How are the religious men of the party described by Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales—specifically, how is the Pardoner described?—and explain...

In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales,
Chaucer describes a number of people who are clerics—who serve the church in some
capacity. Of the men he lists, there is only one who he admires: the
Parson. He is a man who lives a holy life in the service of others.
From Chaucer's viewpoint—himself a member of the pilgrimage—he finds the Parson to be a
man who lives by the vows he has taken, and he cares for his "flock." However, Chaucer
does not have such a fine opinion of the other clerics,
specifically the Monk, the Friar and the Pardoner.

Each man
is described separately, however, what they all have in common is that the
do not serve the Church, or God, but serve themselves instead.
Generally, the physical descriptions of each and reading between the lines shows the
reader that they are not the servants of God that they should
be.

The Pardoner is a man who sells "indulgences," which
can be purchased for the forgiveness of sins—so that those will money will be forgiven,
and those without money, will not.

A Pardoner
was...

...a
preacher who raised money for religious works by soliciting offerings to which
indulgences (pardons) were attached. The granting of pardons for offerings was often
abused, however, and fake pardoners were not
infrequent.

We
are not told that the Pardoner is a fake, but he is
selling...

readability="5">

...pardons piping hot from
Rome.

This means that they
are stolen. His "territory" is betweenBerwick...and
Ware:

...two
towns: one in southeastern Scotland, the other outside of
London.

He covers a broad
area, and no other pardoner can do half as well as he does for he has more than just
indulgences to sell...

readability="13">

For in his bag he kept a
pillowcase

That was, he said, our Blessed Lady's
veil;

He claimed to own the fragment of the
sail

That Peter had the time he walked the
sea

And Jesu saved
him...

Using these items, he
swindles people out of more money in one day that the [noble] parson can raise in one or
two months. The Pardoner has beautiful long, blond, and curly hair, but does not wear a
hood to cover his head properly. It would be untrue to say that he cannot read scripture
or deliver a good sermon—he did both well. He also had a beautiful singing voice—all the
while knowing that the better a job he did at these things, the more silver he would
collect.

"The Pardoner's Tale" is about three men who are
drinking at the pub early—probably they have been there all night. A funeral goes by,
and in asking, they discover one of their drinking buddies has died. Death is
responsible here ( href="http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm#p">personified),
so they go looking for him—all drunk—to punish him. They meet an old man who directs
them to the top of the hill, to find Death. Arriving there, they find a great deal of
money. They must devise a way to remove it so no one sees. They send the youngest to get
wine, and plan then to murder him and keep his share for themselves. The younger one
plans the same, bringing back bottles of poisoned wine. The older two men fall on the
younger and stab him to death. Job accomplished, they sit down to enjoy the bottles of
wine the young man had brought. They are poisoned and die. All three went looking for
Death—they were allsuccessful in this
endeavor.

The Pardoner tries to impress upon the others the
dangers of greed, but ironically, he is as guilty of this sin as
anyone—the story applies to him, perhaps more than anyone
else.

Additional
Source:

Adventures in English
Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc.,
1963