Malo, Robyn. “The Pardoner’s Relics (And Why They Matter the Most).” The Chaucer Review, vol. 43, no. 1, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008, pp. 82–102, doi:10.1353/cr.0.0005.
Throughout the writing, Robyn Malo argues that Chaucer wrote
the Pardoner as a parody of relic custodians of the time in order to emphasize
the amount of power the church had. The article focuses mostly on why the
Pardoner shouldn’t be trusted as a religious figure. Malo explains how relics
were used at the time, and how the Pardoner likely has non-notable relics,
which were often fakes (86). They go on to say that “The Pardoner and his
European analogs are immoral relic custodians” because they make money on religious
artifacts (89-90). In addition, the author explains that the Pardoner uses
rhetoric to trick his audience into believing the relics are genuine, even though
he uses the fake relics to gain money not to cleanse people of sins (93-4). In
the conclusion, they bring up claims from other authors that the Pardoner is a
homosexual, which would be another example of why the Pardoner shouldn’t be
trusted since relic custodians were supposed to be celibate (96).
https://mnpals-msumk.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01MNPALS_MSUMK/tvalnd/cdi_proquest_journals_216739538
Kathryn Anderson-Albright
