Premium Content The Pardoner as Con Artist
By Thomas Stevenson - November 15, 2001
The Pardoner of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is representative of the darker side of the corrupt church of the Middle Ages. A pardoner was a church official who had the authority to forgive those who had sinned by selling pardons and indulgences to them. Although the pardoner was a church official, they were almost always part of the church for only…
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