d and the heart-cry of medieval society was a desire toknow God and achieveintimacy with the divine. Leading a life pleasing to God was the uppermostconcern, and the widediversity of medieval piety is simply because people answered the question,'How can I best lead a holylife?' in so many different ways. Beginning with "The Pardoner's Tale", thetheme of salvation is trulyparamount. Chaucer, being one of the most important medieval authors, usesthis prologue and taleto make a statement about buying salvation. The character of the pardoner isone of the mostdespicable pilgrims, seemingly "along for the ride" to his next "gig" as theseller of relics. "For mynentente is nat but for to winne,/ And no thing for correccion of sinne,"admits the pardoner in hisprologue. As a matter of fact, the pardoner is only in it for the money, asevident from this passage:I wol none of the Apostles countrefete:I wold have moneye, wolle, cheese, and whete,Al were it yiven of the pooreste page,Or of the pooreste widwe in a village --Al sholde hir children sterve for famine.Nay, I drinke licour of the vineAnd have a joly wenche in every town.In his tale, the Pardoner slips into his role as the holiest of holies andspeaks of the direconsequences of gluttony, gambling, and lechery. He cites Attila the Hunwith, "Looke Attila, thegrete conquerour,/ Deide in his sleep with shame and dishonour,/ Bleeding athis nose indronkenesse". The personification of the deadly sins, along with his storyof the three greedymen that eventually perish at the hands of their sin is a distinct medievaldevice. The comic twist thatChaucer adds to the device, though, is that the Pardoner in himself is asthe personification of sin, as isevident from the passages of his prologue. At the conclusion of his tale,the Pardoner asks, "Allas,mankinde, how may it bitide/ That to thy Creatour which that thee wroughte,/And with his preciousherte blood boughte,/ Thou art so fals and unkinde, allas?". He...
