“I have committed so many offences against God during my lifetime, committing one more against him now will make no difference”
I find this quote to be almost evilly genius. With this being said, Ser sets the stage for how he plans to outwit the friar and gain his reconciliation. I think how he fools the holy man, and several other of his crimes prove to how the people of this era were so convinced that the sheer fear of god would prevent any crimes or false witness. Ser takes this as a challenge and takes advantage of the faith, and fear, of the other people. I feel like this story almost criticizes the idea of blind followship.
“…I saw there no holiness, no devotion, no good work or exemplary life, or anything else among the clergy…”
This quote is very interesting, pointing out the extreme flaws and corruption of the roman Christians of the time, yet the jew still ends up converting. I think that interpretation is kind of comical, the jew decided that because Christianity has been able to spread so well, even with the extreme corruption, must mean that it is the true word of god. This story both criticizes and defends Christianity, almost like a passive aggressive attack, pointing out how Christianity won the convert, but lost with integrity.
“… and when they discovered the rings were so much alike that they could not recognize the true one, they put aside the question of who the true heir was and left it undecided…”
In this quote in the story about the merchant, the merchant was able to cease the fighting between his children about the true heir by almost eliminating the ability to discern the truth. Of course, this applies to the main theme of the story with “which religion is true,” but in this story, rather than an attack on any specific religion, we get a feeling of tolerance and acceptance of all beliefs. I think this story points out that no matter what a person believes with religion, all theories are the same, based off a common idea, and it is impossible to tell which is true.
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