The medieval clergy were more likely to suffer from parasites than the poorer public.
People who lived in monasteries may have been at greater risk of getting infections because they grew their own produce.
According to Dr Piers Mitchell, co-author of the study, just because you're wealthier doesn't mean you're better off.
The study is the first of its kind to compare the prevalence of parasites in people who live in the same area.
Mitchell and colleagues used microsieving and digital light microscopy to look for parasites in two burial sites in Cambridge. Poor hygiene leads to the spread of these.
There were 19 graves of clergy buried at an Augustinian friary between the 13th and 16th century and 25 adult burials from the All Saints by the Castle parish cemetery.
If the eggs were only found near the pelvis, or if they were at least four times higher than for samples from the head or feet, the researchers thought the infections were genuine.
Mitchell said that it's possible that poorer people would simply have emptied their bowels on to a patch of ground.
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The results show that the friars were more likely to have parasites than the average person.
The team say that all 19 positive individuals had roundworm and one friar also had whipworm.
The team says the prevalence of worms among the friars was much higher than expected.
"Monasteries were built with a sort of set plan in the medieval period: there are lots of stone buildings, they would have had latrine blocks, they would have had running water, and they did hand washing."
He said that the team expected the parasites to be less common among the friars.
The friars may have used their fancy toilet facilities as a source of fresh human waste to be used as fertiliser for crops in their gardens, according to Mitchell. If this had contained parasites, they would have been at risk of getting sick from eating their produce.
Mitchell said that medieval people thought that there was a link between the amount of phlegm and the worms in the gut. They wouldn't have thought washing would be a good idea.
friars did grow some of their own food, but they were supposed to live by begging, according to Dr. Martin Heale, who was not involved in the work.
He said that a lot of their food came from donations. They may have been given cheaper or unhealthier food by the townsfolk. Infections could be linked to the use of shared latrines and the fact that monasteries were also very infectious.
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