When the Host turns to the Parson and bids him tell his story, the stern old man says that the pilgrims will get no “fables and swich wreccheddnesse” from him, nor will they get poetry; he is no rhymester, nor would he have a story that would amuse and entertain. He says he has a sermon designed for those who wish to make the final mortal pilgrimage to the Heavenly Jerusalem.
The Parson’s Tale is a solemn and formal sermon, long and tedious, on the renunciation of the world. The Parson speaks of all life as a pilgrimage from this base, mundane world to the next celestial world, where all grief ends. God does not desire any man to perish, and there are many spiritual ways to the Celestial City or the Heavenly Jerusalem. The noble ways include penitence, contrition, confession, and satisfaction (giving alms, doing penance, fasting, and experiencing “bodily pain”). The Parson then spells out the sins of commission — the Seven Deadly Sins — that man must avoid: pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lechery.
