1. The Pardoners Tale

2. The Medieval Church Pardoner
Church pardoners where often elected by corrupt church officials and collected money for pardons.
Some pardoners gave the money they collected to the church and others kept the money for themselves

3. The Canterbury Tales Pardoner
The Pardoner tells a tale about the danger of greed and gluttony.
The Pardoner is greedy in that he sells his false relics and pardons to unsuspecting people who can barely afford the pay for them (relics/pardons).
Hiding his money and “valuables” shows that he does not trust any of the other pilgrims.
Which is ironic because the way he is described with his long blonde hair and beardless face, implies that he is not to be trusted by anyone else.

4. Chaucer's take on the Pardoner
Chaucer was a satirist and often poked fun at those whom he seemed to disapprove of, possibly explaining why there is a pardoner in the Canterbury Tales.
Most Pardoner’s were known for possessing con-man like agendas.
Scholars of the time period often criticized the church for the practice of issuing pardons because they felt that only God had jurisdiction the forgive people of their sins.
Like many of his contemporaries Chaucer may have firmly disagreed with certain church practices, including pardons.
It is questionable whether or not Pardons can be justified.

5. The Canterbury Tales Pardoner
Has a fiduciary relationship with the summoner in which the summoner finds the accused criminals and rather than bringing them to justice he introduces them to the pardoner. This introduction allows both the pardoner and the summoner to financially benefit from the accused.

6. The Parallels of the Pardoner and his Tale
Upon analyzing the Pardoners description in the prologue the following parallels have been identified.
Gluttony- Travels around to different courts eating and drinking with friends.
Fraudulence- Glaring eyes and limp hair
Drunkenness- Bulging hare like eyes
Greed- He keeps wallet hidden and lives lavishly

7. A quick summary of the Pardoners tale
Three young men drink together at a local tavern.
They hear that one of their friends has been killed so they set out on a journey to avenge his death.
They ask an old man who tells them to go into the woods and look by a tree.
They look by the tree and they find hidden treasure.
To prevent people from thinking they stole the gold, they decide that two of the men will stay and guard the gold and one will go into town and get supplies.
The two guards decide to kill their friend when he gets back.
The third young man also plans to kill his two friends who are guarding the treasure by poisoning their wine.
The two guards kill their friend by stabbing him.
Then they drink the poisoned wine and die.
Greed never gets you anywhere.