Single Leaf from a Decretum by Gratian: Decorated Initial Quidam habens filium obtulit, c. 1160-1165. France, Burgundy, Archdiocese of Sens, Abbey of Pontigny, 12th century. Ink and tempera on vellum; sheet: 44.8 x 32 cm (17 5/8 x 12 5/8 in.); framed: 63.5 x 48.3 cm (25 x 19 in.); matted: 55.9 x 40.6 cm (22 x 16 in.). This leaf was excised from a copy of the handbook of church law known as the Decretum written by Gratian, an Italian Camaldolese monk active in Bologna from about 1130 to 1140. The focus of the leaf is a large decorated letter Q with spiraling lotus petals introducing the first Causa, or case of law. The text begins, "A man having a son offered him to a very wealthy cloister." This case concerns the definition of simony (making profit from sacred things). The style of the illumination and the script date the leaf to between 1160 and 1165. In November 1164, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, took refuge at Pontigny as a result of his conflict with King Henry II of