penalty of death.  The members of these courts consisted of Schoeffen, nominated by the graf, or presiding judge, and composed of ordinary members and the Wissenden or Witan, the higher membership.  The initiation of these members was a singular and impressive ceremony.  It could only take place upon the red earth, or within the boundaries of Westphalia.  Bareheaded and ungirt, the candidate was conducted before the tribunal, and strictly questioned as to his qualifications to membership.  He must be free-born, of Teutonic ancestry, and clear of any accusation of crime.

This settled, a deep and solemn oath of fidelity was administered, the candidate swearing by the Holy Law to guard the secrets of the Holy Vehm from wife and child, father and mother, sister and brother, fire and water, every creature on whom rain falls or sun shines, everything between earth and heaven; to tell to the tribunal all offences known to him, and not to be deterred therefrom by love or hate, gold, silver, or precious stones.  He was now intrusted with the very ancient password and secret grip or other sign of the order, by which the members could readily recognize each other wherever meeting, and was warned of the frightful penalty incurred by those who should reveal the secrets of the Vehm.  This penalty was that the criminal should have his eyes bound and be cast upon the earth, his tongue torn out through the back of his neck, and his body hanged seven times higher than ordinary criminals.  In the history of the court there is no instance known of the oath of initiation being broken.  For further security of the secrets of the Vehm, no mercy was given to strangers found within the limits of the court.  All such intruders were immediately hung.

The number of the Schoeffen, or members of the free courts, was very great.  In the fourteenth century it exceeded one hundred thousand.  Persons of all ranks joined them, princes desiring their ministers, cities their magistrates, to apply for membership.  The emperor was the supreme presiding officer, and under him his deputy, the stadtholder of the duchy of Westphalia, while the local courts, of which there were one or more in each district of the duchy, were under the jurisdiction of the grafs or counts of their districts.

The Vehm could consider criminal actions of the greatest diversity, cases of mere slander or defamation of character being sometimes brought before it.  Any violation of the ten commandments was within its jurisdiction.  It particularly devoted itself to secret crimes, such as magic, witchcraft, or poisoning.  Its agents of justice were bound to make constant circuits, night and day, with the privilege, as we have said, if they caught a thief or murderer in the act, or obtained his confession, to hang him at once on the nearest tree, with the knife as signal of their commission.

Of the origin of this strange court we have no certain knowledge.  Tradition ascribes it to Charlemagne, but that needs confirmation.  It seems rather to have been an outgrowth of an old Saxon system, which also left its marks in the systems of justice of Saxon England, where existed customs not unlike those of the Holy Vehm.