tour which that thee wroughte,/ And with his precious herte blood boughte,/ Thou art so fals and unkinde, allas?". He then goes on to offer each pilgrim a place...for a price, of course. The Pardoner's place in Chaucer's idea of redemption becomes evident in the epilogue of the tale. After offering the host the first pardon ("For he is most envoluped in sinne" and, supposedly, the equivalent of Chaucer), the host berates the pardoner, saying, "I wolde I hadde thy coilons in myn hond,/ In stede of relikes or of saintuarye./ Lat cutte him of". By this, the idea of the pardoner as the most important man on the pilgrimage is brought to fruition and Chaucer makes the main point of this tale: Salvation is not for sale. Another example of the medieval obsession with redemption. However, some did not accept this and questioned the church -- It was what they wanted other than "a holy life with a Old-Testament God"; That style of thinking evenually lead to a "more gentle, mother-figure" as a goddess -- The Cult of the Virgin. The eminent question then becomes, "Why would people change from a long-lasting, Old-Testament God to a mother-like goddess ? The answer is simply because they thought their "new found Goddess" would never be as harsh on people as the often criticized male like aspect of God. In both current Catholicism and that of the medieval period, Mary is worshipped with more fervor than even God or Jesus. Church after church was (and still is) erected in her name. Her likeness graced statues and stained glass with as much frequency as Jesus' bloody head. The worship of Mary is fervent, institutionalized, and approved of by the Christian church. Is she not a goddess? Mary simply took the place of the female aspects of the spirit that were once worshipped as Roman or Anglo-Saxon goddesses. The medieval period, stretching approximately from the late seventh century to the early sixteenth, was bound together under one constant--Roman Catho...
