The+Summoner

The Summoner

Occupation:

The Summoner was a man who summoned people to ecclesiastical court, a court that had jurisdiction over religious matters. Ecclesiastical courts were very common during the Medieval period since the Roman Catholic Church had very powerful influence over many influential people, such as nobles and kings. The Summoner’s job helps in showing the influence the church held over Europe during the medieval period. Any job working for the ecclesiastical court would help show this powerful influence that the church held.

Ecclesiastical courts are now gone, except within the church itself when dealing with a clergy member’s position, but the position of summoning someone to court is still needed, although it has gone through changes since medieval times. A court now issues a summons, a legal document, to summon people to court. The summons is issued by the court and sent out through the mail, instead of sending a person to tell someone they are needed for court. Summons in modern day times do not require a person to physically tell someone they are needed for court, unless the person fails to acknowledge their summons in which case they will be detained and brought to court.

Social Standing:

A Summoner’s social standing was low class, when the Summoner is described he is not described in a way that would make a person believe he is of a higher class. His class standing is vaguely evident when reading his tale. The Summoner’s Tale includes his humor that would be considered as disgusting and lowly, it is a style of humor that would be associated with people of a lower class.

Physical Attributes:

The Summoner in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is a very dirty man. He had a red face full of pimples. Above his eyes were black, Scabby eyebrows, and on his chin was a scanty beard. His faces would scare off the local children and there “was no mercury, sulphur, or litharge, No borax, ceruse, tartar, could discharge, Nor ointment that could cleanse enough, or bite, To free him of his boils and pimples white, Nor of the knobs located on his cheeks.” Personality Traits

Personality Traits: The way the Summoner’s personality is displayed is very confusing. He is shown as an angry person. He is also shown as being a drunk. The confusing part is that Chaucer states that the Summoner is “a noble rascal,” and that “a better comrade would be hard to find.” The Summoner would give anything for a quart of wine. And when he was drunk he would only spoke in Latin. He hated greedy people. As he says "The purse is the archdeacon's hell."

"Canterbury Tales." //The University of Texas at Arlington - UT Arlington - UTA//. Web. 08 Oct. 2010. [Prologue Pictures.htm].

"Disaster By Popping Pimples." //Popping Pimples//. 2010. Web. 08 Oct. 2010. [].

"From "The Canterbury Tales": General Prologue (modern English and Middle English)." //Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400) - "The Canterbury Tales" (in Middle English and Modern English)//. Librarius, 1997. Web. 08 Oct. 2010. [].