ot to be released until he should clear himself by the
ordeal of water or sword, and if he failed, he should be hung,
and if he was cleared he should, by the King's clemency, leave
the kingdom.

And yet the scholars, pitying him, entreated the King of France
that the Provost and his accomplices after being flogged after
the manner of scholars at school, should be let alone and be
restored to their occupations.

But the King of France would not grant this, saying that it would
be greatly derogatory to his honor if any one but himself should
punish his malefactors. Furthermore, this same King of France,
being afraid that the Masters of the scholars, and the scholars
themselves, would withdraw from his city, sought to satisfy them
by decreeing that for the future no clerk should be haled to a
secular trial on account of any misdemeanor which he had
committed, but that if the clerk committed a misdemeanor he
should be delivered over to the Bishop and be dealt with in
accordance with the clerk's court. Also this same King of France
decreed that whoever was the Provost of Paris should take oath
that he would be loyal to the clerks, saving his loyalty to the
King. Moreover this same King conferred upon the scholars his own
sure peace and confirmed it to them by his own charter.

But that Provost, when he had been detained in the King's prison
for many days planned his escape by flight, and, as he was being
lowered over the wall, the rope broke, and falling from a height
to the ground, he was killed.[35]

3. Special protection for a limited time is granted more explicitly by
Philip IV in 1306:

Philip, by the grace of God King of France and Navarre, to our
Provost at Paris, greeting. Whereas the University, masters and
Scholars at Paris, are under our special guardianship and
protection as they--both Masters, and Scholars as well--come to
their studies, stay in the said city, or return to their own
places; and inasmuch as injuries, annoyances, oppression, and
violence are frequently inflicted upon them, as we have heard,
not only in your prefecture but in other places also, to the
prejudice of our guardianship,--which wrongs could not be
prosecuted outside of Paris in any way which would prevent them
from being distracted from their studies, to