Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to the sixth lesson about The Canterbury Tales general prologue.

My name is Ms. King and today we'll be learning about the character of the Friar and how Chaucer uses him to satirise the church For today's lesson.

All you'll need is a pen and paper or something to write on and with please take a moment now to clear away any distractions, including turning off the notifications on any apps or conversations you have running.

If you know how to.

Finally, if you can try to find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed during the lesson.

Okay.

So when you're ready, let's begin.

First let's recap.

What we learned about previously, about satire, pause the video now and see if you can fill in the gaps resume the video, once you finished well done, let's have a look at some answers.

You might like to correct any mistakes you made and give yourself a big tick for all the ones you got right.

So what is satire satire? Satire is making fun of someone's stupidity or bad behaviour to try and make them improve.

Some of the techniques often used in satire are humour, irony, ridicule, and exaggeration.

Okay, so now let's move on to today's lesson.

Today we'll start by learning what the role of a Friar was in the middle ages before moving on to explore how the Friar in the Canterbury Tales is described and how Chaucer uses this, to satirise the church.

At the end, you'll have the opportunity to use what you've learned today, in a piece of creative writing.

Okay.

So first, what was the role of a Friar? A Friar was a member of a religious community of men.

Can you remember which estate does the Friar belong to? Well done If you said the first estate that's the clergy.

Now let's find out a bit more about the role of a Friar.

So a Friar was a member of a religious community of men.

They were not allow to work but they had to live off the charity of others.

For example, by begging.

Their motto was not to live for themselves only, but to serve others, they were supposed to live like Christ did not owning any property and travelling around to spread the word of God.

They were sometimes known as mendicant from the Latin mendicare to beg because poverty was such an important part of their role.

And he became a Friar.

A man took three vows, poverty to live a simple life, wearing simple clothes and not to own any belongings chastity.

Now, if you've completed lesson five on the priors you might know what chastity means To be chaste means not to marry, to focus on godly things rather than worldly pleasures.

And the third and final vow was of obedience following God's laws.

For example, the 10 commandments.

Let us see if you're following so far, which three vows, promises did a Friar make? A Friar vowed to live a life of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Okay.

So what were a Friar's duties? A Friar was expected to spend his time teaching, healing and helping the poor spreading the word of God, encouraging penance.

This means encouraging people to punish themselves for their sins and hearing confession, hearing people admit to their sins.

So which of these activities would not be considered appropriate for a Friar? Flirting with women would not be appropriate for a Friar because he'd taken a vow of chastity.

Now let's see if you can write down a summary of what the role of a Friar was.

Use the sentence styles to help if you like Pause the video now to complete your task and resume it again, once you finished.

Good job.

Okay So here's what you might have written.

Don't worry if you phrased your answer slightly differently to mine, what matters is that you've included the key points and I'm going to include those in green.

So what was the role of a Friar? A Friar promised to live a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

He was expected to live like Christ did, not owning any property and travelling around to spread the word of God.

His duties included, helping the poor, spreading the word of God and encouraging penance.

Next, let us explore how Chaucer describes the Friar in the Canterbury Tales.

Well, first we find out that, oh dear, the Friar is unchaste.

Unchaste means having a relationship outside of marriage, pause the video for a moment and write down the definition of unchaste seeing if you can fill in the gaps, let's check your answer.

Unchaste means having a relationship outside of marriage.

So we know that the Friar has broken his vow of chastity, but how does Chaucer show us this? He writes there was a Friar a wanton one and merry a limiter, a very festive fellow.

Now that word wanton means unchaste and the word limiter in case you're interested was a word for a Friar who was permitted to beg within certain limits.

Remember Friars weren't allowed to own anything or work.

So begging was officially their only way of making a living, but as we'll see, not all Friars actually stuck to those rules.

Chaucer then gives us more evidence that the Friar is unchaste, he'd fixed up many a marriage, giving each of his young women what he could afford her.

Now the implication of this is that the Friar himself has got these women pregnant.

He's not allowed to marry them.

And it wasn't socially acceptable to have children unless you were married.

So to hide his unchaste behaviour, the Friar arranged marriages of these women to other men.

And later Chaucer says, he kept his tippet stuffed with pins for curls and pocket knives to give to pretty girls.

I think we have to ask ourselves what the Friar is up to.

If he's carrying around lots of gifts to give to pretty girls.

Okay.

So let's check your understanding so far, which three things suggest that the Friar is Unchaste? the answers where he carries around gifts to give to pretty girls he's described as wanton and he organises and pays for the marriages of lots of young women.

Now, the other thing that Chaucer is keen to get across to us about this particular Friar is that he is corrupt.

That means he's willing to behave dishonestly for money or personal gain.

Pause the video for a moment now and write down the definition of corrupt seeing if you can fill in the gaps, okay Let's check your answer.

Corrupt means willing to behave dishonestly for money or personal gain.

So, what is it about his behaviour that shows us that the Friar is corrupt? Well, he tells us the one listening to people, confess to their sins and ask him for forgiveness.

He tells them therefore, instead of weeping and of prayer, one should give silver for a poor Friar's care.

So instead of showing that they regret their sins through crying and praying to God, the Friar recommends that they give silver to him.

Hmm I wonder how God feels about that.

Further on Chaucer tells the reader that though he was qualified to hear confessions or so he said with more than priestly scope, he had a special licence from the Pope sweetly he heard his penitence at shrift with pleasant absolution for a gift.

He was an easy man in penance giving where he could hope to make a decent living is a sure sign.

Whenever gifts are given to a poor order, that a man's, wealth shriven now penitence are people asking for penance people who have come to confess their sins to the Friar and ask for God's forgiveness.

And the absolution that he offers them is absolute forgiveness.

So the Friar tells people they will be forgiven if they give him a gift again, he's breaking his vow of poverty.

Now, not only does this Friar abuse his position of authority for personal gain, but he actually actively avoids the very people he is supposed to help preferring instead to hang out with the wealthy and in pubs, he knew the taverns well in every town and every innkeeper and barmaid too better than lepers beggars and that crew.

For in so eminent a man, as he, it was not fitting with the dignity of his position, dealing with a scum of wretched lepers, nothing good can come of commerce with such slum and gutted dwellers but only with the rich and vitaile sellers now taverns are pubs so he knew the pubs in every town and lepers are people with leprosy, a contagious disease, which can cause disfigurement.

So the Friar is avoiding the people he supposed to help the lepers beggars and that crew.

And instead choosing to spend his time drinking in pubs and spending time with the rich, who he might make some money from.

And if we needed any more proof that the Friar has broken his vow of poverty, Chaucer then tells us that he wears expensive clothing, which clearly costs a bit.

Not then appearing as your cloistered scholar with threadbare habit, hardly worth a dollar, but much more like a doctor or a Pope of double worsted was the semi-cope upon his shoulders.

So rather than wearing a threadbare habit, that is a plain robe, normally worn by Friars or monks.

Our Friar has a semi-cope cloak made of double worsted that's high quality wool.

And so he looks a bit more like a doctor or a Pope than we might expect to Friar to look.

Okay, let's see if you followed all of that, which three things suggest that the Friar is corrupt? The three things which suggest the Friar is corrupt are, he will accept money, silver for penance instead of prayers, he will grant an absolution for a gift.

And he spends his time in pubs and with the wealthy rather than with the poor.

Okay.

So we've established this Friar is a bit of a letdown, but how and why does Chaucer use the character of the Friar to satirise the church.

Well, can you remember the three vows that a Friar took that we learned about at the start of this lesson, there are some clues here, if you're not sure vows a Friar made were, poverty, chastity and obedience.

Now thinking time, is the fryer in the Canterbury Tales loyal to the vows he's made? Is he poor, chased and obedient to God's laws? I think we've pretty clearly established that he's not, though we could argue that Chaucer's Friar is what we might call a stereotype, a common, but fixed and oversimplified idea of a particular type of person.

Out in Chaucer's time, there were actually lots of negative stereotypes about Friars because people were suspicious that they were misusing their position of trust and authority.

And some of these negative stereotypes were that Friars have relationships with women, that Friars earned more money than they needed, and that Friars enjoyed eating and drinking too much.

Now, can you explain how does Chaucer's Friar fit the negative stereotypes of Friars in the middle ages? Use the sentences styles If you like to help you put your answer together, pause the video now to complete your task and resume it again.

Once you're finished.

Okay, so here's what you might have written negative stereotypes of Friars were that they had relationships with women, earned more money that they needed and enjoyed eating and drinking too much.

Chaucer's Friar fits these because he's presented as unchaste and corrupt.

So we've established that Chaucer is satirising the church through his portrayal of the Friar, but why might he want to satirise the church? Well, to answer that question.

Let's remind ourselves of the social hierarchy in England.

In the middle ages, the three estates in charge was the Monarch, but then the group who had the most power after them was the clergy, the clergy had even more power than the very wealthy nobility.

In the middle ages the church was hugely powerful and very wealthy.

People became suspicious of religious officials, such as Friars and pardoners who were supposed to live a life of poverty, but who in reality often made a lot of money through questionable means.

Now here's your chance to get creative and to show off what you've learned today.

We're going to be writing a letter of complaint.

I'd like you to imagine that you were one of the pilgrims travelling to come to Canterbury with the Friar.

You were shocked and disappointed at his failure to live up to what was expected of him.

And you decide to write a letter to give the Archbishop of Canterbury when you arrive there.

Okay.

Say how to write this letter of complaint.

You should begin with dear Archbishop and tell him why you're writing to him.

Then in your letter, make sure you include what is expected of a Friar, what Chaucer's Friar is actually like and what you think should happen to him for failing to live up to the expectations of a man in his position.

Don't forget to sign off appropriately at the end with your sincerely and then your name.

You can use these sentence openings to help you get started if you like.

Pause the video now to complete your task and resume it again, once you're finished.

Excellent work.

Now let's have a look of what you might have written.

You might have phrased your letters a bit differently to mine that's okay.

So first an acceptable answer.

Dear Archbishop, I'm writing to inform you of my experience whilst on pilgrimage to Canterbury recently, one of my fellow pilgrims was a Friar named Hubert.

When a man becomes a Friar.

He vows to live in poverty and chastity his duties are to help the poor and spread the word of God.

However, the Friar I met on pilgrimage to Canterbury has clearly broken both of these vows.

He has had relationships with women and his corrupt accepting gifts of money in return for God's forgiveness.

I recommend that he be removed from his position immediately! You're sincerely A Pilgrim.

Okay.

Now let's see what a really good letter might look like.

Dear Archbishop, I am writing to inform you of my disappointing experience whilst on pilgrimage to Canterbury recently.

One of my fellow pilgrims was a Friar named Hubert.

When a man becomes a Friar.

He vows to live in poverty, chastity and to obediently follow God's law.

His duties are to help the poor and spread the word of God as well as encouraging penance and hearing confession.

However, the Friar I met on my pilgrimage to Canterbury has clearly broken both of these vows.

Firstly, it's clear from the gifts he carries to seduce women and the many marriages he has arranged that he has had relationships with women outside of marriage.

Furthermore, he is corrupt accepting gifts of money in return for God's forgiveness.

His wealth is evident from the expensive clothing he wears and the company he keeps choosing to spend time taverns rather than with the poor and sick.

I recommend that he be removed from his position immediately! You're sincerely A Pilgrim.

So you might like to have a look at your letter and see whether there's anything you could improve or add to it.

Okay.

That brings us to the end of today's lesson.

Give yourself a Pat on the back for all the amazing learning you've done today.

You've earned it.

Now, before you go, I've got two final things I'd like you to do.

Firstly, don't forget to complete the quiz.

Secondly, if you are able to please take a picture of your work and ask your parent or carer to share it with your teacher so they can see all the fantastic things you've learned today.

Well, all that is left for me to say is thank you.

Take care and enjoy the rest of your learning for today.