The Cruciamentum, officially referred as Tento di Cruciamentum, was a rite of passage practiced by the Watchers Council to test the Slayer if she lived to see her 18th birthday. While some of the more conservative members of the Council considered it a time-honored rite of passage, other less ruthless Watchers considered it to be a brutal, antiquated practice, Giles describing it as an "archaic exercise in cruelty."