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 THE MEDIEVAL REVIVAL OF LEARNING 391 and hired their teachers. This shows us that there was con- siderable variety in the method of organization in different iuniversities, which were often as complicated in their admin- istration as American universities are to-day. Organization was useful in order to gain freedom from the control of the town where the university was located and to secure special privileges for the students Academic and the institution. Since the universities had P rivlle g es ^rown up to a large extent out of church schools and clerical education, it was customary for them to claim the privileges bf the clergy for their members, who usually received the jtonsure and could not be tried by secular courts. This last jwas a useful exemption when the students got into brawls jwith tavern-keepers or fights with the local police. On the bther hand, the universities did not wish to remain under (the control of the local bishop or other clerical authorities. They therefore sought grants of special privileges and inde- jpendence from the pope or" the king. Or if a university were hot satisfied with the treatment which it received in one place, the masters and students might migrate in a body land establish themselves in some other city, since the University seldom owned much real estate and had neither large libraries nor laboratories. Instruction was given in hired halls where the students •sometimes did not even have seats or benches, but squatted on the straw-strewn floor with their notebooks classroom Dn their knees. As printing had not yet been instructlon nvented and books were expensive, instruction was largely oral, consisting of lectures and disputations. However,
 * here were textbooks on which the lectures were based, the
 * eacher reading a passage out of the book and then explain-

ng its meaning and making comments upon it. The stu- dents could thus make their own copies of the textbook as
 * hey went along. Consequently lectures were generally two

lours long and the faithful student attended about three a lay. Classes began at six o'clock, at ten there was an inter- nission for lunch, at noon or soon after instruction was ~esumed, at five came the dinner hour. The ideal student