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