The French diphthong _ie_, from Lat. _a_ under the influence of preceding sound and from _ĕ_, was gradually reduced in Anglo-Norman to _ẹ_ (i.e. close _e_). Thus, while in the earliest writers _ie_ is usually distinguished in rhyme from _e_, those of the thirteenth century no longer keep them apart. In the _Vie de S. Auban_ and the writings of Frère Angier the distinction between verbs in _-er_ and those in _-ier_ has been, at least to a great extent, lost: infinitives and participles, &c., such as _enseign(i)er_, _bris(i)er_, _eshauc(i)er_, _mang(i)er_, _jug(i)é_, _less(i)é_, _dresc(i)é_, _sach(i)ez_, and substantives such as _cong(i)é_, _pecch(i)é_, rhyme with those which have the (French) termination, _-er_, _-é_, _-ez_. At the same time the noun termination _-ier_ comes to be frequently written _-er_, as in _aumosner_, _chevaler_, _dener_, _seculer_, &c. (beside _aumosnier_, _chevalier_, _denier_, _seculier_), and words which had _ie_ in the stem were often written with _e_, as _bref_, _chef_, _cher_, _pere_ (petram), _sé_, though the other forms _brief_, _chief_, _chier_, _piere_, _sié_, still continued to be used as alternatives in spelling[E]. It is certain that in the fourteenth century no practical distinction was made between the two classes of verbs that have been indicated: whether written _-ier_, _-ié_, _-iez_, or _-er_, _-é_, _-ez_, the verbal endings of which we have spoken rhymed freely with one another and with the similar parts of all verbs of the first conjugation, and the infinitives and past participles of all first-conjugation verbs rhymed with substantives ending in _-(i)er_, _-(i)é_, _-é_: thus _pecché_, _enamouré_, _commencé_, _bestialité_, _Mir._ 16 ff., _resemblé_, _chargé_, _sainteté_, 1349, _coroucié_, _piée_, _degré_, 5341, are good sets of rhymes, and so also are _deliter_, _seculer_, _plenier_, 27 ff., _coroucer_, _parler_, _mestier_, _seculier_, _considerer_, 649 ff., and _leger_, _archer_, _amender_, _comparer_, 2833 ff. The case is the same with words which have the original (French) _ie_ in the stem, but notwithstanding the fact that the diphthong sound must have disappeared, the traditional spelling _ie_ held its ground by the side of the other, and even extended itself to some words which had never had the diphthong sound at all. Thus in the fourteenth century, and noticeably in Gower’s works, we meet with such forms as _clier_, _clief_, _mier_ (mare), _miere_ (matrem), _piere_ (patrem), _pier_ (parem), _prophiete_, _tiel_, &c., beside the normal forms _cler_, _clef_, _mer_, _mere_, &c. This phenomenon, which has caused some difficulty, is to be accounted for by the supposition that _ie_, having lost its value as a diphthong, came to be regarded as a traditional symbol in many cases for long closed _e_, and such words as rhymed on this sound were apt to become assimilated in spelling with those that originally had _ie_ and partly preserved it; thus _tel_ in rhyme with _ciel_, _fiel_, might easily