Excerpt: ...until he should clear himself by the ordeal of water or sword, and if he failed, he should be hung, and if he was cleared he should, by the King's clemency, leave the kingdom. And yet the scholars, pitying him, entreated the King of France that the Provost and his accomplices after being flogged after the manner of scholars at school, should be let alone and be restored to their occupations. But the King of France would not grant this, saying that it would be greatly derogatory to his honor if any one but himself should punish his malefactors. Furthermore, this same King of France, being afraid that the Masters of the scholars, and the scholars themselves, would withdraw from his city, sought to satisfy them by decreeing that for the future no clerk should be haled to a secular trial on account of any misdemeanor which he had committed, but that if the clerk committed a misdemeanor he should be delivered over to the Bishop and be dealt with in accordance with the clerk's court. Also this same King of France decreed that whoever was the Provost of Paris should take oath that he would be loyal to the clerks, saving his loyalty to the King. Moreover this same King conferred upon the scholars his own sure peace and confirmed it to them by his own charter. But that Provost, when he had been detained in the King's prison for many days planned his escape by flight, and, as he was being lowered over the wall, the rope broke, and falling from a height to the ground, he was killed.35 3. Special protection for a limited time is granted more explicitly by Philip IV in 1306: Philip, by the grace of God King of France and Navarre, to our Provost at Paris, greeting. Whereas the University, masters and Scholars at Paris, are under our special guardianship and protection as they-both Masters, and Scholars as well-come to their studies, stay in the said city, or return to their own places; and inasmuch as injuries, annoyances, oppression, and violence are...