The Secret of Chaucer's Pardoner 601 magician who, professing to have received his power from the occult world, proclaims an uncanny knowledge of, and control over the mysteries of life and death; a self-announced sorcerer who, with evil mind and polluted imagination, affirms his ability to force women to men even as men now seek women. The Pardoner is a shameless and impudent fraud who, bringing his pardons and bulls all hot from the supreme spiritual authority at Rome, claims to exercise power of life and death over the human soul; a colossal cynic who, cursed with a concupiscent mind and armed with false relics, offers to men a certain cure for jealousy even tho their wives are strumpets and to women an easy absolution from the horrible sin of infidelity to their husbands. 38 Both spit out venom under the hue of honesty or holiness ; 39 both alike, urged on by an inordinate avarice and cupidity, reap a golden harvest from their practices of villainy and fraud. 40 Their minds not less than their bodies belong to the same type; their actions spring from like impulses; their purposes are formed and executed in a similar manner. Only their fields of activity are different. 41 To Chaucer belongs great honor for having combined in the person and the tale of his Pardoner a complete psychological study of the medieval eunuchus ex natimtate and a mordant satire on the abuses prac- ticed in the church of his day. 42 Considered in the light of the material presented in this investigation, certain problems which seem to have baffled the critics become straightway clear. After the Doctor has com- pleted his pathetic account of Virginia, it will be remembered, the tender-hearted Host is so overcome with pity for the maid that he must have a drink or must listen to a merry tale to ease his pain of heart. He demands "som mirthe or japes" from the Pardoner, who appears quite willing to accommodate him. 38 C. T., C. 365, 380. 89 C. T., C. 420 ff. 40 C. T., C. 388 ff., 445 ff. 41 My theory, therefore, in no way vitiates the sound conclusions drawn by Jusserand in his article cited above. 42 For a discussion of Chaucer's probable purpose in this satire, cf . The
Pardoner's Prologue and Tale, a critical edition, J. Koch, p. XXX.
