Abstract
Abstract This essay takes as its context the discourse of sacerdotal authority and deviance explicitly dramatized by the Pardoner's claims for the efficacy of his speech. It considers this topic in relation to medieval discussions of officium, and how the same category in Wycliffite thought initially invites us to dismiss the Pardoner as a false preacher. Yet there is still a sense in which he preaches truly; key here, rather than orthodox concepts of officium, are his texts: fables and exempla. Tracking how these were implicated in contemporary crises of language, form, and truthful speech, the essay goes on to argue that the Pardoner's tale of avarice stages a case for the efficacious work of literature.
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