"Go now to any degree, And but if gile be maister, And flaterere his felawe Under hym to fourmen, Muche wonder me thynketh 10380 Amonges us alle, Doctours of decrees And of divinité maistres, That sholde konne and knowe {318} Alle kynnes clergie, And answere to argumentz, And also to a _quodlibet_; I dar noght siggen it for shame, If swiche were apposed, Thei sholde faillen of her philosophie, 10390 And in phisik bothe. "Wherfore I am a-fered Of folk of holy kirke, Lest thei overhuppen, as oothere doon, In office and in houres; And if they overhuppe, as I hope noght, Oure bileve suffiseth; As clerkes in Corpus Christi feeste Syngen and reden, That _sola fides sufficit_ 10400 To save with lewed peple; And so may Sarzens be saved, Scribes, and Jewes. "Allas, thanne! but our looresmen Lyve as thei leren us, And for hir lyvynge that lewed men Be the lother God agulten. For Sarzens han somwhat Semynge to oure bileve; For thei love and bileve 10410 In o persone almyghty, And we, lered and lewed, In oon God almyghty; And oon Makometh, a man, In mysbileve broughte Sarzens of Surree, And see in what manere. "This Makometh was a cristene {319} And for he moste noght ben a pope Into Surrie he soughte, 10420 And thorugh hise sotile wittes He daunted a dowve, And day and nyght hire fedde, The corn that she croppede He caste it in his ere; And if he among the peple preched, Or in places come, Thanne wolde the colvere come To the clerkes ere Menynge as after mete,-- 10430 Thus Makometh hire enchauntede; And dide folk thanne falle on knees, For he swoor in his prechyng That the colvere that com so, Com from God of hevene, As messager to Makometh, Men for to teche. And thus thorugh wiles of his wit, And a whit dowve, Makometh in mysbileve 10440 Men and wommen broughte; That lyved tho there and lyve yit Leeven on hise lawes. "And siththe oure Saveour suffred, The Sarzens so bigiled Thorugh a cristene clerk, Acorsed in his soule! For drede of the deeth I dare noght telle truthe, How Englisshe clerkes a colvere fede 10450 That coveitise highte, And ben manered after Makometh, {320} That no man useth trouthe.