Chaucer's Parson's Tale and the Contours of Orthodoxy

Author / Editor
Winstead, Karen A.

Title
Chaucer's Parson's Tale and the Contours of Orthodoxy

Published
Chaucer Review 43 (2009): 239-59.

Description
By assigning his English translation of Raymund of Pennaforte's "orthodox" yet "contritionist" "Summa de poenitentia" to the Parson, Chaucer subtly resists the emphasis on oral confession to priests that characterized the doctrine of penance of his day. In this way, he began a trend followed by fifteenth-century writers such as Julian of Norwich, Eleanor Hull, Margery Kempe, and Thomas Hoccleve.

Chaucer Subjects
Parson and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations