In the first century of their life the universities had to fight on many different fronts in order to ensure their existence and as much independence as they could achieve. Bishop and chancellor, town government and king, and emperor and pope - all wished to have their fingers in the pie. The fact that so many different authorities were involved, however, began to matter a great deal where the outcome of the struggle was concerned. One power could be played off cleverly against the other with the dexterous use of some diplomacy on the part of the university. The King's authority could be mobilised whenever a contentious town council had to be brought into line. In the face of a power-hungry bishop or chancellor who did not understand the difference between a traditional cathedral school and a new university, one could always appeal to the papacy, which more and more in this period was taking the part of the guardian of the universities. Only the pope had sufficient power to make local prelates toe the line, at the same time as the papacy in most cases was distant enough not to disrupt their day-to-day work. For this reason the alliance with the pope suited the universities very well. After a while it became a tradition to turn to Rome to get privileges confirmed, statutes certified, and thereby to obtain the valuable right to grant the ius ubique docendi, which assigned to each graduate of the university the whole of ‘Christendom’ (i.e. the territory of the western church) as a field of operation.