University of Paris strike of 1229

The University of Paris strike of 1229 was caused by the deaths of a number of students in punishing a student riot. The students protested with a "dispersion", or student strike, which lasted more than two years and led to a number of reforms of the medieval university. The event demonstrates the town and gown power struggles with the Church, secular leaders and the emerging student class and a lessening of local Church authority over the university. It was placed squarely under direct papal patronage, part of the program to centralise the Church structure that had intensified under Innocent III.

The University of Paris was one of the first universities in Europe and considered the most prestigious of the time because of its focus on theology. It was founded in the mid-12th century and received its official charter from the Church in 1200. It was run by the Church, and students were considered part of the Church and thus wore robes and shaved the tops of their heads in tonsure to signify they were under its protection. Students operated according to the rules and laws of the Church and were not subject to the king's laws or courts. That presented ongoing problems of students abusing the laws of the city, which had no direct recourse for justice and had to appeal to ecclesiastical courts.

Students were often very young, entering the school at age 13 or 14 and staying for 6 to 12 years. They came from many regions and spoke many European languages, with all defined by their native language. Latin was the lingua franca at school. Eventually, the Masters were organized into four "nations" comprising the French, the Picards, Normans and a polyglot of nationalities (predominantly English, German, Scandinavian and Eastern European) referred to as "English". The overwhelming majority of students were from the elite or aristocratic classes of Europe, as the cost of travel and maintenance of a stay at the university, as well as basic tuition, was beyond the reach of the poor.

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