Hi, Reiver -

Those of us who were victims (?) of a Classical Education took Latin as a matter of course. I got my six years of Latin in a Catholic seminary in Milwaukee, and many of our UK Mudcatters also took Latin. Many of us also took Greek, and often either French or German or Spanish (in that order of preference).

Latin was the language of university education in Europe for a long,
long time - so it would be natural for university students to sing songs in Latin, since folk songs in the vernacular languages were for the common people and beneath the stature of a university student.

-Joe-