164 



FELUCCA FEME. 



chaud de (lessons Bonaparte. The information lie 

 communicated to the new government was valuable, 

 and the duke soon became a peer of France. It was 

 then that he pronounced from the tribune the bar- 

 barous maxim of the old monarchy si veut le rot, si 

 vetit la hi. On the landing of Napoleon from Elba, 

 the ministry of war was again given to the duke of 

 Feltre, and the new minister repaired to the chamber of 

 deputies, where he asserted, that, " arrived at the 

 age of fifty, he had never betrayed any person." He 

 then went to England, and afterwards to Ghent. 

 While here, the duchess of Feltre is said to have ob- 

 tained her husband's pardon from Napoleon. But 

 Waterloo changed the fate of France, and Feltre pub- 

 lished a proclamation, in which are the expressions, 

 Bonaparte et sa sequelle, vils esclaves du tyran. The 

 author of such a paper was not thought, even by the 

 ministers of the foreign powers, a proper member of 

 the council. He was, however, reappointed minister ; 

 and in this post he proscribed the most experienced 

 officers of the army, and, in order to procure himself 

 support, he bestowed large sums on his creatures un- 

 der the name of arrears. He classified all the offi- 

 cers, in regard to the degree of suspicion attached to 

 them he who had been publicly a parasite of Napo- 

 leon. He died October 28, 1818. 



FELUCCA; a little vessel with oars, common in 

 the Mediterranean. See Boat. 



FEME. The Femgerichte (Fern-courts) were cri- 

 minal courts of Germany in the middle ages, which 

 took the place of the regular administration of jus- 

 tice (then fallen into decay), especially in criminal 

 cases. These courts originated, and had their chief 

 jurisdiction in Westphalia, and their proceedings 

 were conducted with the most profound secrecy; 

 hence they were called Westphalian, or secret tri- 

 bunals. The viorAfem is probably derived from the 

 Old Saxon verfemen, which means to excommunicate 

 or curse. Femgericht, therefore, is a tribunal which 

 has power to subject the offender to banishment or 

 outlawry. These courts derive their origin from 

 Charlemagne; but no explicit account of them occurs 

 earlier than the thirteenth century. The total want 

 of the means of procuring justice in a regular way 

 enabled them to obtain, especially after the fall of 

 Henry the Lion (1182), organization and extensive 

 authority. When the duchy of Saxony was dissolved, 

 the archbishop of Cologne received Enger and West- 

 phalia, under the name of a duchy. It may have 

 been at that time, that, in consequence of the total 

 and ruinous disorder in the administration of justice, 

 these secret, or, as they styled themselves, free tri- 

 bunals, came into active operation, in the place of 

 the courts which had hitherto been held by the bishops 

 or royal commissaries (missi regii). Amidst the ge- 

 neral distractions which were then prevalent in Ger- 

 many, it was not difficult for them to acquire a tre- 

 mendous authority, while they might, at the same 

 time, produce some beneficial results; and the em- 

 perors afterwards increased this authority, by avail- 

 ing themselves, at times, of the Femgerichte, to pro- 

 mote their own designs, and to intimidate, by their 

 means, powerful nobles. In process of time, how- 

 ever, they degenerated, and no longer confined them- 

 selves to law and precedent, so that the secrecy in 

 which they enveloped thems'elves, only served as a 

 cloak to their criminal purposes. The great num- 

 ber of their members, which were dispersed every- 

 where made it easy for them to extend their influence 

 through all Germany. In any German state, the man 

 who had a complaint against his neighbour, which 

 could not be sustained before the ordinary judges, 

 betook himself to a Westphalian tribunal. These 

 secret tribunals were most terrible in the fourteenth 

 and fifteenth centuries. It is therefore by no means 



surprising that so many voices were raised against 

 them, and that, in 1401, various princes and cities 

 of Germany, as well as the Swiss confederates, united 

 in a league, to enable all persons to obtain justice 

 by their means, and to prevent any from seeking it 

 from the secret tribunals. Particular estates like- 

 wise obtained from the emperor letters of protection 

 against the violence of the Westphalian tribunal. 

 The emperors themselves went no further than to 

 make some unavailing attempts to introduce im- 

 provements into the constitution of the secret tribu- 

 nals. These were bold enough, however, to oppose 

 themselves to the emperors. Their influence was 

 not entirely destroyed, until the public peace (Laml- 

 friede) was established in Germany, and an amended 

 form of trial and penal judicature was introduced. 

 The last Femgericht was held at Zell, in the year 

 1568. Beyond the limits of Westphalia, there were 

 Femgerichte in Lower Saxony and other German 

 states ; but they had an authority far less extensive, 

 and their jurisdiction was confined to a limited 

 circle. 



In consequence of the secrecy in which these 

 tribunals were enveloped, little is known of their in- 

 ternal organization. The chief officer, who was 

 generally a prince or count, had the supreme direc- 

 tion of the court, the jurisdiction of which comprised 

 other free tribunals. The president of the secret 

 tribunal was called the Freigraf (free count ; for in 

 early times those who administered justice in the 

 provinces in the king's name were denominated 

 counts). His associates, who concurred in and exe- 

 cuted the sentence, were called Freischoffen, their 

 sessions Freidinge, and their place of meeting, Frei- 

 stuhl (free bench or court.) The Freischoffen, who 

 were appointed by the counts, were scattered through 

 all the provinces and cities of Germany. It is com- 

 puted that their number amounted to 100,000. 

 They recognised one another by certain signs and 

 watch words, which were concealed from the unin- 

 itiated ; and they were hence called the JVissenden 

 or illvminati. They bound themselves by a tremen- 

 dous oath ; for they vowed " to support the holy 

 Feme, and to conceal it from wife and child, father 

 and mother, sister and brother, fire and wind, from 

 all that the sun shines on, the rain moistens, from 

 all that is between heaven and earth." They ac- 

 knowledged the emperor as their superior, and for 

 this reason generally made him one of their number 

 at his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle. Admission, 

 according to the strict rules, could take place only 

 in the Red land, that is, in Westphalia. The assem- 

 blies of the tribunal were open or secret. The for- 

 mer were held by day, in the open air ; the latter 

 by night, in a forest, or in concealed and subterranean 

 places. In these different cases, the circumstances 

 of judgment and the process of trial were different. 

 The crimes of which the secret tribunal usurped 

 cognizance were heresy, sorcery, rape, theft, robbery, 

 and murder. The accusation was made by one of 

 the Freischoffen, who, without further proof, de- 

 clared upon oath, that the accused had committed 

 the crime. The accused was now thrice summoned 

 to appear before the secret tribunal, and the citation 

 was secretly affixed to the door of his dwelling, or 

 some neighbouring place ; the accuser remained un- 

 known. If, after the third summons, tLv accused did 

 not appear, he was once more cited in a solemn ses- 

 sion of the court, which was called the secret Acht, 

 or Ban, and, if still contumacious, was given over to 

 the Freischoffen. The first Freischoffe who met him, 

 fastened him, not to a gibbet, but to a tree, to indi- 

 cate that he was put to death by one of them. If 

 the condemned made any resistance, it was lawful 

 to destroy him outright. They then left their knife 



