THE VEHMIC COURTS OF WESTPHALIA. By George H. Westley. ABOUT thirty years ago, when the march of progress had brought the railway to the little city of Dortmund, it became necessary to cut away a small hill in order to build a depot. In doing this the work men had strict orders to leave untouched a solitary and very ancient linden tree; so that at the conclusion of their labors this old relic of the past reared itself on a pedes tal of earth fifteen feet high in the center of the excavated space. And there it may be seen to-day, if I am not mistaken, standing a monument to one of the most curious vagaries of old-time law and order. Under this tree were held the meetings of the Vehmgericht, that secret and terrible tribunal which has played no unimportant part in old tragedy and romance. Concern ing the word " Vehm," there has been much learned controversy, and nothing short of a page could do justice to the speculations as to its derivation. The German writer Grimm has worked the matter out at great length, taking up and controverting the claims of other writers with considerable success. The sum of his investigations, how ever, seems to be that the word was derived from " vem," which in the Netherlands signified fellowship, so that Vehmgericht would simply mean a fellowship, or society for the administration of justice. It is the general opinion of the old his torians that the Vehmgericht was established by Charlemagne. Its purpose, said some of them, was to coerce the Saxons into Christianity. A picturesque tradition had it that Charlemagne, finding himself power less to prevent the relapse of the Saxons into paganism, sent to Pope Leo III for advice. The ambassadors found the pontiff in his garden, and while they were telling
their tale, Leo silently but significantly pulled up handfuls of weeds and thistles and hung them on a miniature gallows which he had constructed of twigs. The interview over, the ambassadors returned and related what they had seen, whereupon the monarch followed out the hint by instituting the secret tribunal. Many things might be said both for and against the truth of this story, but in this brief study we need not stay to mention them. It should be clearly understood that in the middle ages the German Empire was ruled by what has been called Faustrecht or fistright; in plain terms, the right of might. From beyond their fortified walls the knights and barons sneered at law, and frequently defied even the imperial decrees. Thus the operations of the ordinary courts were with out force, and wholly inadequate to secure the ends of justice. It is told that the officials who went to serve a writ on Siegmund von Senssheim were imprisoned and tortured, and that the Count von Fekeneberg, deigning to answer a summons, appeared at court with an armed retinue which awed his accusers into silence. It was from this condition of affairs that the Vehm arose, and it filled the crying need of the time for fair and honest dealing between man and man. A vital difference between the Vehm of Westphalia and the secret tribunals of other countries, such as the Vendetta of Italy and our own Vigilance Committee, was this, that the former was sanctioned by imperial authority, and was not amenable to the ordinary laws of the country in which it existed. It was a free court, responsible to none save the Emperor, and as he himself was a member and subject to the same
