Background of The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales The late th century in England was a time of great change After the Black Death many people began questioning the Catholic Church's authority Groups like the Lollards opposed the Church's control Society was traditionally divided into three groups the Church nobility and peasants However this system was collapsing Peasant revolts spread like the Jack Straw rebellion A new middle class of educated workers such as merchants and clerks was rising especially in cities Chaucer was part of this class and satirized these changing times in The Canterbury Tales Chaucer planned to write stories He finished and one was partially finished of which were verse tales and were prose tales However the rest remain unfinished because of Geoffrey Chaucer's sudden death If The Canterbury Tales is a book The General Prologue is the first chapter of this book Chaucer draws a