Exemplum

Exemplum refers to a narrative and story presented in a religious sermon as a specific example of the general topic. Exemplum also refers to a story demonstrating a moral point. During the Middle Ages, the narrative gained popularity as preachers could utilize vast collections of exempla. For instance, in Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale”, the pardoner, while preaching on the topic “greed is the root of all evil,”  uses an exemplum the story of the three drunken people who go out to find and defy death and instead find a big amount of gold. However, when they kill one another in an effort to take possession of the treasure, they ultimately find death.