The Pardoner

The Pardoner by Samuel M. Crothers

Samuel M. Crothers’s “The Pardoner” considers an impudent dealer in questionable pardons and relics who deserves condemnation, yet whose cheerful trade becomes appealing after one has endured too much organized moral rebuke. The narrator argues that each person reaches a point of “moral saturation,” when constant denunciation, reform movements, and demands for responsibility make the conscience resistant. Like Mrs. Proudie, whose unceasing severity makes Barchester less pleasant, moral censors who never relax their righteous frown exhaust those who might otherwise support good causes. Wearied by societies and resolutions, the narrator imagines the relief of bargaining with a modest pardoner “streight comen fro the Court of Rome.” Buying a pardon offers heart’s ease without forcing a person to work out every responsibility alone. The narrator proposes a present-day pardoner who would not forgive grave sins, speak for the Church, or deal in ambitious pardons. Instead, he would offer tentative indulgences for ordinary human failings, social embarrassments, vain regrets, and needless self-reproach. His customers would be people troubled by their foibles, prejudices, omissions, and imagined judgments from neighbors. He would especially aid conscientious persons awake at half past two in the morning, when Conscience produces every unwritten letter, unmade call, neglected meeting, unread report, unfinished task, and forgotten stitch. Though sleep is then the immediate duty, the sufferer reproaches himself even for failing to sleep; a framed indulgence could spare him both guilt and doctor’s bills. The essay also mocks those who turn blessings into sorrow, such as the poet who, after finding Love, grieves for those who have not found it. The narrator urges people to accept happiness cheerfully, since enjoying blessings allows others to share in that happiness rather than endure excessive sympathy. He likewise seeks indulgences for necessarily imperfect work. Artists should not excuse inferior work, but ordinary people engaged in “pot-boilers” should be permitted satisfaction in capable mediocrity. Modern life becomes burdensome when experts demand excellence in every activity, although no person can do all things superlatively well. Mr. Balfour’s regret over not beginning golf early enough and the author who requires seven hundred and twenty-two mastications for part of a young onion illustrate excessive standards. Life requires compromises, and imperfect performance often deserves pardon. The narrator would also provide indulgences for the “unco guid,” people disliked because they know they possess virtues. Conscious virtue may be irritating, but it is not the worst fault; respectable people are too easily called hypocrites for acknowledging good qualities or claiming a virtue that does not harmonize perfectly with all their traits. Most deserving of relief are quiet, responsible people who pay taxes, build homes, support churches, schools, and hospitals, and endure hardship without complaint. Sermons, newspapers, reformers, and meetings repeatedly blame them for social evils while the actual delinquents are absent. The dutiful person acquires vicarious guilt for intemperance, pauperism, vice, and the failures of others. Though some criticism can restrain self-righteousness, too much blame overwhelms conscientious people. The narrator particularly rejects the judgment of the ne’er-do-well against the well-to-do brother who pays debts, plans carefully, and helps others within prudent limits. Ne’er-do-wellness appears generous because it has no natural limits, no means, and little concern for ends; well-to-doness is precarious and requires constant adjustment of means to ends. The morally responsible person should receive a generous indulgence and be reminded that prudential virtues, including making both ends meet, are real achievements.

By Samuel M. Crothers · First published 1905 · Genre: Humorous Essay, Satirical Essay, Literary Essay · 4,951 words

First lines

With him ther rood a gentil Pardoner / Of Rouncival, his freend and his compeer, / That streight was comen fro the Court of Rome. / A vernicle hadde he sowed on his cappe / His walet lay biforn him in his lappe / Bretful of pardoun.

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humorous essay · satire · early twentieth century · medieval pardoners · indulgences · religious hypocrisy · Protestantism and Catholicism · moral fatigue · conscience · self-reproach · sins of omission · insomnia

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