their serious
prejudice and that of the aforesaid University, and from being
harassed by serious struggles and expense,--therefore we entrust
and commit to you their protection and custody, and in addition
thereto the restraint of those persons who, to the prejudice of
our protection and guardianship, inflict upon the above-mentioned
Masters or Scholars unjust violence, injury or loss, either
within the limits of your prefecture or in other places of our
kingdom, wheresoever the aforesaid wrongs are committed.

This present arrangement is to be in force for a period of two
years only.[36]

4. The personal property of Masters and Scholars is protected.

The privilege of Philip Augustus for Paris, 1200.

Also our judges [of the secular courts] shall not lay hands on
the chattels of the students at Paris for any crime whatever. But
if it seem that these ought to be sequestrated, they shall be
sequestrated and guarded after sequestration by the
ecclesiastical judge, in order that whatever is judged legal by
the ecclesiastical judge may be done.[37]

More comprehensive protection is given by the charter of Philip IV,
1340/41, concerning Masters and Scholars at Paris. The king decrees--

Likewise, that their goods and means of support, whereon they
have and will have to live in pursuing their studies as
aforesaid, in consideration of their status, shall not be taken
for our use or that of our subjects or be in any way whatever
interfered with under cover of wars or any other pretext
whatever, by any persons whatever, of whatever condition, status,
or prominence they may be.[38]

(b) _The Sovereign grants to Scholars the Right of Trial in Special
Courts, in the City in which they are studying._

This remarkable privilege was one great source of the liberty of
mediaeval scholars. Under its protection they could not be summoned to a
court outside the university town, even to answer for an offense
committed elsewhere; the plaintiff must appear at the town in which they
were studying, and before specified judges, who were at least not
inclined to deal severely with scholars. At Paris scholars were not only
protected as defendants, but they had the right as plaintiffs to summon
the accused to Paris.

1. The earliest document on the subject is the concluding section of the
_Authentic Habita_, described