Awesome book. Students were already gaming the system as extremists in 1200 Paris.

> (the cleric students were) marked by the tonsure, which granted them two major privileges:

> the privilegium canonis, protected their persons, which were regarded as sacred. Any physical violence against them entailed excommunication, which could only be lifted after severe penance. One did not mistreat a cleric without exposing oneself to serious consequences.

> The second was the privilegium fori, which placed clerics under the sole jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts... Philip Augustus is said to have observed the boldness of clerics who rushed into the fray brandishing swords, yet wearing neither armour nor helmets. Hardly surprising, when a shaved head offered better protection than a helmet.

Two other books in that vein that I really liked:

1. A World Lit Only by Fire — William Manchester

2. One Summer: America, 1927 — Bill Bryson

> the students of Paris threatened a general strike

Paris in 1200 was at least somewhat recognizable.