The Canterbury Tales are a very popular and well-known set of stories, written by Geoffrey Chaucer. This collection of stories is great entertainment and some even provide very good moral lessons; most of these stories show the contempt Chaucer had for the Church of England which controlled most of England at the time. Chaucer's bias towards the corruption of the Church is best demonstrated in the Prologue to Pardon, contradicting the Parson's Tale, and the level of power within the Church structure. These are two of many stories that feature in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer uses the Pardoner as a high-level corrupt leader who yet allows him to convert sinners even though he does so for his personal gain. Although the priest is of a lower rank in the Church, he is not corrupt and gives the message to the pilgrims so that they can be forgiven. The Church in the 1400s was the center of everyone's life and the life of a peasant was the most difficult to live. . The Church convinced everyone that if they broke the rules, their souls would be damned. One of the rules was to devote time to the church where peasants donated hours of free labor in the church's fields instead of working on their own land to feed their families ("The Medieval Church") . The Church collected tithes of each person's food and money and stored them in a tithe barn where the food rotted or was poisoned by rats ("The Medieval Church"). The tithes of the people were what made the Church so rich ("The Medieval Church"). With wealth and power, and fear of damnation, the Church was able to be as corrupt as it wanted because there was no one to stop it. Because of this corruption in the Church, a man named Geoffrey Chaucer became...... middle of paper ......ed. Flight. A. New York: WW Norton &, 2012. 243-342. Print. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Creighton, James Joseph, "Chaucer's Presentation of the Church in the Canterbury Tales" (1957). Master's theses. Paper 1377. Web. April 25, 2014Day, Lauren. "The Canterbury Tales: Chaucer's respectful critique of Church officials and their abuses of power." Digital Commons at Salve Regina (2011): 1-26. McKillop Library. Internet. April 25, 2014.Ethel, Garland. “Chaucer's Worst Shrew: The Pardoner.” Modern Language Quarterly 20.3 (1959): 211. Academic research completed. Internet. April 26, 2014.Greenblatt, Stephen. “Geoffrey Chaucer.” The Middle Ages. Ninth ed. Flight. A. New York: WWNorton &, 2012. 238-43. Print. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Neuman, A. “Chaucer’s Forgiveness: A Critique of Capitalism.” Note saver. GradeSaver LLC, April 8. 2002. Internet. April 25. 2014.