TEMGERICHTE 114 FEMINISM the Wissende, or the knowing ones; and, before being admitted, they must be of blameless life, of the Christian religion, and take a terrible oath. From among the Wissende the Freischoffen (free jus- tices) were elected, who were the asses- sors of the court and executors of its sen- tences. The president of the court was called the Freigraf (free count). The general superintendence of the whole of the tribunals was in the hands of the lord of the land, who, in Westphalia, was the Archbishop of Cologne. The chief superintendence, however, was in the hands of the emperor, who was usually, on his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle, ad- mitted a member of the society. Their courts were either open or se- cret; the former were held by day in the open air, the latter by night in a forest, or in concealed and subterranean places. The process of trial, and the circum- stances of judgment were different in the two cases; the former decided in all civil causes, the latter took cognizance of such as had been unable to defend them- selves sufficiently before the open courts, as well as such as were accused of heresy, sorcery, rape, theft, robbery, or murder. The accusation was made by one of the Freischoffen, who, without further proof, declared, upon oath, that the accused had been guilty of the crime. The accused was then thrice summoned to appear before the secret tribunal, and the cita- tion was secretly affixed^ to the door of his dwelling, or some neighboring place. The citation mentioned that the accused was to meet the Wissende at a certain hour and place, and to be conducted by them before the tribunal. Here by an oath the accused might clear himself; but the accuser might also oppose it with his oath and the oaths of witnesses. If the accused could not bring forward six wit- nesses in his favor, the accuser might strengthen his oath with 14 witnesses; and sentence of acquittal did not neces- sarily follow until the accused had sup- ported his case with the oaths of 21 wit- nesses. The judges were all armed, and dressed in black gowns, with a cowl that covered their faces like a mask. _ The condemned, as well as those who did not obey the summons, were then given over to the Freischoffen. The first Frei- schoffe who met him was bound to hang him on a tree; and if he made any re- sistance it was lawful to put him to death in any other way. The punish- ment, however, was rarely inflicted on those who readily appeared, the judges being satisfied with cautioning the of- fender to redress the wrong he had been grnty of. At length a great outcry was raised against these courts, and in 1461 various princes and cities of Germany, as well as the Swiss Confederates, united in a league to resist the free judges, and to require that the trial of accused persons should take place in open day. Their influence, however, was not en= tirely destroyed until the public peaci was established in Germany, and a>:; amended form of trial and penal judica- ture introduced. FEMINISM, a term, supposed to have originated in France in 1890, which in- cludes all phases of the modern tendency of women to assert their equality in the social life with men; their right to enter the professions on an equal basis with men, equal suffrage for both sexes in political matters, and a general recog- nition of the rights of women to inter- est themselves in pubic affairs. The first manifestation of what has been commonly called the "women's rights" movement was the growing de- mand xor equal suffrage, principally in this country and in Great Britain. The demand has been based on the democratic ideals of both these nations, supported by the contention that men formed a su- perior political class who subjected women, as an inferior class, to political slavery. In Great Britain equal suffrage for the sexes has been a national prob- lem, on account of the centralized system of the British Govei-nment. In this country it had, until slightly previous to 1920, been a problem which each State might solve as it saw fit. Thus in sev- eral of the Western States, notably Kan- sas and California, women were granted the right to vote at a much earlier period than it was granted them in other parts of the country. The growing agitation by women's or- ganizations, however, stimulated public interest in the question, and repeated efforts were made to grant the right of suffrage to women by means of an amendment of the Federal Constitution. The activity of women in war relief work, during the participation of the United States in the World War, rousing universal admiration of their efforts, undoubtedly was the chief cause of the sentiment which carried th? amendment through Congress in 1919 (passing the Senate June 7, 1919). In a little over a year the necessary number of State Legislatures had ratified the measure, that of Connecticut being the last to pass its approval, thus enabling women all over the country to partici- pate in the presidential elections in No- vember, 1920. In other phases of the general m.ove- ment toward equality of men and women
