Transubstantiation in the Pardoner's Tale

Abstract

Although the complexity of Chaucer's most puzzling pilgrim, the Pardoner, has elicited a variety of critical reactions, the best recent scholarship elucidates the religious patterns in his portrait and tale.1 For example, A. L. Kellog studies the Pardoner as an illustration in Augustinian terms of spiritual degeneration, the secret punishment of sin,' and Robert P. Miller interprets the Pardoner's character through comparison with the Scriptural eunuch, concluding that he is spiritually, as well as physically, impotent.3 The present study extends this religious approach by considering imagery of transubstantiation and transformation in the Pardoner's Tale. In traditional Christian terms, the Pardoner, unable to participate in Christ's sacrificial act through the transubstantiation rite of the Mass, transforms his works into meaningless material successes only, not into spiritual achievement. Interestingly enough, the dynamics of this personality development are corroborated by the modern religious psychology of Carl Jung. The positioning of the Pardoner's typical sermon within the sacrifice of the Mass creates religious implications of considerable importance in a reading of his character. Unfortunately, criticism has not considered the typical setting of the Pardoner's histrionics as thoroughly as the scene of the recorded performance on the Canterbury pilgrimage. The General Prologue demonstrates that he usually speaks at the Offertory of the Mass: