FENERN, an island in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, taken from Den mark in 1864. It is separated from Holstein by a strait called the Femern sound, has an area of 70 sq.m., and a pop. of about 10,000. The island is flat, fruitful, and destitute of wood. Agriculture, fisheries, and stocking-weaving for exportation, form the prin cipal employments of the inhabitants. The chief town is Burg, which has about 2,500 inhabitants.
FEDIGERICHTt (derived from the old German fem, punishment, and gerield, court. of justice), spoken of as the holy feme (or fehme), and also known as the Westphalian or secret tribunals, were among the most remarkable phenomena of the middle ages, and supplied the place of the regular administration of justice, then in a deplorable con dition. The origin of these courts has been ascribed to Charlemagne, who, it was pre tended, had instituted them to prevent the relapse into paganism of the Saxons who had been forcibly converted to Christianity. It is more probable, however, that they were a relic of the ancient German free courts of justice, the preservation of which may have been favored in Westphalia by special circumstances.
When Henry the Lion was put under the ban of the empire, and deprived of his pos sessions in 1170, Westphalia, which then comprised nearly the whole district between the Rhine and the Weser, was granted to the archbishop of Cologne; and from this time the secret tribunals gained in importance. In the general confusion which then prevailed in Germany, when all laws, both civil and ecclesiastical, had lost their authority, and the fabric of society seemed on the point of toppling into ruins, the F. were organized for the purpose of arresting and controlling the incipient anarchy that threatened to bring chaos back again, and of inspiring with feelings of salutary terror, through the agency of their mysterious powers and solemn judgments, all rapacious and lawless per sons (but especially the feudal barons) who—on account of the impotence of the ordi nary legal checks—committed crimes with impunity. In the causes, therefore, which
led to their formation, and in their general design, the F. resemble the Hanseatic towns. They soon acquired tremendous influence, the emperors themselves having recourse to their assistance against powerful and rebellious nobles. It was in the 14th and 15th centuries, however, that they attained the summit of their dread authority, when they began to extend themselves over the whole of Germany. Beneficial as in many instances the proved to be, they could not fail, in the long-run, to degenerate, and to be frequently employed as a cloak to self-interest and malice. It is therefore by no means surprising that many voices were raised against them, and that in 1461 various princes and cities of Germany, as well as the Swiss confederates, formed unions for affording justice to every individual, and preventing any from seeking it from the secret tribunals. particular classes likewise obtained imperial letters of protection against the pretensions of these tribunals. The emperors themselves, however, could go no further than to make some unavailing attempts to introduce improvements into the constitution of the F., as the latter were bold enough to oppose the imperial authority, and even summoned the emperor Fried rich III. to appear before them. Their influence came to an end only when the public peace (landfriede) was established in Germany, and an amended form of trial and penal judicature was introduced. The last real F. was held at Celle in Hanover, in the year 1568. A remnant of the institution, however, existed in Westphalia until the year 1811, at which time it was performing the function of a society for the suppression of vice, when it was abolished by an order of Jerome Bonaparte. Beyond the limits of Westphalia, notwithstanding all their endeavors, the F. never succeeded in fully establishing their authority: and even in the Red Land, as Westphalia was called (prob ably from the color of the soil), they were restricted by the imperial privileges on which they founded their authority.