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Corruption In The Miller's Tale

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During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church was one of prestige and honor. The fact that this was all really a façade. It was really a time of less faith and more corruption. ” The Roman Catholic Church was theologically sick and its theology led to atrocious corruptions. It was spiritually exhausted, enfeebled and almost lifeless. Rome had seriously departed from the teaching of the Bible and was engrossed in real heresy.” (Arnold) Chaucer’s The Mille’sr Tale addresses this in a humorous yet truthful way. The Miller is a vulgar and drunk individual who uses references to religion as criticism and critiques of the Roman Catholic Church. Chaucer uses the Miler as his vessel to reveal the corruption and hypocrisy of the Church. Through The Miller’s Tale, the reader can see the …show more content…

In other words, she attends the religious service for outside reasons not for the true heart and spiritual reasons. This action can be seen as sacrilegious. After planning to sin, she goes to the place that does not want her to sin. The Catholic Church was and is full of scandals and problems, but the Church tries to keep it all hidden so that the appearance of perfection and sinlessness is shown. Chaucer is sending them a slap in the face with this example because he is showing that the world knows they are not as perfect and pious as they seem.
Religion is a theme in many works of literature throughout the ages. In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer is no different. In the Miller’s Tale, Chaucer uses the most unlikely character to reveal the hypocritical ways of the Roman Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. He shows that they are all materialistic, using religion to trick people, and not honestly having the heart of a true believer. He wants to world to see the irony so he expresses it in his writings so that the world can see how the Roman Catholic Church is only a big

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