FEE-FARM 11 EXT. 



FEHM GERICHTE. 



the OMB of the German or of the SWMS Confederation, the body of 

 confederated government* enforce* its own resolution*, those confede- 

 rated government* are one composite state, rather than a system of 

 confederated Mate*. The body of confederated government* is pro- 

 perly sovereign ; and to that aggregate and sovereign body each of its 

 constituent members is properly in a state of subjection." 



FEK-K.VHM KKNT. [KENT.] 



KEK-SIMH.E. [EsTATK.] 



FEE-TAIL. [ESTATE.] 



FEELING. [toivii.j 



FEES, certain sums of money claimed aa their perquisite by official 

 persons under the authority of various Acts of Parliament, and by pre- 

 scription. The right to fees, as well as the ainouut payable in most 

 raies connected with the administration of justice, has been regulated 

 by several recent statute*. 



Officers demanding improper fees are guilty of extortion. [EsTon- 

 TIOS.J 



The rewards paid to barristers and physicians, attorneys and sur- 

 geons, for their several services, are called fees, which may be recovered 

 by the three last-named by action. Barristers cannot recover their 

 fee* by any legal proceeding ; nor can physicians, if they are members 

 of a college of physicians which has enacted a bye-law to that effect. 

 [COUNSEL; PHYSKIAX.J 



FEHM GEKICHTE, FEMGERICHTE, or VEHM GERICHTE, 

 the celebrated courts of justice of Westphalia, which have been, on 

 very slender authority, said to be the relic of an institution of Charle- 

 magne, but which certainly nourished and possessed most enormous 

 power and influence during the 13th and 1 4th centuries. It was chiefly 

 confined to what was then known as Westphalia, which included nearly 

 all the countries between the Rhine and the Weser, and extended from the 

 mountains of Hesse on the south to Friesland on the north ; and this 

 district bore the mystic name of the red earth, in the records of the 

 time, though the exact derivation or meaning of the term is uncertain. 

 It would seem that, whatever earlier institutions it may have been 

 founded upon, the tribunal was first organised when, after the depo- 

 sition and outlawry of the emperor Henry the Lion, the authority of 

 the laws, both civil and ecclesiastical, gave way to force, which, in the 

 hands of ignorance and rapacity, threatened society with dissolution. 

 In order to check the audacity of those who, relying upon their power, 

 thought themselves above the reach of the law, and for the protection 

 of the defenceless and innocent, a secret tribunal was formed, called the 

 sacred Fehme, or Fehm Gericht. 



These tribunals arose from the like ratine* which formed the trade- 

 guilds in towns, and the confederacy of the Hanse Towns, namely, the 

 necessity of individuals following peaceful professions defending them- 

 selves by unions against the spoliation and tyranny exercised by the 

 feudal nobility, and which neither the law nor the emperor was able to 

 repress, nor, except in rare cases, to punish. When these confederations 

 became sufficiently powerful to defend themselves, the neighbouring 

 nobility were frequently desirous of becoming members of the commu- 

 nity, in order that they might in some measure guide what they could 

 no longer resist. It was in fact an early development of public opinion 

 developed in forms peculiar to the period ; and the sentences of the 

 Fehm Gerichtc itself, except that the institution was permanent, re- 

 semble. 1 in some of its features those of the Lynch-law in the back 

 settlements of the United States of America. There was usually no 

 concealment, the trial was held commonly in the open air, in the 

 presence of an audience ; and it was only on the conviction of an 

 offender who failed to appear that his death was effected by the means 

 which added so much mystery and terror to the judgments of the 

 courts. 



By the constitution of the tribunal, the Emperor of Germany was the 

 nominal head, who was usually made a member of the Fehm on his coro- 

 nation at Aachen : but very early the archbishop of Cologne was made the 

 imperial lieutenant in A\ estphalia ; and indeed it is stated that arch- 

 bishop Engelbert was, in 1 1 79, the first Freygraf . Under the archbishop 

 were the tribunal lords (Stuhlherren), to each of whom a particular 

 district was assigned, beyond which he had no jurisdiction. The 

 StuhJherr either presided in the courts himself or deputed a count 

 (Freygraf) to take his place ; for the country was divided into counties 

 (Grafschaften), and every comity had at least one Freygraf, who took 

 an oath to judge truly and justly, and to be obedient to the emperor 

 and hi* lieutenant. Next to the counts were the assessors or 8chop|>uii, 

 who formed the bulk of the society. These were nominated by the 

 count, with the approval of the Stuhlherr, after having been recom- 

 mended by two persons, already members of the tribunal, who \ 

 for the fitness of the candidate. The candidate waa required to have 

 been born in marriage, of free parent*, to be a Christian, to be neither 

 excommunicated nor outlawed, not to be involved in any process before 

 the tribunal, not to belong t<> any spiritual order, and at first to have 

 bean a native of Weetphidia ; but latterly strangers were admitted. 

 Kneeling bareheaded before the assembly, with his thumb and fore- 

 finger on a naked sword and a halter, he swore 



" I promise, on the holy marriage, that I will, from henceforth, aid, 

 keep, and conceal the holy Felims, from wife and child, from father 

 mid mother, from sister and brother, from lire and wind, from all that 

 the sun shine* on and the rain wet*, from all that is between sky and 

 ground, especially from the man who knows the law ; and will bring 



before this free tribunal, under which I lit, all that belongs to the 

 secret jurisdiction of the emperor, whether I know it to be true myself, 

 or have heard it from trustworthy people, whatever requires correction 

 or punishment, whatever is Fehm-free (that is, a crime committed in 

 the county), that it may be judged, or, with the consent of the accuser, 



be put off in grace ; and will not cease so to do, ! >i 1- >. for fear, for 



.'I or for silver, or for preeious stones; and : D :li-- 



tribuual and jurisdiction with all my live senses and power; and that 

 I do not take on me this office for any other cause than for the sake of 

 right and justice ; moreover, that 1 will ever further and honour this 

 free tribunal more than any other free tribunal) ; and what 1 t lm 

 promise will I steadfastly and firmly keep, so help me Uod and his 

 Holy Gospel." 



As soon as the neophyte had pronounced the oath, he waa informed 

 that the object of the association was to uphold peace, virtue, and 

 honour against the open or concealed enemies of the law ; and a> the 

 interest of the order required that the schoppen of the different 

 counties and principalities should be known to each other, they had 

 adopted a sign consisting of four letters, S.S.G.G., the signification of 

 which is still involved in mystery. The neophyte was turtle 

 seuted with a rope, which he was obliged to carry in his left sleeve, 

 and also a dagger, on which the four above-mentioned letter- 

 engraved, together with other symbols. Moreover he was charged 

 with the duty of accusing before the secret tribunal all those who 

 could not be successfully prosecuted before the ordinary court 

 of executing capital punishment whenever required by the society to 

 perform this duty. 



The mode of proceeding against the accused was as follows : If the 

 author of a crime absconded, or his residence was unknown, the 

 .schoppe was required to write four summonses, and post them 

 cross road; but if the residence was known, the schoppe came at 

 night, and nailed the summons with four nails, folded as a letter, con- 

 taining an imperial farthing, on the man's door. He then rang the 

 bell, and told the porter that he had brought a letter from the sacred 

 tribunal for his master. The initiated could go through the country 

 unimpeded, on foot or on horseback, for none was so daring as to stay 

 or injure him. The summons required the accused to appear at a 

 certain hour at the appointed spot, within a fortnight an 

 delivery, to answer for his base and criminal conduct before the sacred 

 tribunal, or otherwise clear himself of the accusation ; at the same 

 time threatening to proceed against him for contempt in case of non- 

 appearance. If the accused attended the summons, the schoppe who 

 brought the accusation was called upon by the Freygraf to state all 

 that he and his witnewoi knew relating to the charge, after which the 

 accused and his witnesses were heard. The judges assembled on a 

 Tuesday in the open air. The count presided, and before him on the 

 table lay a naked sword and a withy halter. On his right and left 

 stood the clerks of the court, the assessors, and the audience, all 

 headed, their hands uncovered, and unarmed, signifying that they 

 would cover no right with unright, that they would do nothing under- 

 hand, and that they were at peace with the emperor and the law. 

 They wore short mantles to show that as the cloak covers the I 

 should then- love cover justice. Each party was entitled to produce 

 compurgators, and the verdict was left to the assessors. Anappi.il. 

 however, lay, if claimed before the court broke up, to the 

 Closed Tribunal of the Imperial Chambers, which usually held 

 its sittings at Dortmund. These proceedings were for the unini- 

 for the initiated it was sufficient that the accused, laying hi 

 forefingers on the naked sword, swore he was innocent; but one of tin- 

 initiated convicted of revealing the secrete of the tribunal wag imme- 

 diately hung. When the sentence waa pronounced, the execution of 

 which, in case of capital punishment, was intrusted to all the uiem!>cr.s 

 of the order, the condemned, if present, was at once executed ; if he 

 had not appeared, the schoppen were set in pursuit of him. U I 

 three schoppen (for that was the number necessary for an ordinary 

 execution) met the person condemned, they seized him, and with one 

 of the ropes which they carried in their sleeves, hung him on the next 

 \ing a dagger in the tnmk to denote that the deceased was 

 killed by the holy tribunal. When such an event occurred, no court 

 of law dared to take notice of the affair ; every man's tongue was 

 struck silent, for fear of incurring the vengeance of this terrible lly. 

 This punishment, however, was seldom inflicted upon thosn 

 readily appeared; in such cases the judges were satisfied with r 

 the defender to redress the wrong that he had inflicted. l!ut 

 accused failed to attend the summons, which was repeated three t 

 judgment passed by default, and the accused waa declared an outlaw. 

 Every schoppe, though he were the father or son of the criiniu 

 in duty bound to put him to death by the rope, the dagger, the nwoi-d, 

 i poison, and to revenge any insult oflcred to t 'upon 



man, woman, or child, noble or plebeian, freeborn or slave, house or 

 farm, monastery or mmm TV, that dared to shelter him. 



The power of this tribunal was greater than that of the H..]y 

 Ini|uinition ; it struck terror into all Germany, and especially in 

 phalia, where it originated. Princes and nobles were anxious to 

 into this order either for protection against their enemies, or to avoid 

 the jurisdiction of a tribunal the power of which they were unable to 

 withstand. Towards the end of the 15th century, the <o nnan empire. 

 having acquired more political consistency, and the objects for which 



