Universities had a special place in European medieval society. The students of these institutions had the legal status of clerics, thus, they were beyond the reach of the secular law, which allowed the students to break it often. This led them to commit several excesses, like drunkenness, and sometimes even crimes.
For this reason, throughout this period of History, there were many tensions between these institutions and the secular governments. Since the most important universities of this moment in Europe were located in large cities, like Paris or Bologna, this conflict led to the urban demarcation of town -the non-academic population- and gown -the academic community-. Also, students and professors counted with the favor of the Church, since it encouraged them to disseminate across Europe to spread their theological and philosophical knowledge, and professors had the right to teach everywhere. This, in particular, raised the tension between learning institutions and the secular authorities. Such a conflict was part of the larger conflict between the European secular powers and the Church, that dominated a big part of Middle Ages.
