Old Testament to the temptation of lust in The Scarlet Letter, the testing of one’s morality has constantly resonated with authors and their readers. In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer presented exemplums of greed in “The Friar’s Tale,” pride in “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” and faith in “The Franklin’s Tale” to illustrate the tests of morality his characters and his readers faced on a daily basis.

In “The Friar’s Tale,” the summoner’s character is tempted by greed. Summoners were officials in ecclesiastical courts who summoned people to attend services and worked in a similar way to ushers. Unlike a respectable person, the summoner in the tale has no qualms with using his position of power to take advantage of others, for “Certyn he knew of briberyes mo Than possible is to tell in yeres two” (III 1367-1368). He “Hadde alwey bawds redy to his hond” (1339-1440) who would tell him which people to exploit next. This corruption upsets the narrator, a friar, and he sets out to show the consequences of such vile acts of sin. On a routine day while the summoner was “waityng on his pray” (1376) the devil disguised as a yeoman rode in the forest. The yeoman tests the summoner’s character by tantalizing him with gold and silver. The summoner’s insatiable thirst for monetary gain causes him to heartily attempt to gain that money, only to discover that the yeoman was the devil. Both “rydest for the same entente” (1452) of purchasing people’s souls, however the summoner refuses to join the devil in his literal work of destroying people’s souls. While this could be seen as not giving in to temptation, it is not the evils of Satan he is retreating from. Charles J. Owen Jr. attributes this to “characters…constantly appealing to morality to clothe their betrayals”. He is merely afraid of the pits of hell and uses his profession to shield him from joining such a course, saying “My trouthe wol I holde to my brother, As I am sworn, and ech of us til oother” (1527-1528). However, the lesson the friar is trying to impart on his listeners (and Chaucer to his readers) comes when the summoner attempts to fraudulently collect money from an old widow. The summoner went to her home with plans to take her money and harm her life, but the old lady inadvertently robs the summoner of his soul by cursing him and his intentions, saying “Unto the devel blak and rough of hewe Yeve I thy body and my panne also!” (1622-1623) The devil gladly answers her request and takes the summoner to hell. The summoner was able to pass the devil’s initial test, but failed to repent and cease his harm on innocent people. He was unable to refrain himself from the temptation of greed. As a result, the deadly sin cost him his soul.

In “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”, pride is the deadly sin that tests Chaunticleer and his tester Russell the fox. The characters in the tale were created to satirize the swelled pride of knights, the notion of courtly love, and to demonstrate just how egocentric these ideals really were. Chaunticleer is an overly perfect rooster with an overly exquisite singing voice:

In al the land, of crowing nas his peer.

His voys was murier than the murie orgon

On messe-dayes that in the chirche gon.

Wel sikerer was his crowing in his logge

Than is a clokke or an abbey orlogge. (VII 2850-2854)

This is the narrator’s description, and also the belief Chaunticleer has about himself. He is well aware of his fine attributes and has no problem displaying them.

In addition to his fine appearance and singing voice, he also has “Sevene hennes for to doon at his plesaunce” (2866), the fairest of which is Pertelote. When he tells her a terrifying dream he had, she calls him a coward and immediately wants nothing to do with him. Chaunticleer, being the self-absorbed rooster he is, refuses to let his pride be destroyed, let alone by a female. He gives numerous examples of people who have given no thought to dreams and the consequences of their inaction. However, when Chaunticleer is done with his rant, it is clear to the reader he only said such things to save his wounded pride, for he says “I diffye bothe sweven and dreem” (3171), completely contradicting his earlier speech. When Russell appears in his home, the reader would assume he would have nothing to do with the fox after his murderous dream. Unfortunately, Chaunticleer’s pride blinds him to Russell’s intentions. Russell knows the rooster has an enormous ego and uses that to