The Pardoner Hypocrisy Quotes

And thanne my bulles shewe I, alle and some.
Oure lige lordes seel on my patente,
That shewe I first, my body to warente,
That no man be so boold, ne preest ne clerk,
Me to destourbe of Cristes hooly werk.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. Before he launches into a sermon the Pardoner goes through a showy flourish of his papal bulls and seals to prove his right to sell pardons. All part of Christ’s holy work, he hypocritically explains. But the greedy Pardoner’s real goal is to collect as much money as possible to line his own pockets.

Bulles of popes and of cardynales,
Of patriarkes and bishopes I shewe,
And in Latyn I speke a wordes fewe,
To saffron with my predicacioun,
And for to stire hem to devocioun.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. When the Parsoner displays his indulgences to the people, he spices up his preaching up with a few words of Latin to impress his audience and stir them to devotion. It’s all showbiz to the consummate salesman of Church pardons and fake relics.

Thanne shewe I forth my longe cristal stones,
Ycrammed ful of cloutes and of bones –
Relikes been they, as wenen they echoon.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The Pardoner fully accepts his own hypocrisy and greed and that he is a conman masquerading as the Pope’s representative. Here he freely admits that the "relics" he sells are fake and are simply rags and bones and not real clothing and relics from the saints.

He that his hand wol putte in this mitayn,
He shal have multipliyng of his grayn,
Whan he hath sowen, be it whete or otes,
So that he offre pens, or elles grotes.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. In another of the Pardoner’s con tricks, he markets a magic mitten to his audiences as a great financial investment. All you do is put you hand in the mitten and your grain crops will multiply and make you rich, he says, appealing to people’s greed. And it only costs a few pennies to buy, urges the Pardoner, the only person who will get rich from his scheme!

If that this boon be wasshe in any welle,
If cow, or calf, or sheep, or oxe swelle
That any worm hath ete, or worm ystonge,
Taak water of that welle and wassh his tonge,
Of pokkes and of scabbe, and every soore
Shal every sheep be hool that of this welle
Drynketh a draughte.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. As part of his con, the Pardoner admits selling people on the miraculous healing powers of a shoulder bone from a holy Jew’s sheep. He spins them a tale that if it is washed in any well, the water from that well will cure any animal sick from parasites, pox, scabs and sores. No doubt the fast-talking, licensed seller of papal pardons won plenty of unsuspecting customers for his "magic" bones.

Goode men and wommen, o thyng warne I yow:
If any wight be in this chirche now
That hath doon synne horrible, that he
Dar nat, for shame, of it yshryven be,
Or any womman, be she yong or old,
That hath ymaked hir housbonde cokewold,
Swich folk shal have no power ne no grace
To offren to my relikes in this place.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. This neat sales pitch has to win Salesman and Marketer of the Year Award for the Pardoner! He uses it when trying to sell his fake "relics" to church congregations. He tells them that anyone who is guilty of a serious sin will have no power to purchase his relics. He specifically mentions wives who have committed adultery – are women his best customers? Boy, you can see them queuing up after that, purses out, to prove that they are without sin!

By this gaude have I wonne, yeer by yeer,
An hundred mark sith I was pardoner.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The Pardoner boasts that he makes a good living from his different con tricks, including selling fake relics, sheep bones with miraculous powers and magic mittens. Chaucer pains a very satirical and cynical portrait of the licensed seller of indulgences – ecclesiastical pardons of sins – who himself repeatedly commits the cardinal sin of greed.

I stonde lyk a clerk in my pulpet,
And whan the lewed peple is doun yset,
I preche so as ye han herd bifoore
And telle an hundred false japes moore.
Thanne peyne I me to strecche forth the nekke,
And est and west upon the peple I bekke,
As dooth a dowve sittynge on a berne.
Myne handes and my tonge goon so yerne
That it is joye to se my bisynesse.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The cynical Pardoner prides himself on his theatrical air that he employs to preach his false stories to the uneducated people. Using a simile, he likens himself to a dove sitting atop a barn, stretching forth his neck to peer down at the people, hands and tongue working so quickly that it’s a joy to see him in action. You nearly admire how skilled this conman is at suckering money out of the faithful – in the name of religion! As well as greed, he is guilty of another of the Seven Deadly Sins here – pride!

Of avarice and of swich cursednesse
Is al my prechyng, for to make hem free
To yeven hir pens, and namely unto me.
For myn entente is nat but for to wynne,
And nothyng for correccioun of synne.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The Pardoner confesses that he is in the indulgences business not for the correction of sin, but to make profit for himself. He preaches against avarice so that people will be generous and give money offerings, which he unashamedly pockets to support his lifestyle. This Church representative has found the perfect con – and cover! At least he is honest enough to admit his hypocrisy.

I rekke nevere, whan that they been beryed,
Though that hir soules goon a-blakeberyed!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The Pardoner is supposed to be concerned with people’s spiritual wellbeing and helping them to salvation through the correction of sin. But here he admits that he has no interest in the souls of those he pardons. When they are dead, their souls may be off picking blackberries, he doesn’t care.

For certes, many a predicacioun
Comth ofte tyme of yvel entencioun;
Som for plesance of folk and flaterye,
To been avaunced by ypocrisye,
And som for veyne glorie, and som for hate.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The Pardoner seems to be excusing his preaching for personal profit by pointing to other corrupted preachers who hypocritically give sermons for the wrong reasons. Some preach for reasons of flattery, hypocrisy, vain glory and hate, he says.

Thus quyte I folk that doon us displesances;
Thus spitte I out my venym under hewe
Of hoolynesse, to semen hooly and trewe.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The Pardoner is the man to cross or do wrong to. He doesn’t believe in turning the other cheek, as the Church teaches its followers to. No he takes revenge on them from the pupil, by using his sermons as a weapon. As Mr. Nasty so graphically puts it: he spits out his venom under hue of holiness at folk who make trouble for pardoners.

Thus kan I preche agayn that same vice
Which that I use, and that is avarice.
But though myself be gilty in that synne,
Yet kan I maken oother folk to twynne
From avarice and soore to repente.
But that is nat my principal entente;
I preche nothyng but for coveitise.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. As avarice is a sin practised by the Pardoner himself, he believes that he is in the ideal position to preach against it to others. Though himself guilty of that sin, he is convinced that he can make other folk turn away from it and repent. Sounds like the perverted logic of a clever hypocrite. However in the final two lines of the passage, the Pardoner reveals the true intention of his preaching – I preach nothing but for greed, he admits. At least he knows he’s a hypocrite.

What, trowe ye, that whiles I may preche,
And wynne gold and silver for I teche,
That I wol lyve in poverte wilfully?
Nay, nay, I thoghte it nevere, trewely!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. The canny Church representative knows that he has a gift for preaching and winning gold and silver from his audiences by teaching. So he asks the pilgrims: why would you think that I would volunteer to live in poverty? And he answers his own question: I never thought it, truly, he says.

For I wol preche and begge in sondry landes;
I wol nat do no labour with myne handes,
Ne make baskettes and lyve therby,
By cause I wol nat beggen ydelly.
I wol noon of the apostles countrefete.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. In the Pardoner’s lengthy confession of sin, he admits that he will preach for money in various lands. But will not labor with his hands, make baskets for a living or imitate the apostles, he says. Clearly a mugs game to him and nowhere near as profitable as cashing in on his preaching talent! Mind you, there’s no confusing the hypocritical Pardoner with the saintly apostles.

I wol have moneie, wolle, chese, and whete,
Al were it yeven of the povereste page,
Or of the povereste wydwe in a village,
Al sholde hir children sterve for famyne.
Nay, I wol drynke licour of the vyne
And have a joly wenche in every toun.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. Dismissing the life of poverty of the apostles, the Pardoner says he will have money, wool, cheese and wheat. And he doesn’t care if it comes from the poorest servant boy or the poorest widow in a village, even though her children would die of hunger. He will feed his lifestyle of wine drinking and lechery with a jolly wench in every town! The corrupt Pardoner’s greed – one of the Seven Deadly Sins – knows no bounds.

But herkneth, lordynges, in conclusioun:
Youre likyng is that I shal telle a tale.
Now have I dronke a draughte of corny ale,
By God, I hope I shal yow telle a thyng
That shal by reson been at youre likyng.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. Confessing to another of the Seven Deadly Sins, gluttony, the Pardoner says he has drank a draft of strong ale as he is about to launch into his story. The fact that his tale will warn against the evil of drunkenness only enhances his reputation as the most hypocritical character in The Canterbury Tales. The irony won’t escape his listeners.

For though myself be a ful vicious man,
A moral tale yet I yow telle kan,
Which I am wont to preche for to wynne.
Now hoold youre pees! My tale I wol bigynne.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. There is a great irony in a Pardoner who admits that he is a very wicked and sinful man offering to tell the pilgrims a moral tale – in this case against greed. And without charge, for he is accustomed to preaching such tales for profit, he says, unashamedly admitting that he earns money from the proceeds of sin.

O glotonye, ful of cursednesse!
O cause first of oure confusioun!
O original of oure dampnacioun,
Til Crist hadde boght us with his blood agayn!
Lo, how deere, shortly for to sayn,
Aboght was thilke cursed vileynye!
Corrupt was al this world for glotonye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. It is hypocritical and ironic for the Pardoner to strongly condemn gluttony, being under the influence of strong ale himself during the telling of his tale. The Pardoner views this sin as the first cause of mankind’s ruin and damnation, when Eve succumbed to her hunger for the apple from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden in the Christian Bible story. Jesus as a result had to redeem mankind through his death and blood.

Allas, the shorte throte, the tendre mouth,
Maketh that est and west and north and south,
In erthe, in eir, in water, men to swynke
To gete a glotoun deyntee mete and drynke!
Of this matiere, O Paul, wel kanstow trete:
"Mete unto wombe, and wombe eek unto mete,
Shal God destroyen bothe," as Paulus seith.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. In the Pardoner’s homily against the sin of gluttony and excessive drinking, he quotes St. Paul to support his teaching about the dangers of these. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians in the Bible says: "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them." The Pardoner uses terms like "short throat" and "tender mouth" to describe the glutton. But let’s not forget the hypocritical Pardoner is partial to alcohol and food himself, needing to drink and eat of a cake before he began his tale:
"But first," quod he, "heere at this alestake
I wol bothe drynke and eten of a cake."

Allas, a foul thyng is it, by my feith,
To seye this word, and fouler is the dede,
Whan man so drynketh of the white and rede
That of his throte he maketh his pryvee
Thurgh thilke cursed superfluitee.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. The Pardoner, who admits to regular drinking and downed a draft of strong ale before starting his tale, has the audacity to lecture other heavy drinkers on making a toilet of their throat. If he finds alcohol so disgusting, why does he regularly imbibe?

The apostel wepyng seith ful pitously,
"Ther walken manye of whiche yow toold have I –
I seye it now wepyng, with pitous voys –
They been enemys of Cristes croys,
Of whiche the ende is deeth; wombe is hir god!"
O wombe! O bely! O stynkyng cod,
Fulfilled of dong and of corrupcioun!
At either ende of thee foul is the soun.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. The Pardoner again reaches for Pauline teaching to back up his tirade against the sin of gluttony. He quotes the Apostle Paul saying this in Philippians 3:18-19: "Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach." The Pardoner then refers to the stomach as a stinking bag filled with dung and corruption, which spews out foul sounds at either end – mouth and backside. Wouldn’t you think he would have had the cop-on not to be tanked up on ale while telling his tale – in case people might think he was a hypocrite?

he that haunteth swiche delices - The Pardoner in The Canterbury Tales

But, certes, he that haunteth swiche delices
Is deed, whil that he lyveth in tho vices.
A lecherous thyng is wyn, and dronkenesse
Is ful of stryvyng and of wrecchednesse.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. He who lives in the vices of overindulging the body’s desires, like the glutton, is dead, says the Pardoner. Here he is echoing the Christian belief that sin leads to eternal damnation, as stated in the biblical verse Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death." The Pardoner goes on to say that wine is a lecherous thing and drunkenness is full of wretchedness. He should know, for he himself is fond of the ale and wine and a confessed womanizer.

O dronke man, disfigured is thy face,
Sour is thy breeth, foul artow to embrace…
Thou fallest as it were a styked swyn;
Thy tonge is lost, and al thyn honeste cure,
For dronkenesse is verray sepulture
Of mannes wit and his discrecioun.
In whom that drynke hath dominacioun
He kan no conseil kepe; it is no drede.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. When the Seven Deadly Sins are represented as animals, gluttony is symbolized as a pig. The Pardoner uses the simile here of the slaughtered pig, staggering and falling after havings its throat cut, to depict the drunken man. And it’s not a pretty picture: face disfigured, breath that stinks, reason gone, no care for honor or discretion, and can keep no secret. Could the Pardoner, with his taste for regular wine and ale himself, be speaking from personal knowledge here?

Now, for the love of Crist, that for us dyde,
…now wol I telle forth my tale.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. Rather ridiculously the Pardoner resumes his tale swearing his own oath "for the love of Christ" – straight after finishing his trenchant condemnation of people swearing and taking the Lord’s name in vain.

What nedeth it to sermone of it moore?
For right as they hadde cast his deeth bifoore,
Right so they han hym slayn, and that anon.
And whan that this was doon, thus spak that oon:
"Now lat us sitte and drynke, and make us merie,
And afterward we wol his body berie."
And with that word it happed hym, par cas,
To take the botel ther the poyson was,
And drank, and yaf his felawe drynke also,
For which anon they storven bothe two.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. The Pardoner poses the rhetorial question as to whether he needs to expound more on the tale of the rioters, then tells of the tragic consequences to their greed. The youngest on his return with the wine and food is slain by the other two. Before they bury his body they decide to make merry with the wine. But as it is laced with poison, they too die. And so the Old Man turned out to be right, the three rioters found Death under the tree. And so the moral of the tale: greed is the root of all evil, and the wages of sin is death. Chaucer also adds his own moral to it: beware of hypocrites, like the greedy Pardoner.

Thus ended been thise homycides two,
And eek the false empoysonere also.
O cursed synne of alle cursednesse!
O traytours homycide, O wikkednesse!
O glotonye, luxurie, and hasardrye!
Thou blasphemour of Crist with vileynye
And othes grete, of usage and of pride!
Allas, mankynde, how may it bitide
That to thy creatour, which that the wroghte
And with his precious herte-blood thee boghte,
Thou art so fals and so unkynde, allas?

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. The Pardoner is a master weaver of hypocritical words and par excellence seller of falsity – for profit! Nowhere is this better exemplified than in his final parade of all the sins involved in his deadly tale, by which he hopes to get the pilgrims to see themselves as the doomed revelers murdered by sin and in need of his salvation – at a price! He creates an atmosphere of fear and sin, hoping to loosen the pilgrims’ purse strings so that they will buy his path to salvation and make him richer.

Now, goode men, God foryeve yow youre trespas,
And ware yow fro the synne of avarice!
Myn hooly pardoun may yow alle warice,
So that ye offre nobles or sterlynges,
Or elles silver broches, spoones, rynges.
Boweth youre heed under this hooly bulle!

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. After working his oratory to frighten the life out of the pilgrims with a horror story that could vie with the best – or worst – of Edgar Allan Poe, the corrupt Pardoner moves to cash in. Give me your gold, silver, valuables and you can avoid the fate of the gluttonous, hard-drinking, gambling, lecherous scoundrels in my tale – he tells them, offering for sale his papal pardons from sin.

Youre names I entre heer in my rolle anon;
Into the blisse of hevene shul ye gon.
I yow assoille, by myn heigh power,
Yow that wol offre, as clene and eek as cleer
As ye were born. – And lo, sires, thus I preche.
And Jhesu Crist, that is oure soules leche,
So graunte yow his pardoun to receyve,
For that is best; I wol yow nat deceyve.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Tale. The salesman and conman Pardoner uses the promise of the glory of heaven to encourage his fellow pilgrims to sign up to buy his papal pardons from sin. He has simply to enter their name in his roll and they’re on their way to paradise. In an ironic comment the self-confessed liar promises that he will not deceive them.

- 1
- 2