However, throughout most of the story, Chaucer includes examples of a specific problem that was occurring in England during the 14th century. This current problem is corruption in the Catholic Church. The traditional idea of ​​a religious figure is someone who people can look up to and someone who can be a model of how people should behave in a society. However, during the fourteenth century, this ideal model did not exist. In "The Miller's Tale", Chaucer describes both Nicholas and Absalom as clerks, who were considered religious figures at the time. To trick the carpenter, John, into leaving the house (so that Nicholas could spend the night with his wife), Nicholas used his vast knowledge and understanding of religion to weaken John. He said to John, "That now one Monday next, at the quarter of the night, a reyn will fall, and that so wild and wooded, that half so wholesome was never the flood of Noës" (164). Nicholas abuses his religious power to have an affair with the poor carpenter