Wife of Bath Religion Quotes

But me was toold, certeyn, nat longe agoon is,
That sith that Crist ne wente nevere but onis
To weddyng, in the Cane of Galilee,
That by the same ensample taughte he me
That I ne sholde wedded be but ones.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. In the time of Chaucer it was common enough thinking that a widowed woman should not marry again, but devote herself to celibacy or convent life. And the Wife of Bath says she has been told that since Christ went but once to a wedding, he taught that she should be wedded but once.

How manye myghte she have in mariage?
Yet herde I nevere tellen in myn age
Upon this nombre diffinicioun.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. A firm advocate of marriage, the Wife of Bath has had five husbands. So she cannot understand how Jesus can reprove the Samaritan woman at the well for having married five times, telling her the fifth man was not her husband. How many might she have in marriage, asks the Wife of Bath, insisting she has never heard a definition of this number.

Men may devyne and glosen, up and doun,
But wel I woot, expres, without lye,
God bad us for to wexe and multiplye,
That gentil text kan I wel understonde.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. Alison the Wife of Bath is sometimes viewed as the voice of the independent, liberated woman of her time. She challenges the male view on women’s relationships and marriage. She disputes the interpretation of the Bible that she should marry only once, saying that men interpret religious texts to suit their own views. Defending marriage as a legitimate life choice, and her own five marriages, she quotes God’s commandment in the Bible: "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28).

Whan myn housbonde is fro the world ygon,
Som Cristen man shal wedde me anon.
For thanne th’ apostle seith that I am free
To wedde, a Goddes half, where it liketh me.
He seith that to be wedded is no synne;
Bet is to be wedded than to brynne.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. In her argument for the right to another Christian man when husband number five dies, the Wife of Bath cites the Bible and Saint Paul. In 1 Corinthians 7:9, he says: "Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." We don’t think Paul would agree with her interpretation of his views on sexual morality.

I woot wel that th’ apostel was a mayde;
But nathelees, thogh that he wroot and sayde
He wolde that every wight were swich as he,
Al nys but conseil to virginitee.
And for to been a wyf he yaf me leve
Of indulgence; so nys it no repreve
To wedde me, if that my make dye,
Withouten excepcion of bigamye.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. In her home-spun theology and interpretation of the Bible, Wife of Bath Alison says she knows that the apostle Paul was a virgin and wished that everyone were as he. But that was just advice, and Paul gave her explicit permission to be wed again, if her husband should die, without objection on grounds of bigamy.

For wel ye knowe, a lord in his houshold,
He nath nat every vessel al of gold;
Somme been of tree, and doon hir lord servyse.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. This passage references what St. Paul said in his second letter to Timothy: "In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work." St. Jerome interprets this as meaning that marriage is good but virginity is better. But the Wife of Bath sees this as meaning something different, that she is one of the wooden utensils, maybe not as perfect as the gold vessel of virginity, but still very useful.

So that the clerkes be nat with me wrothe,
I sey this: that they maked ben for bothe;
That is to seye, for office and for ese
Of engendrure, ther we nat God displese.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. Refuting the clerics’ argument that the genitalia are only there for urinating and identifying one’s sex, the Wife of Bath says that they are there for another more pleasurable purpose. They were also made for the sexual act of procreation when we don’t displease God.

I have the power durynge al my lyf
Upon his propre body, and noght he.
Right thus the Apostel tolde it unto me,
And bad oure housbondes for to love us weel.
Al this sentence me liketh every deel.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. Husbands are commanded to love their wives well, the Wife of Bath says quoting the Apostle Paul. By love she obviously means sexual lovemaking, as she is talking about having power over her husband’s body. Paul certainly did say in Ephesians 5:25: "Husbands, love your wives." But he also commanded that wives must respect her husbands – and this Wife of Bath certainly doesn’t!

Thou seyst also, that if we make us gay
With clothyng, and with precious array,
That it is peril of oure chastitee;
And yet – with sorwe! – thou most enforce thee,
And seye thise wordes in the Apostles name:
"In habit maad with chastitee and shame
Ye wommen shul apparaille yow," quod he,
"And noght in tressed heer and gay perree,
As perles, ne with gold, ne clothes riche."

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. This is a Biblical allusion to what Saint Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:9 – "I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes." The Wife of Bath scolds her husbands for telling her in the Apostle’s words that if women dress themselves up in expensive clothes, fancy hairstyes or pearls or gold, they are endangering their chastity. She later admits they never said this.

That in his owene grece I made hym frye
For angre, and for verray jalousye.
By God, in erthe I was his purgatorie,
For which I hope his soule be in glorie.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. Hating the fact that her fourth husband had a mistress, the Wife of Bath made him fry in his own grease, as she puts it. She punished him by making him believe she was unfaithful to him. She claimed that she was his Purgatory on earth, so she hoped that he bypassed it in the afterlife and went straight to heaven.

But al for noght, I sette noght an hawe
Of his proverbes n’ of his olde sawe,
Ne I wolde nat of hym corrected be.
I hate hym that my vices telleth me,
And so doo mo, God woot, of us than I.
This made hym with me wood al outrely;
I nolde noght forbere hym in no cas.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. Husband Jankin reads Alison sayings from the Bible criticizing wives who go wandering about, but the Wife of Bath says she couldn’t give a hawthorn berry for his proverbs. She hates anyone who tells her her vices and will not be corrected by him. It makes him furious that she will not yield to him in any way!

By God, if wommen hadde writen stories,
As clerkes han withinne hire oratories,
They wolde han writen of men moore wikkednesse
Than al the mark of Adam may redresse.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. A very potent argument against all the misogynistic texts by clerical writers is presented here by the Wife of Bath. They were all written by men! Had women written the stories, she says, they would have documented more wickedness than all the male sex could set right!

The children of Mercurie and of Venus
Been in hir wirkyng ful contrarius;
Mercurie loveth wysdam and science,
And Venus loveth ryot and dispence.
And, for hire diverse disposicioun…
And Venus falleth ther Mercurie is reysed.
Therfore no womman of no clerk is preysed.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. The childen of Mercury, who love wisdom and science, and the children of Venus goddess of love, who love pleasure and expense, are naturally at odds with one another. Venus falls when Mercury is raised, meaning women and clerks (church writers) cannot peacefully coexist. Therefore no woman is ever praised by a church writer.

But now kan no man se none elves mo,
For now the grete charitee and prayeres
Of lymytours and othere hooly freres,
That serchen every lond and every streem,
As thikke as motes in the sonne-beem,
Blessynge halles, chambres, kichenes, boures,
Citees, burghes, castels, hye toures,
Thropes, bernes, shipnes, dayeryes –
This maketh that ther ben no fayeryes.
For ther as wont to walken was an elf
Ther walketh now the lymytour hymself.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. Hundreds of years ago in the days of King Arthur elves and fairies roamed Britain, says the Wife of Bath. Now these magical creatures have been replaced by holy friars who have overrun the country and are lurking everywhere. In cities, castles, villages, blessing halls, kitchens, bedrooms, barns and stables. They are, to quote Alison’s simile, as thick as specks of dust in the sunbeam. There is nowhere that Christianity doesn’t reach.

Wommen may go saufly up and doun.
In every bussh or under every tree
Ther is noon oother incubus but he,
And he ne wol doon hem but dishonour.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. Now women don’t have to worry about demons hiding in the forest and accosting and impregnating them, says the Wife of Bath. They have to worry about friars, who would do them nothing but dishonor. An incubus is a male demon who sexual intercourse with sleeping women, sometimes producing a child with them.

For gentillesse nys but renomee
Of thyne auncestres, for hire heigh bountee,
Which is a strange thyng to thy persone.
Thy gentillesse cometh fro God allone.
Thanne comth oure verray gentillesse of grace;
It was no thyng biquethe us with oure place.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. True gentility or nobility comes from the grace of God alone and is not bequeathed to us with our social rank, the Loathly Lady tells the Knight. It is not just the renown of your ancestors, for their great goodness, for that is something not naturally part of you.

Ther shul ye seen expres that it no drede is
That he is gentil that dooth gentil dedis.
And therfore, leeve housbonde, I thus conclude:
Al were it that myne auncestres were rude,
Yet may the hye God, and so hope I,
Grante me grace to lyven vertuously.
Thanne am I gentil, whan that I bigynne
To lyven vertuously and weyve synne.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. Towards the end of a long speech to her husband on their wedding night, the Knight’s wife believes she has proved that, despite her ancestors being rude, she may be called "gentil" or noble. She is noble if the high God grants her the grace to live virtuously and abandon sin, the Loathly Lady tells him.

And ther as ye of poverte me repreeve,
The hye God, on whom that we bileeve,
In wilful poverte chees to lyve his lyf.
And certes every man, mayden, or wyf
May understonde that Jhesus, hevene kyng,
Ne wolde nat chese a vicious lyvyng.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. God as Jesus chose to live his life in poverty and would not choose a vicious living, says hag. She selects Jesus for her model and example for people on how to live, yet her husband reproves her for her poverty, she tells him.

Poverte ful ofte, whan a man is lowe,
Maketh his God and eek hymself to knowe.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. Are money and possessions a barrier to our being close to God? The hag argues that poverty very often, when a person is low, makes him know his God and also himself. She is after all echoing some of the Christian teachings in the bible, such as when Jesus said: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
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