"Why I have tolde al this, I took ful good hede How thow contrariedest Clergie With crabbede wordes, How that lewde men lightloker Than lettrede were saved, Than clerkes or kynde witted men Of cristene peple; 7740 And thow seidest sooth of somme, Ac se in what manere. "Tak two stronge men, And in Themese cast hem, And bothe naked as a nedle, Her noon sikerer than oother; That oon hath konnynge and kan Swymmen and dyven; That oother is lewed of that labour, That lerned nevere swymme; 7750 Which trowestow of tho two That is in moost drede? He that nevere ne dyved, Ne noght kan of swymmyng? Or the swymmere that is saaf By so hymself like, Ther his felawe fleteth forth As the flood liketh, And is in drede to drenche, That nevere dide swymme?" 7760 "That swymme kan noght," I seide, "It semeth to my wittes." {238} "Right so," quod the renk. "Reson it sheweth, That he that knoweth clergie Kan sonner arise Out of synne, and be saaf, Though he synne ofte, If hym liketh and lest, Than any lewed leelly. 7770 For if the clerk be konnynge, He knoweth what is synne, And how contricion withoute confession Conforteth the soule; As thow seest in the Sauter, In Salmes oon or tweyne, How contricion is comended, For it cacheth awey synne. _Beati quorum remissæ sunt iniquitates, et quorum tecta sunt, etc._ 7780 "And this conforteth ech a clerk, And covereth hym fro wanhope. In which flood the fend Fondeth a man hardest. Ther the lewed lith stille, And loketh after lente, And hath no contricion er he come to shrifte, And thanne kan he litel telle, But as his lores-man lereth hym Bileveth and troweth; 7790 And that is after person or parissh preest, The whiche ben peraventure Unkonnynge to lere lewed men, As Luc bereth witnesse: _Dum cæcus ducit cæcum, etc._ "Wo was hym marked {239} That wade moot with the lewed! Wel may the barn blesse that man That hym to book sette, That lyvynge after lettrure 7800 Saveth hym lif and soule. _Dominus pars hereditatis meæ_, Is a murye verset, That hath take fro Tybourne Twenty stronge theves; Ther lewed theves ben lolled up, Loke how thei be saved. "The thef that hadde grace of God On Good-friday, as thow spekest, Was for he yald hym creaunt to Crist on the cros, 7810 And knewliched hym gilty, And grace asked of God, That to graunten it is redy To hem that buxomliche biddeth it, And ben in wille to amenden. Ac though that theef hadde hevene, He hadde noon heigh blisse, As seint Johan and othere seintes That deserved hadde bettre.