Chaucer the Catholic: Notes Corrective of Some Current Errors About Chaucer
Abstract
The Prologue of the Canterbury Tales is a Catholic document not only in the points usually admitted, but in precisely those principal points in which it has been declared to be anti-Catholic. Some of these points concern the Characters of the Prioress, the Monk, the Friar, and the Pardoner. There are also Tales the bearing of which on the spirit of the Prologue has been misunderstood, for example, the Friar’s Tale, 'the Summoner’s Tale, the Shipman’s Tale, the Miller’s Tale, and some lines in the Monk’s Prologue, and a few lines at the end of the Nuns’ Priest’s Tale, and parts of the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. These passages have been argued falsely in their bearing upon the Prologue atmosphere. Their meaning has been distorted and a disproportionate weight has been given them, apparently because they were looked upon as useful in past attacks on the Church. These passages are shown on Chart I by yellow bands and will receive attention later on as the question of atmosphere occurs.
Subject Area
Theology|Religion
Recommended Citation
Stapleton, Christopher Robert, "Chaucer the Catholic: Notes Corrective of Some Current Errors About Chaucer" (1920). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI31189650.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI31189650
