One of the most effective privileges of mediaeval universities was the right of suspending lectures.  This was used again and again in cases of unredressed grievances against civil or ecclesiastical authorities,—­more particularly against the former.  A cessatio was usually followed by a migration of masters and scholars to some other university, unless satisfaction was promptly forthcoming.  Such a migration was a serious blow to the commercial prosperity of any town; consequently the “cessation” was an instrument of great 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 assessment [right to fix the prices] of lodgings is taken from you, or anything else is lacking, or an injury or outrageous damage, such as death or the mutilation of a limb, is inflicted on one of you, unless through 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 remonstrance from you, you may, if you judge it expedient, suspend your lectures immediately.[45]

The events leading up to the granting 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 migration to other cities until satisfaction was given.  The exact nature of the satisfaction given by the king is not known.  One important result, however, was the great 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 amused themselves for some time in carrying on their games, they chanced to find in a certain tavern some excellent wine, pleasant to drink.  And then, in the dispute that arose between the clerks who were 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 them and put them to flight, well and thoroughly pommelled.  The latter, however, when they came back much battered into the city, roused