Canterbury Tales: Summoner

Morales

To rid the streets of sinners.

To teach the wages of sin and death but not follow them.

Uncommon words!/ Vocab

There was a Summoner with us

in the place who had a fire red

cherubinnish face, for he had carbuncles. His eyes were narrow,

He was as hot and lecherous as a

sparrow. Black, scabby brows he

had, and a thin beard. Children

were afraid when he appeared.

No quiksilver, lead ointments, tarter creams, Boracic, no, nor brimstone, so it seems, Could make a salve that had the power to bite,Clean up or cure his whelks of knobby white. Or purge the pimples sitting on his cheeks. Garlic he loved, and onions too. He leeks, And drinking strong wine till all was hazy. Then he would shout and jabber as if he was crazy,And wouldnt speak a word except in Latin When he was drunlk, such tags as he was pat in; He only had a few, say two or three, That he mugged up out of some decree; No wonder, for he heard the every day. And, as you know, a man can teach a Jay to call out "Walter" better than the Pope. But had you tried to test his wits and grope for more, youd have found nothing in the bag. Then "Questio quid juris" was his tag. He was a gentle varlet and a kind one, No better fellowif you went to find one. He would allow just for a quart of wine, Any good lad to keep a concubine a twelvemonth and dispense it altogether! Yet he could pluck a finch to leave no feather: and if he found some rascal with a maid he would instruct him not to be afraid in such a case as the archdeacon's curse (Unless the rascals soul were in his purse) For in his purse the punishment should be. "Purse is the good Archdeacon's hell," he said; A curse should put a guilty man in dread, For curses kill, as shriving brings, salvation. We should beware of excommunication. Thus, as he pleased, the man could bring duress on any youngfellow in the diocese. He knew their secrets, they did what he said. He wore a garland set above his head large as the hollybush upon a stake outside an ale-house, and he had a cake, a round one, which it was his joke to wield as if it were attended for a shield.

carbuncles-a painful circumscribed inflammation of the subcutaneous tissue.

boracic- a type of acid used to help fight diseases.

shriving-to impose a penace on a sinner.

varlet-a knavish person; rascal.

concubine- a secondary wife.

Appearance

Habits &

Mannerisms

Ugly with a fire-red complexion, pimples and boils, a scaly infection around the eyebrows, and a moth-eaten beard.

The habits of a summoner usually consist of getting the word to public sinners about their court dates but the summoner in canterbury tales lets sinners go if they do him favors, which is wrong.

His external appearance describes his inside perfectly! He's a bad man who contradicts himself at his own job.

I infer that the summoner was a very bad man because he was supposed to work for the courts which were based on Christ but he sinned in his job to catch sinners.

Responsibilities

Job

Summoner

The Summoner was a productive member of the community because he told sinners when they had to appear at court. Less sinners means less crimes and less crimes means more productivity to the community.

In ecclesiastical courts in the Middle Ages, one officer had the responsibility of finding and arresting accused individuals and bringing them to a judge. The summoner, also known as an apparitor, performed this job.

A Summoner was a man who delivered summonses for alleged public sinners to appear at the Archdeacon's ecclesiastical court when accused of public immorality. The job offered opportunities for serious abuse such as bribery, extortion, and especially blackmail of those who went with prostitutes.

The Summoner was also not a productive member of the community because some sinners he let free if they did stuff for him.

Transportation

The Summoner rode a horse.

I think the summoner rode a horse because the majority of people in canterbury tales rode horses.

Chaucer's opinion

Chaucer did not like this character very much at all. In the passage he talked about how ugly the summoner was, how nasty the summoner was, and how when the summoner appeared, the children were afraid.