The Nun's Priest

The Nun's Priest Tale: The Nightmare Beast of the Firebrand Tail
The Priest tells a gentle yet adventurous tale about an old farm were a magnificent Cockerel lived with a harem of seven wives. He had a dream he would be killed and the next day a fox tricked him into singing. When the cockerel began, the fox grabbed him. Luckily, Chanticleer, the awe-inspiring rooster, survived.

Part 1: The Nun's Priest
The Priest himself was a man of the church. It is easy for us to assume he was going on the pilgrimage for that reason. We can also assume he was accompanying the nun for some amount of protection. A priest was usually very influential and helped advise the King along with the church itself. They weren't a bishop or anything, but preformed many other duties for the church.

The people of this time relied heavily on the Church for everything. The King was advised by them. The people followed it. Everything revolved around the church. The church collected taxes and other things from the people and the peasants wold work n the church grounds. Sot he need for the occupation was more of a mental thing. The people thought that they couldn't do things themselves, especially spiritual things, so they need the church to guide them.

Socially, the church had it's own hierarchy. Priest were lower on the pecking order, but they were still higher then your every day people. So int he group of travels, he was almost like a noble man.

"The priests were influential in the Middle Ages. They were exempt from tax because they provided spiritual care and conducted religious services to their parishioners. The priests were part of daily life during the Middle Ages. You met them every Sunday in church, they taught at the school, they administered Holy Communion, preached and told tales of the saints. The priest met his parishioners on ordinary work-days as well as on holidays.”

A Medieval Priests counter-part in modern days would be just that, a priest. We have several different priest for all kinds of religions nowadays and one from the old times can easily be translated into todays standards.

Chaucer really didn't give an exact opinion on the priest. from the way the story was told and what happens afterwards, it is safe to assume that Chaucer thought the priest to be a educated man with a great sense of humour.

Examples of a Medieval Priest
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Medieval_Priest,_Friar,_or_Monk_(4).JPG http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Medieval_Priest,_Friar,_or_Monk_(1).JPG http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Medieval_Priest,_Friar,_or_Monk_(2).JPG

Part 2: The Story Itself
His story of Chanticleer is well crafted and suggests that he is a witty, self-effacing preacher. It doesn’t describe his personality, but because of the way he tells his story we can assume he is an educated man with a sense of humour. We can also assume he looked like a medieval priest. The jaunty and happy way he tells his story, how he changes the mood and light and makes all the characters funny and somewhat compelling, allows us to understand his personality.

Part 3: Analyze the Language
The story of the Nightmare Beast of the Firebrand tale suggest that the priest is a pleasant man with a sense of humor, so that’s probably what Chaucer thought of him. The way he tells the story, and the way he interacts with the other travelers suggest this. It is never specifically told. The use of the word “furlong” and then names Chanticleer suggest the time period.

In the original script, it is written in old english and clearly shows the time period, but that is not what was used to create this wiki, so yeah.

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"Meet the Middle ages - Society - Classes of Society - Priests." Meet the Middle ages - Society - Classes of Society - Priests. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2014. .

"Priests in the Middle Ages." The Finer Times: War, Crime and History Resource. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2014. .

Steinberg, Prof. G.. "Social Class in Medieval England." gsteinbe.intrasun.tcnj.ec. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2014. .

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"The Nun's Priest Tale." crsd.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2014. .