sendal…therfore he loved gold in special.” Even the way that the physician presents himself though his dress portrays wealth. Other people agree with this, saying that there is “only one negative element building up to Chaucer’s ultimate condemnation of the physician as an avaricious man.” (Seal, 2017) This physician used his profession as a way to become rich, not because the studying of medicine was something he was passionate about. We can see that helping people might not have been his passion either. His friendship with the pharmacist is shown as a way to earn money as well. As Chaucer describes it, “Ful redy hadde he his apothecaries to senden him drogges and his letuaries, for eech of hem made other for to winne: his frendshipe …show more content…
Anyone who worked for the church was considered important and well respected by anyone of lower class. However, this class structure did not necessarily mean that those with the most money were also in the highest class of the church. Often, there were people in other classes with significantly less money than those who were devoted and worked for the church. Any connection with the church automatically rewarded you with respect in this society. Religion, most dominantly Christianity, and the church were basically the sole powers at the top of the society’s hierarchy. As mentioned before, we see that the physician had plenty of money. The account says that, “In sanguin and in pers he clad was al, lined with taffeta and with sendal.” (Lines 441-442) This description makes the physician sound like he should have been a wealthy and highly respected man who displayed his money through the way he dressed. This was not the case, however, for this religious society. Medicine was a new field, one that was up and coming during a time and in a society that had only read and studied things that had stemmed from religion and the religious scholars of years before. This raised a concern for the church. Tasdelen writes, “Geoffrey Chaucer produced the Canterbury Tales during a period dominated by Christian doctrines.” (Tasdelen, 2014) The new science that was being studied could have been seen as a threat to those who preached their religion. They might have been fearful that people would put their faith into science and the human body, possibly even things like astronomy as mentioned before. Chaucer even writes about magic, saying, “He kepte his pacient a ful greet deel in houres by his magik naturel.” (Lines 417-418) What this says is referring back to astronomy and the belief in there being right and wrong times to care for patients based on the positions