In the story, a monk secretly brings a woman into his dormitory, and proceeds to have relations with her that are forbidden for a monk like himself. The abbot (head of the abbey) happens to come across the monk's room, and eavesdrops on them, finding out the sin the monk had just committed. The abbot decides to return to his room, and wait to see what the monk would do, unaware that the monk had actually just seen the abbot spying on him. In an attempt to create a means of bringing the woman back outside the abbey, the monk goes to the abbot's room, and pretends that he was unaware of the abbot's presence. He asks permission to leave the grounds to complete a task that he was assigned earlier, and leaves the room. The abbot, unawares that he had been seen earlier, heads to the monk's room and finds the woman. This is where the story gets interesting, in that the abbot proceeds to also have relations with this woman, and not only that, but he is being eavesdropped on by the monk. The story comes full circle when the monk later approaches the abbot. Upon the abbot finding out that he was being eavesdropped upon by the monk, he agreed to overlook the monk's sin, fearing hypocrisy, a human emotional …show more content…
This is why renaissance writing is so interesting. It is the birth of a new way of thinking, ideals separated from the way of the church. For the first time, people are thinking that if they have relations out of wedlock, that maybe that's okay in the long run, and that divine punishment is something that's not even proven to exist, but is based on faith. Boccaccio brings in a point of view that strongly suggests that strictly following the rules of the Christian church is