The Parson's Tale
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"The Parson's Tale" is the final tale of Geoffrey Chaucer's fourteenth-century poetic cycle The Canterbury Tales. Its teller, the Parson, is a virtuous priest who takes his role as spiritual caretaker
Depiction of the Parson, from the Ellesmere Manuscript.
f. 224v of the Ellesmere manuscript, showing scribal marginalia.
Seven deadly sins
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The seven deadly sins function as a grouping of major vices within the teachings of Christianity. They are not explicitly listed in the Bible but developed within early Christian theological tradition
The Parson's Tale
…role as spiritual caretaker of his parish seriously. Instead of telling a story as the other pilgrims do, he delivers a treatise on penitence and the Seven Deadly Sins. This was a popular genre in the Middle Ages; Chaucer's is a translation and reworking that ultimately derives from the Latin manuals of two Dominican…
Hieronymus Bosch's The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things
The Holy Spirit and the Seven Deadly Sins. Folio from Walters manuscript W.171 (15th century)
An allegorical image depicting the human heart subject to the seven deadly sins, each represented by an animal (clockwise: toad = avarice; snake = envy; lion = wrath; snail = sloth; pig = gluttony; goat = lust; peacock = pride)
Still life: Excess (Albert Anker, 1896)