Lollard dissent, which broadly questioned the spiritual status of the Eucharist and other Church traditions: relics, clerical celibacy, even pilgrimages. According to Fradenburg, these miraculous tales operate according to a paradoxical logic in which "visuality and carnality are used to insist upon the superior virtue of that which is beyond sight and flesh". Yet such sacramental materialism remains vulnerable to the kinds of abuse more obviously associated with the Pardoner; Fradenburg cites the case of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, the historical episode of the young English Christian supposedly martyred by Jews, "slayn also / With cursed Jewes, as it is notable / For it is but a litel while ago" (VII 684–686), tacked onto the end of the "Prioress' Tale". The tale was intimately bound up with attempts to "aggrandise the spiritual prestige and temporal revenues" of the local cathedral. Thus the vivid "carnality" of the miraculous tale of martyrdom could be deployed as easily to enhance the worldly prominence of the Church as to refute heretical doctrine by reaffirming the spiritual legitimacy of Church rituals. The "Prioress' Tale" may approximate the greedy exploitation of spirituality embodied by "The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale" insofar as it is indebted to tales of martyrdom circulated for worldly profit. See also Blood libel References Further reading Rose, E. M. (2022) “Prior to the Prioress: Chaucer’s Chorister in its Original Context.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 44, 63-91. External links "The Prioress's Prologue and Tale", middle-english hypertext with glossary and side-by-side middle-english and modern english Read "The Prioress' Tale" with interlinear translation Modern Translation of the Prioress' Tale and Other Resources at eChaucer "The Prioress's Tale" – a plain-English retelling for non-scholars. The Canterbury Tales Fiction about the Devil Blood libel Stereotypes of Jewish people Antisemitism in England Antisemitism in literature