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FEHMIC COURTS (Ger. Femgerichte, or V...
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FEHMIC COURTS (Ger. Femgerichte, or Vehmgerichte, of disputed origin, but probably, according to J. See also:Grimm, from 0. High Ger. feme or feime, a See also:court of See also:justice) , certain tribunals which, during the See also:middle ages, exercised a powerful and some-times sinister See also:jurisdiction in See also:Germany, and more especially in See also:Westphalia. Their origin is uncertain, but is traceable to the See also:time of See also:Charlemagne and in all See also:probability to the old See also:Teutonic See also:free courts. They were, indeed, also known as free courts (Freigerichte), a name due to the fact that all free-See also:born men were eligible for membership and also to the fact that they claimed certain exceptional liberties. Their jurisdiction they owed to the See also:emperor, from whom they received the See also:power of See also:life and See also:death (Blutbann) which they exercised in his name. The sessions were often held in See also:secret, whence the names of secret court (heimliches Gericht, Stillgericht, &c.); and these the uninitiated were forbidden to attend, on See also:pain of death, which led to the designation forbidden courts (verbotene Gerichte). See also:Legend and See also:romance have combined to exaggerate the sinister reputation of the Fehmic courts; but See also:modern See also:historical See also:research has largely discounted this, proving that they never employed See also:torture, that their sittings were only sometimes secret, and that their See also:meeting-places were always well known. They were, in fact, a survival of an See also:ancient and See also:venerable See also:German institution; and if, during a certain See also:period, they exercised something like a reign of terror over a See also:great See also:part of Germany, the cause of this See also:lay in the sickness of the times, which called for some powerful organization to combat the growing feudal anarchy. Such an organization the Westphalian free courts, with their discipline of terror and elaborate See also:system of secret service, were well calculated to See also:supply. Everywhere else the power of life and death, originally reserved to the emperor alone, had been usurped by the territorial nobles; only in Westphalia, called " the Red See also:Earth " because here the imperial See also:blood-See also:ban was still valid, were See also:capital sentences passed and executed by the Fehmic courts in the emperor's name alone. The system, though ancient, began to become of importance only after the See also:division of the duchy of See also:Saxony on the fall of See also: The See also:place of session, known as the Freistuhl (free seat), was usually a hillock, or some other well-known and accessible spot. The Freigraf and Schoffen occupied the See also:bench, before which a table, with a See also:sword and rope upon it, was placed. The court was held by See also:day and, unless the session was declared secret, all freemen, whether initiated or not, were admitted. The See also:accusation was in the old German See also:form; but only a Freischoffe could See also:act as accuser. If the offence came under the competence of the court, i.e. was punishable by death, a summons to the accused was issued under the See also:seal of the Freigraf. This was not usually served on him personally, but was nailed to his See also:door, or to some convenient place where he was certain to pass. Six See also:weeks and three days' See also:grace were allowed, according to the old Saxon See also:law, and the summons was thrice repeated. If the accused appeared, the accuser stated the See also:case, and the investigation proceeded by the examination of witnesses as in an See also:ordinary court of law. The judgment was put into See also:execution on the spot if that was possible. The secret court, from whose procedure the whole institutionhas acquired its evil reputation, was closed to all but the initiated, although these were so numerous as to secure quasi-publicity; any one not a member on being discovered was instantly put to death, and the members See also:present were See also:bound under the same See also:penalty not to disclose what took place. Crimes of a serious nature, and especially those that were deemed unfit for ordinary judicial investigation—such as See also:heresy and witchcraft—fell within its jurisdiction, as also did appeals by persons condemned in the open courts, and likewise the cases before those tribunals in which the accused had not appeared. The accused • if a member could clear himself by his own See also:oath, unless he had revealed the secrets of the Fehme. If he were one of the uninitiated it was necessary for him to bring forward witnesses to his innocence from among the initiated, whose number varied according to the number on the See also:side of the accuser, but twenty-one in favour of innocence necessarily secured an acquittal. The only See also:punishment which the secret court could inflict was death. If the accused appeared, the See also:sentence was carried into execution at once; if he did not appear, it was quickly made known to the whole body, and the Freischoffe who was the first to meet the condemned was bound to put him to death. This was usually done by See also:hanging, the nearest See also:tree serving for gallows. A knife with the cabalistic letters was See also:left beside the See also:corpse to show that the See also:deed was not a See also:murder.
That an organization of this See also:character should have outlived its usefulness and issued in intolerable abuses was inevitable. With the growing power of the territorial sovereigns and the See also:gradual improvement of the ordinary See also:process of justice, the functions of the Fehmic courts were superseded. By the See also:action of the emperor See also:Maximilian and of other German princes they were, in the 16th century, once more restricted to Westphalia, and here, too, they were brought under the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts, and finally confined to See also:mere See also:police duties. With these functions, however, but with the old forms See also:long since robbed of their impressiveness, they survived into the 19th century. They were finally abolished by order of See also:Jerome See also:Bonaparte, See also: Wachter, Femgerichte and Hexenprozesse in Deutschland (See also:Stuttgart. 1882) ; T. Lindner, See also:Die Feme (See also:Munster and See also:Paderborn, 1888) ; F. Thudichum, Femgericht and See also:Inquisition (See also:Giessen, 1889) whose theory concerning the origin of the Fehme is combated in T. Lindner's Der angebliche Ursprung der Femgerichte aus der Inquisition (Paderborn, 189o). For See also:works on individual aspects see further See also:Dahlmann-See also:Waitz, Quellenkunde (ed. See also:Leipzig, 1906), p. 401; also ib. supplementary vol. (1907), p. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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