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Be Preeve which that is Demonstratif (1)

ONE encounters in the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer an astonishing range of
interest in every aspect of the Christian religion.  They abound in
references to the Bible, to the Fathers, and to topics pertaining to
scholastic theology.  He mentions, sometimes in the course of an extended
discussion, more often in the form of a brief allusion, the Christian
doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Sacraments of
Baptism, the Eucharist, Holy Matrimony, and Penance.  He refers to the
nature of fiends, to pilgrimages and preaching, miracles, pardons and
relics, to liturgical and devotional texts, to every sort of vice and virtue.  

Many of the Canterbury pilgrims are employed by the Church, or are in some
form of orders:  the Prioress, the Second Nun, the Nun's Priest, the Monk,
the Friar, the Clerk, the Parson, the Summoner, the Pardoner - a wide
spectrum of ecclesiastical life.  The earliest references to the Miracle
Plays are to be found in Chaucer.  'Hende Nicholas' sings the Angelus ad
Virginem;  the 'litel clergeon' of The Prioress's Tale says his Ave Maria
and sings his Alma Redemptoris Mater; 
and many more prayers and invocations occur in Chaucer's works.  

The longest of the Canterbury Tales, that of the Parson, is not a tale at
all but a penitential manual.  At the end of it Chaucer gives thanks for
having translated 'Boece de Consolatione, and other bookes of legendes of
seintes, and omelies, and moralitee, and devocion'.  He also claims to have
written translations, now lost, of Pope Innocent III's De Contemptu Mundi
and the De Maria Magdalena attributed to Origen.  The range, if not
necessarily the depth, of his religious interests is greater than that of
any other writer of his time, greater even than that of more obviously
'religious' writers such as Langland or the Pearl-poet.

(To be continued)

The Supple Doctor.



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