I came across an interesting lecture on the university liberties of the Middle Ages on Theories and Practices

I came across an interesting lecture on the university liberties of the Middle Ages on Theories and Practices. Just what privileges did students and teachers enjoy? By the standards of the time, very weighty ones: for example, the right to be absent from their parish, since most students and teachers were clerics. Or, say, the right of free passage to the university, granted by Frederick Barbarossa. Many of these preferences sound baffling to us today, but consider the significance of, for instance, judicial immunity, the acquisition of land grants and property, the right to appeal to the main administrative body of the Holy See, the curia, and the king's personal protection, to say nothing of exemption from a considerable share of taxes. Naturally, such largesse could not fail to arouse the envy of the townsfolk, who were forever colliding and quarrelling with the university men.

On the whole, the lecture contains a great deal of valuable information for understanding how the first universities were organised in general. Yes, universities were mostly housed in rented premises, and were subject to a special order established by the king: where the teachers lived, and how the right to hunt down criminals applied to them. At times rulers simply forbade their knights to approach university buildings and scholars.