FEHMIC COURTS, certain tribunals which, during the mid dle ages, exercised a powerful jurisdiction in Germany, and more especially in Westphalia. They are best regarded as survivals of ancient Teutonic local courts. Their alternative name of "free courts" is due to the fact that all free-born men were eligible for membership and also to the fact that they claimed certain exceptional liberties. Their jurisdiction they eventually owed to the emperor, in whose name they exercised the power of life and death. The sessions were often held in secret, and these the uninitiated were forbidden to attend, on pain of death. Legend and romance have combined to exaggerate the sinister reputation of the Fehmic courts ; but modern historical research has proved that they never employed torture, that their sittings were only sometimes secret, and that their meeting-places were always well known. They were, in fact, a survival of an ancient and venerable German institution; and if, during a certain period, they exercised something like a reign of terror over a great part of Germany, the cause of this lay in the condition of the times, which called for some powerful organization to combat the growing feudal anarchy.
The system became important after the division of the duchy of Saxony on the fall of Henry the Lion, when the archbishop of Cologne, duke of Westphalia from 1180 onwards, placed himself as representative of the emperor at the head of the Fehme. The organization now rapidly spread. Every free man, born in lawful wedlock, and neither excommunicate nor outlaw, was eligible for membership. Princes and nobles were initiated; and in 1429 even the Emperor Sigismund himself became "a true and proper Freischoffe of the Holy Roman Empire." By the middle of the 14th century the sworn associates of the Fehme were scattered in thousands throughout Germany, known to each other by secret signs and pass-words, and all of them pledged to serve the sum mons of the secret courts and to execute their judgment.
The organization of the Fehme was elaborate. The head of each centre of jurisdiction (Freistuhl) often a secular or spiritual prince, sometimes a civic community, was known as the Stuhljierr, the archbishop of Cologne being, as stated above, supreme over all (Oberststuhlherr). The actual president of the court was the Freigraf (free count) chosen for life by the Stulilherr from among the Freischo ff en, who formed the great body of the initiated. Of these the lowest rank were the Fronboten or Freifronen, charged with the maintenance of order in the courts and the duty of car rying out the commands of the Freigraf. The immense develop ment of the Fehme is explained by the privileges of the Freischo f fen; for they were subject to no jurisdiction but that of the West phalian courts, whether as accused or accuser they had access to the secret sessions, and they shared in the discussions of the gen eral chapter as to the policy of the society. At their initiation these swore to support the Fehme with all their powers, to guard its secrets, and to bring before its tribunal anything within its competence that they might discover.
The procedure of the Fehmic courts was practically that of the ancient German courts generally. The place of session, known as the Freistuhl (free seat), was usually a hillock, or some other well-known and accessible spot. The Freigraf and Scho ff en occu pied the bench, before which a table, with a sword and rope upon it, was placed. The court was held by day and, unless the session was declared secret, all freemen, whether initiated or not, were admitted. The accusation was in the old German form; but only a Freischoffe could 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 seal of the Freigraf. This was not usually served on him personally, but was nailed to his door, or to some convenient place where he was certain to pass. Six weeks and three days' grace were allowed, according to the old Saxon law, and the summons was thrice repeated. If the ac cused appeared, the accuser stated the case, and the investigation proceeded by the examination of witnesses as in an ordinary court of law. The judgment was put into execution on the spot if that was possible. The secret court, from whose procedure the whole institution has acquired its evil reputation, was closed to all but the initiated, although these were so numerous as to secure quasi-publicity; and the members present were bound under pain of death not to disclose what took place. Crimes of a serious na ture, and especially those that were deemed unfit for ordinary judicial investigation—such as 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 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 side of the accuser, but 21 in favour of innocence necessarily secured an acquittal. The only punishment which the secret court could inflict was death. If the accused appeared, the sen tence 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. A knife with the cabalistic letters was left beside the corpse to show that the deed was not a murder.
That an organization of this character should have outlived its usefulness and issued in intolerable abuses was inevitable. With the growing power of the territorial sovereigns and the gradual improvement of the ordinary process of justice, the functions of the Fehmic courts were superseded, though they were only finally abolished by order of Jerome Bonaparte, king of Westphalia, in 181I. The last Freigraf died in BIBLIOGRAPHY.-P. Wigand, Das Femgericht Westfalens (Hamm, Bibliography.-P. Wigand, Das Femgericht Westfalens (Hamm, 1825, 2nd ed., Halle, 1893) ; L. Tross, Sammlung merkwurdiger Urkunden fur die Geschichte der Femgerichte (Hanover, 1826) ; F. P. Usener, Die frei- and heimlichen Gerichte Westfalens (Frankfurt, 1832) ; K. G. von Wachter, Beitrage zur deutschen Gesch. insbeson dere . . . des deutschen Strafrechts (Tubingen, 1845) ; 0. Wachter, Femgerichte and Hexenprozesse in Deutschland (Stuttgart, 1882) ; T. Lindner, Die Feme (Munster and Paderborn, 1888) . For works on individual aspects see further Dahlmann Waitz, Quellenkunde (ed. Leipzig, 1906), p. 401; also ib. supplementary vol. (1907), P. 78. F. Heine, die Beziehungen der Stadt Zerbst, Zu den westfalischen Vern gerichten, Halle (1912) ; P. Heck, "Eine neue Theorie der sachsischen Freidinge," Historischer Verein fur niedersachsen Zeitschrift Jahrg. PP. 396-418, Hanover (1915)•