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Fehm-gericht

or Vehmgericht (3 syl.). The secret tribunals of Westphaʹlia, for the preservation of public peace, suppression of crime, and maintenance of the “Catholic” religion. The judges were enveloped in profound mystery; they had their secret spies through all Germany; their judgments were certain, but no one could discover the executioner. These tribunals rose in the twelfth century, and disappeared in the sixteenth. Sir Walter Scott, in Anne of Gierstein, has given an account of the Westphalian Fehmgericht. (Old German, fehmen, to condemn; Gericht, a tribunal.)

“This Vigilance Committee [of Denver city] is a modern reproduction of the famous Vehmgericht.”—The Times.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Fecula
Federal States
Fee
Fee-farm-rent
Fee-penny
Fee Simple
Fee-tail (A)
Feeble
Feed of Corn
Feet
Fehm-gericht
Felician (Father)
Felix
Felixmarte
Fell (Dr.)
Fellow Commoner
Felo de Se
Feme-covert
Feme-sole
Femme de Chambre. (French.)
Femynye

Linking here:

Vehmgerichte or Holy Vehme Tribunal

See Also:

Fehmgericht