Lost His Religion?

"Thus spete I out my venim under hewe

  Of holinesse, to seeme holy and trewe.

  But shortly myn entente I wol devise:

  I preche of no thing but for coveitise;

  Therefore my theme is yit and evere was

  Radix malorum est cupiditas." (133-138)

If the pardoner has no conscience and no respect for his faith or what he teaches, how did he get into the church in the first place? Is he just a conman or did something make him lose his religion?

The first two lines reveal how impressed the Pardoner is with his own imitation of holiness - he plays well the part of a "hellfire and damnation" preacher, and he knows it. The next two lines are his letting in his fellow pilgrims on a secret, possibly one he has never shared before. He explains that his true driving force is covetous and all he wants is to satisfy his own desires. The final two lines are ironic in light of the previous two: he says the theme of his sermon is always that "greed is to root of all evil." The complete hypocrisy of this shows just how little he cares for his religious duty.

The Pardoner’s obvious distaste for his profession’s religious goals makes me wonder why he got into the religious field in the first place. There are two possible answers: 1. That he simply viewed the church as an easy and profitable career path and decided to take advantage of the respect given to religious figures or 2. He was originally more devoted to his faith (probably not completely) but something shook his belief and made him bitter and cold-hearted. Although the first is probably the most likely, I find the second choice to be more interesting. I like the idea that the Pardoner has a past, which would explain his cruelty and lack of conscience. However, Chaucer’s portrayal of most of his characters as fairly flat means the Pardoner shouldn’t be sympathetic in the least. Therefore, it’s unlikely that the Pardoner has any reasonable explanation for his cruelty or greed. (348)