Evidence points to excesses in physical pleasures, especially in the realms of sex and food. The sometimes perverted sexual habits of some of the monks has been passed down through anecdotal records. A 6 page paper analyzing the personality of the Monk in this excerpt from The Canterbury Tales. The paper concludes that to Chaucer, the sin which the Monk commits by breaking his religious vows is somewhat mediated by the fact that the dogma on which the vows were based was flawed to begin with. Bibliography lists 7 sources.
Some comparison is made to contemporary society for illustrative purposes.
Bibliography lists 6 sources. Discusses the debate between Islamic philosophers Avicenna and al-Ghazali, and the resistance of Catholic leaders to accept the doctrine when at the same time they were relying on some of its tenets. Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in the Age of Classicism and Tyranny. The writer demonstrates how the strengths and weakness of the two scholarly works are complementary and argues that studying them both gives a good overview of this topic. No additional sources cited.