ipl-logo

Comparing Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales And Pope Francis

1196 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The catholic church and corruption

Because the Parson in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Pope Francis follow the same doctrines of Christianity, take similar, merciful action toward sinners, and work against corruption within the Catholic Church, the Parson would like the pope, and maybe even see him as a role model. While the pope enjoys certain luxuries because of his high status, both he and the Parson lead simple lives to the extent that they can, as well as help those in poverty. As well, even though Pope Francis seems to be liberal, he simply is more forgiving and lenient in his punishments toward those who partake in sinful action, similarly to how the Parson treats the sinners that he meets with sympathy and kindness. Both the pope and the Parson also work …show more content…

The Parson is one of the three perfect characters in The Canterbury Tales, so he must uphold his pledge of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Catholic Church. Instead of “[running] to London to earn easy bread/by singing masses for the wealthy dead/or [finding] some Brotherhood and [getting] enrolled”(16), the Parson turns away from what many others succumbed to, the corruption of collecting easy money. Pope Francis is similar to the Parson in this manner, also being able to turn away from corruption and root it out of the Church, such as with the Vatican Bank. When his papacy began, the pope had immediately realized that there was something wrong with the system and transactions of the Vatican Bank, but instead of using that to his own advantage and profiting from it himself, he decided to reform the bank by “[closing] about 3,000 of its 19,000 accounts. [He has] also sent reports on 200 suspicious transactions”(NPR). Easily, Pope Francis could have been like the Vatican Bank real estate manager, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who was found, Gross explains to have “millions of dollars worth of art in his home”(NPR); instead, much like the Parson, the pope continued to maintain his pledge of poverty and ignore the corruption of money. Both Pope Francis and the Parson are not working for anyone other than God. Chaucer describes the Parson, saying,“I think there never was a better priest./He sought no pomp or glory in his dealings,/... Christ and his Twelve Apostles and their lore/He taught, but followed it himself before”(17). The Parson and Pope Francis both strive to be ethical Christians, fighting corruption in themselves and

Show More
Related
1143 Words | 5 Pages

Pius XII gave back to the world by working hard in order to sustain peace throughout World War 2. This made a huge impact because many Christians blamed the Jews that were getting murdered for the death of Jesus. This is also where Cardinal Cushing took a very big

Read More
880 Words | 4 Pages

The Pope was taking the role of God and giving himself the

Read More
1163 Words | 5 Pages

Together, the church increasingly became more corrupt, less truthful, and more worried about their worldly lives than saving the souls of the people. From 1492 to 1503, Pope Alexander VI embodied this ideology. He cherished and participated in a more worldly life by sleeping with many women, hosting lavish banquets, masquerades, and comedic plays. Alexander pleased himself and paid for all of his events with the church’s funds (from things like indulgences and taxes), while crime and violence suffocated the streets of

Read More
1323 Words | 6 Pages

During this period the Renaissance Popes failed to fulfill the churches spiritual needs, and they were often involved in worldly concerns such as Pope Julius II who was a “warrior pope” leading armies into battle. Christians were disgusted, they viewed the Pope as their spiritual leader, someone to lead them spiritually not into battle with the enemy. The church failed as many of the church officials were ignorant of their spiritual duties and more concerned with accumulating more wealth, and the use of their position within the church offices to their advantage to further advance their careers and fortunes. (Duiker, World History, 421) While the spiritual leaders of the church were failing their responsibilities many of the people were looking for some sort of meaningful religious expression and most importantly salvation after death.

Read More
574 Words | 3 Pages

The book The Cellar by Natasha Preston is an interesting thriller that accurately depicts the goals of insane people. In the book, a thirty-year-old man named Colin Brown, who suffered from schizophrenia, kidnapped multiple girls. He went as far as changing their names to better fit how he viewed them. He wanted the perfect family, and he had plans to make that dream come true. The antagonist, Colin Brown, is heavily motivated by his goals.

Read More
822 Words | 4 Pages

People were unhappy with the way the clergy were treating their people and it was clear that corruption was throughout the Catholic church. The state of the Catholic church, while significant, was simply a backdrop for Martin Luther in his early life. Ironically, he was on the side of the Catholic church in his early life; he was “a university professor of theology and a member of the Catholic clergy,” (Dutton, 390). This close integration with the church made it surprising that he was the one to lead a religious reformation. However, it was his knowledge of scripture that made his message so

Read More
1038 Words | 5 Pages

“So often the contemporary church is weak, ineffable voice with an uncertain sound.” He advocates instead of following the new ways in which churches act they should follow the old standard. So they can influence the

Read More
485 Words | 2 Pages

The way he made his money was very corrupted and only glimpses of it is

Read More
399 Words | 2 Pages

The thing that stands out when reading the stories of Beowulf, Sir Gawain, and the Canterbury Tales is that the writers use Christianity to show conflicts in human nature. Also with these stories taking place in different times with writers who have different opinions about Christianity and how it has influences Society. For example, in Beowulf, the writer chooses to mash up the ideas of Christianity and paganism because during the time that the writer was transcribing the story there were missionaries trying to convert the Anglo-Saxons that lived in Britain, so the missionaries used Beowulf as a way to reach the pagans. This is also been done to other stories like in the Viking legend Thor god of thunder where at the end of the story the world

Read More
792 Words | 4 Pages

The Pope and the Priest were corrupt and brutal. They neglected their people and took an intense interest in politics. Many critiqued the church on its clerical immortality, clerical ignorance, and clerical pluralism with also the problem of absenteeism. This meant that the papacy stayed away from their duties without a good reason. King Henry VIII’s chancellor Thomas Wolsey didn’t step foot in his diocese until fifteen years after.

Read More
685 Words | 3 Pages

The Pardener was a person who religious people would come to and confess their sins in order to be forgiven. He began to abused his religious duty to obtain more money from the poor people of the church. These so-called “charitable donations.” “Think you that because I am good at preaching and win me gold and silver by my teaching. Ill live my life tree in poverty?

Read More
761 Words | 4 Pages

Chaucer’s Best Story Essay In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, there are many entertaining values and moral lessons. In Geoffrey Chaucer's, The Canterbury tales, a group of pilgrims are journeying to the holy site of Canterbury. Due to the long journey, the host plans to start a contest between the pilgrims. Each pilgrim has to tell an entertaining story and the pilgrim with the most entertaining story wins a free dinner.

Read More
2469 Words | 10 Pages

The reader should now know Geoffrey Chaucer disapproves of the Church and deems it to almost only be full of hypocrites because of people such as the Friar and the Pardoner being a part of it and doing what sinful deeds they do against God and the followers who they are supposed to be protecting and taking care of. If it was not for the Parson existing, or even clergy members, then the generalization of him believing the entire Catholic Church was a hypocrisy would be entirely true, but that is not the case. Still, maybe Chaucer made such an implication because he had a bad past with the Church, but then again in the story he was traveling to a religious shrine, so he must not have such a bad past when it comes to Catholicism. There must have been a root to his disdain towards the Church as in, he was conned by a pardoner or a friar or even grew up seeing only hypocrisy from the Catholic Church, which could have molded his opinion of it. Instead of making, The Canterbury Tales, a full on attack against the Church, he decided to make it a comical, satirical piece, which was a very intelligent move by him.

Read More
633 Words | 3 Pages

In colleges and businesses across the nation, students and workers are subjected to assessments developed by psychologists to determine their suitability for certain vocations. It is believed that through a battery of questions, one’s aptitude for a specific type of employment can be determined; however, due to the fact that personalities are fluid and not static, it is impossible to gauge one’s career potential through a personality test. One popular personality test used is the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. This test was designed to measure a person’s temperament through a series of questions. A person’s temperament refers to the combination of mental, physical, and emotional traits of themselves.

Read More
588 Words | 3 Pages

He points out that there is a great amount of unreason in the world of religion and that relying on authority may be dangerous; how do we know that what the Pope preaches is reliable

Read More

More about Comparing Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales And Pope Francis

Related Topics

Open Document