Clerics and courtly love in Andreas Capellanus' The Art of Courtly Love and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Abstract

In both The Canterbury Tales and The Art of Courtly Love Geoffrey Chaucer and Andreas Capellanus deal with various aspects of courtly love. In particular, both of them focus to some degree on the question of clerical celibacy. The use of tale telling and imaginary dialogues result in a contemporary overview of the role of the cleric in courtly love, the church rules on the subject, and the opinions of the people on a subject that is ripe for exploration. My aim is to point out some of the similarities that result when the question of «responsible celibacy» is considered.