The final passage of the story is a minor qualification in which Chaucer attempts to declare himself of any blame that may be placed on him for the more vulgar and unsuitable material

contained within the various tales. He pleads ignorance, a tactic that is not quite convincing considering the intellectual labor that the Canterbury Tales represent. Otherwise, the retraction is a conventional summation that gives praise to Christ as the inspiration for the tales.

The main theme of the pilgrimage in The Canterbury Tales illustrates one obvious religious influence on the poem. The pilgrimage began as a totally religious experience. During this experience, the pilgrims went on long, difficult journeys in order to walk on sacred ground, or to get close to holy relics of saints. It was believed, and still is by some, that doing so brought one closer to God. The journey itself was all...