ality ofits monastic house. The monkswere on the front line of the spiritual battle-it was they who did battle inprayer for their community, whowarded off devils and demons and who prayed tirelessly for the salvation ofthe souls of those in theircommunity. Rather than being the cowards of Christianity unable to take thestrain of living a Christianlife in the real world, the monks were like spiritual stormtroopersinterceeding for an area against itssupernatural enemies in mudh the same way as a local lord in his castleprotected an area against itsphysical enemies. The people gave gifts to both lord and abbot in return fora service.The Pardoner also represents the tradition of faith -- in respect tothe church of his time. The Pardoner isrepresentative of the seamy side of the corrupt church and a broken ortwisted (if you will) faith. Thefaith of a bureaucracy, which is what the church had become. The Pardonerwas a church official whohad the authority to forgive those who had sinned by selling pardons andindulgences to them. Although,the Pardoner was a church official, he was clearly in the "church" businessfor economic reasons. ThePardoner, a devious and somewhat dubious individual had one goal: Get themost money for pardons byalmost any means of coercion necessary. A twisted and ironic mind, hasbasically defined himself throughhis work for a similarly corrupt church. In contrast, the Plowman hasnothing but a seeminglyuncomplicated and untwisted faith. The Plowman has the faith of a poorfarmer, uncomplicated by thebureaucracy of the church. The Pardoner is probably on this journey becausehe is being required to goby the church or he sees some sort of economic gain from this voyage, mostlikely from sellingforgiveness to the other pilgrims. The Plowman on the other hand is probablyon this voyage because ofhis sincerity and faith in its purpose.While this was the story of religion at 'grass-roots' level, at theorganisational and hierarchical...
