PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES GRANTED. The grant of privileges to physicians
and teachers made by the Emperor Constantine, in 333 A.D. (R. 26), and the
privileges and immunities granted to the clergy (_clerici_) by the early
Christian Roman Emperors (R. 38), doubtless formed a basis for the many
grants of special privileges made to the professors and students in the
early universities. The document promulgated by Frederick Barbarossa, in
1158 (R. 101), began the granting of privileges to the _studia generalia_,
and this was followed by numerous other grants. The grant to students of
freedom from trial by the city authorities, and the obligation of every
citizen of Paris to seize any one seen striking a student, granted by
Philip Augustus, in 1200 (R. 102), is another example, widely followed, of
the bestowal of large privileges. Count Rupert I, in founding the
University of Heidelberg, in 1386, granted many privileges, exempted the
students from "any duty, levy, imposts, tolls, excises, or other exactions
whatever" while coming to, studying at, or returning home from the
university (R. 103). The exemption from taxation (R. 104) became a matter
of form, and was afterwards followed in the chartering of American
colleges (R. 187). Exemption from military service also was granted.

So valuable an asset was a university to a city, and so easy was it for a
university to move almost overnight, that cities often, and at times even
nations, encouraged not only the founding of universities, but also the
migration of both faculties and students. An interesting case of a city
bidding for the presence of a university is that of Vercelli (R. 105),
which made a binding agreement, as a part of the city charter, whereby the
city agreed with a body of masters and students "swarming" from Padua to
loan the students money at lower than the regular rates, to see that there
was plenty of food in the markets at no increase in prices, and to protect
the students from injustice. An instance of bidding by a State is the case