Written in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales burst onto the literary world and quickly established itself as one of England's earliest masterpieces. His poetic verse often masked the contempt Chaucer had for the hypocritical behaviors that were (and in many ways still are) present among religious leaders. Throughout this lyrical writing, Chaucer confronts the opulent monk, the corrupt friar, and the flirtatious nun. However, the Pardoner is one of Geoffrey Chaucer's most difficult characters to understand. Chaucer did not place much faith in the monastic church that was so prevalent during his time, and is quite prevalent in the character of the Pardoner; a man who did not practice what he preached, abused his power, and dabbled in the love of money. Despite preaching against greed, corruption, gluttony and greed, the Pardoner in The Canterbury Tales possessed the same qualities he spoke against. Even though this “forgiver of sins” preached that money and possessions were not the way to heaven, the reader soon discovers in Chaucer's general prologue that the Forgiver is, nevertheless, obsessed with his possessions. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer states, “For in his wallet he kept it safe.” (Chaucer) The properties that this Pardoner cared about most, he kept hidden, neatly in his wallet. His only thought was to protect his belongings from the outside world. Dr. Walter Clyde Curry, former professor of English at Vanderbilt University, wrote in the Journal of English and Germanic Philology, that [the Pardoner] is a forlorn scoundrel who delights in hypocrisy and possesses colossal impudence... after having listened to his shameless swindler......middle of paper......the Pardoner invites his audience, as he has done so many times before, for stamps and pennies, that he may bestow blessings upon them . The Pardoner's openly unsympathetic character gives the reader insight into how Chaucer viewed the church, or rather how Chaucer viewed the hypocritical attitudes and behaviors of those in the church. Instead of giving highest priority to the greatest good, the Pardoner in the tale had ulterior motives for doing his job, which were greed, gluttony, and power. Instead of doing what was right, the Pardoner used a bit of manual magic to hypnotize his listeners and swindle people out of their money. With so much corruption within the church, Chaucer felt there would be little to no help for the church to improve its ways and become what God had originally intended a church to be, a place to heal souls..