h the prayers are offered to Bacchus, we find this devout
collect:[7]--"Omnipotens sempiterne deus, qui inter rusticos et
clericos magnam discordiam seminasti, praesta quaesumus de laboribus
eorum vivere, de mulieribus ipsorum vero et de morte deciorum semper
gaudere."

The English version of this ribald prayer is even more explicit. It
runs thus:--"Deus qui multitudinem rusticorum ad servitium clericorum
venire fecisti et militum et inter nos et ipsos discordiam seminasti."

It is open to doubt whether the _milites_ or soldiers were included
with the rustics in that laity, for which the students felt so bitter
a contempt. But the tenor of some poems on love, especially the
_Dispute of Phyllis and Flora_, shows that the student claimed a
certain superiority over the soldier. This antagonism between clerk
and rustic was heartily reciprocated. In a song on taverns the student
is warned that he may meet with rough treatment from the
clodhopper:[8]--

"O clerici dilecti,
Discite vitare
Tabernam horribilem,
Qui cupitis regnare;
Nec audeant vos rustici
Plagis verberare!

"Rusticus dum se
Sentit ebriatum,
Clericum non reputat
Militem armatum.
Vere plane consulo
Ut abstineatis,
Nec unquam cum rusticis
Tabernam ineatis."

The affinities of the Wandering Students were rather with the Church
than with laymen of any degree. They piqued themselves upon their
title of _Clerici_, and added the epithet of _Vagi_. We shall see in
the sequel that they stood in a peculiar relation of dependence upon
ecclesiastical society.

According to tendencies prevalent in the Middle Ages, they became a
sort of guild, and proclaimed themselves with pride an Order. Nothing
is more clearly marked in their poetry than the _esprit de corps_,
which animates them with a cordial sense of brotherhood.[9] The same
tendencies which prompted their association required that they should
have a patron saint. But as the confraternity was anything but
religious, this saint, or rather this eponymous hero, had to be a
Rabelaisian character. He was called Golias, and his flock received
the generic name of Goliardi. Golias was father and master; the
Goliardi were his family, his sons, and pupils. _Familia Goliae_,
_Magister Golias_, _Pueri Goliae_, _Discipulus Goliae_, are phrases to
be culled from the rubrics of their literature.

Much has been conjectured regarding these names and ti