Decameron Theme of Religion

There's no way to overestimate the centrality and omnipresence of religion in medieval Europe (for the record, we're talking about Catholicism here). Although it's clear from the introduction to the First Day that the plague has disrupted institutions and rituals, the inhabitants of Florence still go through the motions of a religious life as best they can. The brigata meets up, leaves from and returns to the Church of Santa Maria Novella (a real place, BTW). And no matter how much the storytellers satirize the clergy, they still organize their lives and storytelling around religious observances.

Reading these stories, you get the impression that this mockery of the clergy is a national pastime; that everyone must have been familiar with these caricatures of the corrupt, drunk, lustful officers of the church. Even though Catholic doctrine had strict rules controlling sexual behavior, the nuns, monks, friars, and priests in these stories are prey to the vices, passions, and temptations of any other character. The clergy in the tales excuse their lascivious behavior by attributing it to man's natural desire for sex, and they have no problem giving into these natural passions. Boccaccio gets away with parodying just about everything religious: saints, clergy, angels, miracle cures, Hell and Purgatory—not much escapes his biting satire.

As Boccaccio's biographer Hutton puts it, "For [Boccaccio], the center of things was not to be found in the next world but in this" (source). Think of those metaphors of "the resurrection of the flesh" or "putting the Devil in Hell." In the showdown between sex and religion, between the body and the spirit, Boccaccio bets on the human passions. Hutton says he's created the "Human Comedy" compared to Dante's "Divine."

1. Are there moments in The Decameron when religious ritual is meaningful and sincere? How do such episodes fit into the work as a whole?
2. What are some of the specific charges that Boccaccio lays at the clergy's door? Which of these is the most serious, in your opinion?
3. Do you think that Boccaccio criticizes the Church in order to encourage people to question religious doctrine?
4. Boccaccio and his characters have a lot of negative things to say about friars, priests and nuns. In what circumstances are the clergy seen in a positive (or less villainous) light? Why does he include such examples in this work?

The depictions of the clergy are largely satire. If corruption had really been so widespread, the Church's authority would have crumbled.

Clergy were uniquely positioned to take advantage of the poor and naïve populace, who saw them as true representatives of God.