Gratian, Decretum, Causa 15, Fragment

London, Private Owner, Southern French ca. 1300

Maria Alessandra Bilotta, "Le Décret de Gratien: Un manuscrit de droit canonique toulousain reconstitué," Art de l'enluminure 24 (2008) 10, 40-41

Folia in Cambridge, Cleveland, Detroit, Princeton, New York, Lisbon, London

(in order of severity)

1. Tormentum sibillorum: women, boys, and less serious offenses

2. Tormentum funis or Tormentum cordae: "the one that is used most and approved by the Ius commune." Can be made worse by pouring ice cold water down the defendant's back while elevated

3. Tormentum vigiliae: Bound nude on top of a "horse"   Kept awake from fifteen to forty hours.  A more severe form with arms tied behind or extended as in the Corda. "From one hundred men who have suffered this torture only four or five were 'martyrs' all the rest were 'confessors'." Farinacci, Praxis criminalis p. 610