During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church reigned supreme. The Catholic leadership taught that the only way to God was through the Church. People wanted to be on good terms with their creator, thus the majority of Europe became Catholic. The clergy of the Church was one of the most powerful establishments of the Middle Ages because they were believe to be the only path to salvation, they were the most educated members of the community, and they were the moral judges of the population. By this time, most of the doctrines of Biblical Christianity had disappeared. The Church controlled the western world by holding the threat of eternal damnation and torment over the heads" of the people.
In Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Friar's Prologue" and "The Friar's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales, the superiority of the clergyman is explained. The friar is not common for the Catholic leaders of his time. He shows doubt and disagreement with the summoner, whose job it is to collect money from parishioners and make them repent for their sins. If the summoner is not paid, the person is damned to Hell and an afterlife of pain. Most of these summoners kept the money they were given. They enlisted the help of prostitutes and other dregs of society. The friar believes these people who are supposed to be helping the Church are against the moral and government law. During the friar's story, he expresses that the Yeoman, who represents the devil, works with the summoner and they become brothers. When the summoner meets an old woman who cannot spare anything and claims she is guiltless, the summoner goes with the devil to Hell. .
The friar in the story believes in truths that are rarely accepted by clergy in the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, the majority of the church leaders were closer to the vicious summoner than the compassionate friar. The beliefs that Christianity had been founded on had all but vanished by this time.
