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We have no free chois, as these clerkes rede. 980

`For other thought nor other dede also

Might never be, but swich as purveyaunce,

Which may not ben deceyved never-mo,

Hath feled biforn, with-outen ignoraunce.

For if ther mighte been a variaunce 985

To wrythen out fro goddes purveyinge,

Ther nere no prescience of thing cominge;

`But it were rather an opinioun

Uncerteyn, and no stedfast forseinge;

And certes, that were an abusioun, 990

That god shuld han no parfit cleer witinge

More than we men that han doutous weninge.

But swich an errour up-on god to gesse

Were fals and foul, and wikked corsednesse.

`Eek this is an opinioun of somme 995

That han hir top ful heighe and smothe y-shore;

They seyn right thus, that thing is not to come

For that the prescience hath seyn bifore

That it shal come; but they seyn that therfore

That it shal come, therfore the purveyaunce 1000

Wot it biforn with-outen ignoraunce;

`And in this manere this necessitee

Retorneth in his part contrarie agayn.

For needfully bihoveth it not to be

That thilke thinges fallen in certayn 1005

That ben purveyed; but nedely, as they seyn,

Bihoveth it that thinges, whiche that falle,

That they in certayn ben purveyed alle.

`I mene as though I laboured me in this,

To enqueren which thing cause of which thing be; 1010

As whether that the prescience of god is

The certayn cause of the necessitee

Of thinges that to comen been, pardee;

Or if necessitee of thing cominge

Be cause certeyn of the purveyinge. 1015

`But now ne enforce I me nat in shewinge

How the ordre of causes stant; but wel wot I,

That it bihoveth that the bifallinge

Of thinges wist biforen certeynly

Be necessarie, al seme it not ther-by 1020

That prescience put falling necessaire

To thing to come, al falle it foule or faire.

`For if ther sit a man yond on a see,

Than by necessitee bihoveth it

That, certes, thyn opinioun soth be, 1025

That wenest or coniectest that he sit;

And ferther-over now ayenward yit,

Lo, right so it is of the part contrarie,

As thus; (now herkne, for I wol not tarie):

`I seye, that if the opinioun of thee 1030

Be sooth, for that he sit, than seye I this,

That he mot sitten by necessitee;

And thus necessitee in either is.

For in him nede of sittinge is, y-wis,

And in thee nede of sooth; and thus, forsothe, 1035

Ther moot necessitee ben in yow bothe.

`But thou mayst seyn, the man sit not therfore,

That thyn opinioun of sitting soth is;

But rather, for the man sit ther bifore,

Therfore is thyn opinioun sooth, y-wis. 1040

And I seye, though the cause of sooth of this

Comth of his sitting, yet necessitee

Is entrechaunged, bothe in him and thee.

`Thus on this same wyse, out of doutaunce,

I may wel maken, as it semeth me, 1045

My resoninge of goddes purveyaunce,

And of the thinges that to comen be;

By whiche reson men may wel y-see,

That thilke thinges that in erthe falle,

That by necessitee they comen alle. 1050

`For al-though that, for thing shal come, y-wis,

Therfore is it purveyed, certaynly,

Nat that it comth for it purveyed is:

Yet nathelees, bihoveth it nedfully,

That thing to come be purveyed, trewely; 1055

Or elles, thinges that purveyed be,

That they bityden by necessitee.

`And this suffyseth right y-now, certeyn,

For to destroye our free chois every del. —

But now is this abusion, to seyn, 1060

That fallinge of the thinges temporel

Is cause of goddes prescience eternel.

Now trewely, that is a fals sentence,

That thing to come sholde cause his prescience.

`What mighte I wene, and I hadde swich a thought, 1065

But that god purveyth thing that is to come

For that it is to come, and elles nought?

So mighte I wene that thinges alle and some,

That whylom been bifalle and over-come,

Ben cause of thilke sovereyn purveyaunce, 1070

That for-wot al with-outen ignoraunce.

`And over al this, yet seye I more herto,

That right as whan I woot ther is a thing,

Y-wis, that thing mot nedefully be so;

Eek right so, whan I woot a thing coming, 1075