Sara M. Butler is the King George III Professor in British History at the Ohio State University. She is the author of three books: The Language of Abuse: Marital Violence in Later Medieval England, Divorce in Medieval England: From One to Two Persons in Law, and Forensic Medicine and Death Investigation in Medieval England.

• Introduction; 1. Peine Forte et Dure: the medieval practice; 2. Standing mute in the courts of medieval England; 3. Due process and consent to jury trial; 4. Peine as Barbarity? putting the practice in context; 5. Why stand mute?; 6. Standing mute as Imitatio Christi; 7. Rejecting the jury, rejecting the common law, rejecting the king; Conclusion; Works cited; Index.

'Butler's book is a drastic revision of the prevalent obsolete narratives of the birth and development of English law. Butler shows that peine forte et dure was neither a barbaric, irrational penalty, nor prevalent, nor English, nor secular. Embedding legal practices in the intellectual and religious climate of the time, this book is a path-breaking, thought-provoking study.' Esther Cohen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem