audience. The way that Chaucer used these literary devices to subtly make his views known to an audience while hooking them with entertainment, shows that Chaucer was truly a literary genius.
             The first of these devices, his straightforwardness and matter-of-factness regarding the Pardoner's hypocrisy, is used first to appall his readers, and then to cause them to take a second look at the church in their own society. Chaucer knew that most of his audience lacked the ability to fully understand his views, but he hoped that by using this device he could plant seeds of reason in them that would lead to reform of corruption he saw among church officials like the pardoners. The role of a pardoner in the Medieval Church was to sell indulgences, which granted the buyer pardon for their sins. John Manly, in his book Some New Light on Chaucer, believed that Chaucer developed his negative attitude towards this practice by observing the pardoners of the city Rouncival (127). These pardoners in particular had developed a reputation of being scandalous and full of avarice during the late 1300's. Chaucer saw this practice of selling indulgences as obviously corrupt, so he therefore sought to make his Pardoner obviously corrupt to his readers.
             The Pardoner is very open about his hypocrisy and does not show any sign of remorse for it. In preaching to his audiences his theme is always "Radix malorum est cupiditas" (Chaucer 1672), which means, greed is the root of all evil. However, he then proudly admits, "Avarice is the theme that I employ in all my sermons,
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