THE MONK

Chaucer describes in his main work “The Canterbury Tales” the figure of the Monk.

The Canterbury Tales contain the descriptions of 29 pilgrims and every pilgrim belongs to a social class, so this romance gives us an idea of the social structure of  the Middle Ages .

The description of the Monk is written in verse and the use of rhyming couplets underlines the aspects of the poem that criticize the Monk.

The Monk described did not follow the Benedict rule of poverty because “hunting was his sport”. 

From the words, the intelligent reader can understand that this monk was rich because in the Middle Ages hunting was an aristocratic sport. To tell the truth because having a  horse was expensive .

The Monk represents the phenomenon  of people who chose to became monks not for religion reasons but to gain money.

The phenomenon was really frequent in the Middle Ages because in this period the church sold its religious office to those who offered more and the church also sold  “indulgences”.

Indulgences were redemption promises and salvation promises , people bought indulgences to save parents or themselves from hell; these were the causes of the “Protestant Reformation”.