While Chaucer’s discussion of experiences and the tales told in books does seem somewhat contradictory, upon closer inspection Chaucer’s opinions on trusting others renditions of events appears to be good advice. Chaucer states in lines 10 and 11:
“But God forbede but men shulde leve
Wel more thing than men han seen with ye!”
This translates to advise not believing a lot more than you have seen, as God has forbidden that. This gives the reader some leeway to believe what he reads so long as it is not entirely fantastical.
What is especially interesting about Chaucer’s short dissertation on how much to believe what you read is that it is prefacing a specifically fantastical tale of his own. A tale that any reader who follows Chaucer’s advice would have a hard time taking as true. Because of this, I am lead to believe that Chaucer was telling the reader to not take The Tale of Good Women to literally. It is an idealized tale that, while the women described may make good role models, is something that can never be achieved in life and the given inspiration for the tale cannot even be believed to exist. Why does need Chaucer need to warn people not to believe the tale of the god of love literally? For fear of the Church or simply out of courtesy to literal readers?