How we cite our quotes: (Line number)
Quote #1
He that his hand wol putte in this mitayn,
He shal have multipliyng of his grayn
What he hath sowen, be it whete or otes,
So that he offre pens, or elles grotes. (87 – 90)
The Pardoner tells the crowds that his magic mitten is an investment. You just put your hand in it and see your crops and wealth multiply. The catch? The magic mitten will only work if a person pays to use it. But it just costs a few pennies—what a bargain! This gives away the Pardoner's ulterior motives and puts the authenticity of his relics in question. This is also a pretty extreme tactic even for the Pardoner. Magic was considered seriously heretical, although leftover pagan ideas from the Dark Ages co-existed with Christianity to some extent in medieval times.
Quote #2
Swich folk shal have no power ne no grace
To offren to my relikes in this place.
And who so fyndeth hym out of swich fame,
He wol come up and offre, on Goddes name,
And I assoille him, by the auctoritee
Which that by bulle ygraunted was to me. (97-102)
By saying that the worst sinners won't be saved by his relics and pardons, the Pardoner makes sure that everyone will fall all over themselves rushing forward to make an offering in order to avoid being exposed as a sinner before the whole town. This is one of his more lucrative tactics. Opting out is not an option unless you enjoy public humiliation.
Quote #3
By this gaude have I wonne, yeer by yeer,
An hundred mark, sith I was pardoner. (103 – 104)
A hundred marks a year is actually a pretty decent salary during this time period; it's the equivalent of 66 British Pounds and was more than enough to live quite well. The narrator tells us in the General Prologue that this Pardoner made more in a day than a priest made in a year. He was doing OK and lived large. Pardoners didn't have to take a vow of poverty like friars (not that it stopped Chaucer's Friar), but it would have been unseemly anyway to be much better off than the general public.