One of the less noticed and acknowledged distinction of The Canterbury Tales is that
1
it upheld the idea that we cannot divorce poetry from knowledge because poetry itself is an object of knowledge.
2
it alerted us to the term auctor, someone who is both 'an originator, or one who gives increase', the best description for Chaucer himself.
3
instead of revealing England's divisions, it reveled in its diversity.
4
it married domesticity to divinity, the baker's loaf with the bread of life.