In the medieval literary masterpiece The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, not only does Chaucer provide the reader with an entertaining story about a group of approximately thirty pilgrims who meet (by chance) at an inn, in a suburb of London, on a trip to see the shrine of St. Thomas á Becket in Canterbury cathedral, but he also divulges to the reader a remarkably horrid picture of an English Church run amok with corruption, greed and, more importantly, hypocrisy.

Writing about pilgrims drawn from almost every rank of 14th century English society, The Canterbury Tales takes a look at medieval life from (what seems like) every angle and every class, displaying the actuality of the Church by illuminating and emphasizing the wanton ways of those individuals who purportedly represented it. In essence, Chaucer uses religious characters within his text to broadcast to his audience what was wrong...