learning makes them mad; for in Paris they seek liberal arts, in
Orleans authors, at Salerno gallipots, at Toledo demons, and in no
place decent manners."

These pilgrims to the shrines of knowledge formed a class apart. They
were distinguished from the secular and religious clergy, inasmuch as
they had taken no orders, or only minor orders, held no benefice or
cure, and had entered into no conventual community. They were still
more sharply distinguished from the laity, whom they scorned as
brutes, and with whom they seem to have lived on terms of mutual
hostility. One of these vagabond gownsmen would scarcely condescend to
drink with a townsman:[6]--

"In aeterno igni
Cruciantur rustici, qui non sunt tam digni
Quod bibisse noverint bonum vinum vini."

"Aestimetur laicus ut brutus,
Nam ad artem surdus est et mutus."

"Litteratos convocat decus virginale,
Laicorum execrat pectus bestiale."

In a parody of the Mass, which is called _Officium Lusorum,_ and in
which 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."