Part 9 (2/2)

2 The charter of the University of Leipzig, in 1409, exempts certain property of the corporation, as such, from taxes:

Likewise in said town, in behalf of the aforesaid University, and for the increase of the saes,and for these we have given and assigned two housesand these saes we have e_, exactions, contributions, _steura_, laws, taxes, and from the control of the citizens of the beforee we incorporate thee of the aforesaid University[43]

The words _steura_ and _losunge_ refer to special forms of taxes whose exact nature is not known

3 Not only were Masters, students, and corporate property exempt from taxation, but also persons connected with the universities in subordinate capacities There was much dispute in soht be thus exeland to the University of Caen, Normandy, settles one of these disputes

On January 22, 1450, the King refused to free the dependents of the university from taxation The Masters and Scholars thereupon made formal complaint to him that this refusal hindered the free and peaceful pursuit of their studies as guaranteed by his charter of 1432 (see p

103) In reply (February 13, 1450), the King recognized the justice of the coe Compare the similar exemption in the Harvard Charter of 1650 (p 101) The letter is apparently addressed to the Bailiff of Caen and other royal officials

Nevertheless since those letters of ours [of January 22] were sent, proper and true objection has been es, whereby we have well understood that the Doctors, Masters, Scholars, dependents, officers, households and servitors should not be subject to or obliged to contribute to such villein-taxes, aides, and octrois

Therefore is it, that ishi+ng our letters, gifts of privileges, and couarded and supported without any diminution or loss in any arded and also considered the fact that said hter [ie the University]

could not well carry out the requirements of study, or continue therein, if their servitors and households did not enjoy and use such and si, with all our heart the maintenance, continuation and increase of our said University which (not without good reason) we have under our special favor, considering these things, with the advice and counsel of our very dear and very beloved Cousin Edmond, Duke of Somerset, Lieutenant-General and Governor in our stead of our realms of France, the country and Duchy of Normandy, we command and strictly enjoin you all and each one of you so far as he shall be concerned, that you make or cause to be made free and exempt from said villein-taxes, aides, and octrois, one advocate, one purveyor, one bell-ringer, two booksellers, two parchment makers, two illuminators, two bookbinders, six beadles, five bailiffs, (one for each of the five Faculties) and seventhat there shall be one for each diocese in our said Duchy), and this you shall do up to this number of attendants and servitors of this our University, and at the sahts, franchises, and liberties, of which by our said comentation, you find the anything to disturb or interfere with this

And, although in our other letters devoted to the regulation of this University the said five bailiffs and seven race through these present letters, to the end that our said University may be able to have the servitors necessary to it, without whom the requirements of study could not be continued and ers to enjoy such and sies as the rest who are na that the said letters and any others whatever may require, or seem to require, the contrary to this

And that the aforesaid suppliants may be able to have, at their need, these present letters in various and diverse places, ish that copies of these, inal[44]

(d) _The Privilege of suspending Lectures_ (Cessatio)

One of the es oflectures This was used again and again in cases of unredressed grievances against civil or ecclesiastical authorities,--ainst the forration of masters and scholars to some other university, unless satisfaction was proration was a serious blow to the commercial prosperity of any town; consequently the ”cessation” was an instrureat power for the extraction of all sorts of local concessions It was often exercised without express authorization by civil or ecclesiastical powers, but the privilege was distinctly conferred by a bull of Pope Gregory IX for Paris in 1231:

And if, perchance, the assesss is taken froeous dae, such as death or the mutilation of a lih a suitable admonition satisfaction is rendered within fifteen days, you may suspend your lectures until you have received full satisfaction

And if it happens that any one of you is unlawfully imprisoned, unless the injury ceases on a ree it expedient, suspend your lectures i of this privilege are worth recounting as an illustration of the way in which such rights were frequently secured The ”clerks” referred to were of course scholars

The cessation of lectures was followed by a iven The exact nature of the satisfaction given by the king is not known One ireat charter of papal privileges just referred to,--”the _Magna Charta_ of the University” of Paris[46]

”Concerning the discord that arose at Paris between the whole body of clergy and the citizens, and concerning the withdrawal of the clergy”

[1229]:

In that same year, on the second and third holidays before Ash Wednesday, days when the clerks of the university have leisure for games, certain of the clerks went out of the City of Paris in the direction of Saint Marcel's, for a change of air and to have contests in their usual games When they had reached the place and had aames, they chanced to find in a certain tavern some excellent wine, pleasant to drink And then, in the dispute that arose between the clerks ere drinking and the shop keepers, they began to exchange blows and to tear each other's hair, until some townsmen ran in and freed the shop keepers from the hands of the clerks; but when the clerks resisted they inflicted blows upon thehly pommelled The latter, however, when they came back e them So on the next day they ca forcibly the house of a certain shop keeper, broke up all his wine casks and poured the wine out on the floor of the house

And, proceeding through the open squares, they attacked sharply whatever man or woiven them

But the Prior of Saint Marcel's, as soon as he learned of this great injury done to his ed a coate and the Bishop of Paris And they went together in haste to the Queen, to whoement of the realm had been committed at that time, and asked her to take

But she, with a woman's forwardness, and iave orders to the prefects of the city and to certain of her own ruffians [o out of the city, under ar no one Now as these armed men, ere prone to act cruelly at every opportunity, left the gates of the city, they came upon a nuames,--men ere entirely without fault in connection with the aforesaid violence, since those who had begun the riotous strife wereFlanders, e co this, the police, rushi+ng upon these men who they saere unarmed and innocent, killed so them with the blows they inflicted on theht lay hid in dens and caverns And a the wounded it was found that there were two clerks, rich and of great influence, who died, one of the by race a man of Flanders, and the other of the Norman Nation