Vehmic Courts (Ger. Vehmgerichte or Femgerichte, from old Ger. Fern, punishment, and Gericht, tribunal), secret tribunals which flourished chiefly in Westphalia during the middle ages. They are not mentioned by name before the 13th century, but there are some traces of their existence in the 12th, and as some historians believe even in the 9th century. Westphalia was the home of these courts, and only upon the "red earth," as its soil was called in Vehmic phraseology, could their members be initiated or their sittings be held. The tribunals were at first a protest against the arbitrary decisions of the lawless barons and nobles. The emperor and the nobles of his court, and with them men of all ranks, associated themselves together for the formation of free tribunals (Freigerichte), composed of elected "free judges " (Freischoffen, or Freischopperi), to try persons accused of crimes against persons or property. They were bound by solemn oaths not to reveal the circumstances of the trial or the sentence passed on the offender if found guilty; and in order to be one of the brotherhood, the applicant must be of good reputation, and must have two sureties who were already free judges. The initiated recognized each other by signs.

The courts might be summoned at any time and in any place in Westphalia, in public or private buildings, in the forests or caves, or in the open fields; they were sometimes held publicly, in the presence of the people, but usually they were closed against all but the initiated and the accused person. The emperor, or in his absence the count or noble of highest dignity, presided, though in some instances irfen of common birth sat as chief judges, even when those of higher rank were present. If any uninitiated person intruded, he was immediately put to death. Before the chief judge lay the emblems of his authority, the sword and the cord. In the early history of the organization, the accused could be absolved by taking a solemn oath of purification upon the handle of the judge's sword; but when at a later period it was found that criminals did not hesitate to perjure themselves, the accuser, always a free judge, could substantiate his charge even against the oath of the accused by three or more witnesses. If the accused could rebut these by a number one half greater, he was still discharged; but if condemned, sentence was passed upon him, and he was forthwith hanged.

If the person accused had not been arrested, he was summoned to appear by fastening upon his door or gateway the summons of the Vehmic court, enclosing in it a small coin. If he had no known or certain residence, then these written summonses were posted at the crossing of four roads nearest his haunts. If he failed to appear or to send a messenger, he was condemned as despising the jurisdiction of the holy Vehm, and once condemned there was little chance of his life while he remained in Germany. In the 14th and 15th centuries the free judges were more than 100,000 in number, scattered over every part of Germany. The condemnation of an offender by a Vehmic court was known to the whole brotherhood in a very short time; and if it were the father, brother, or son of one of the initiated who was condemned, he not only might not warn him of his danger, but was bound to aid in putting him to death under penalty of losing his own life. When slain he was to be hanged on the nearest tree, nothing of value which he might have about him being removed, and a knife being thrust into the earth near him as an indication that his death was the result of a sentence of the Vehmic court.

A power so formidable, and exercised under such obligations of secrecy, soon raised the hostility of those who feared becoming its victims, as well as of those who saw in it an engine capable of terrible oppression. In 1371 the emperor Charles IV., in an instrument known as the public peace or pact of Westphalia, stipulated for the recognition of the Vehm; but in the next century the number of its opposers greatly increased, and in 1461 an association was formed among the cities and princes of Germany and the cantons of Switzerland to resist the free judges, and to require that the trial of accused persons should take place in open day. In 1495 Maximilian I. established a new criminal code, which materially weakened the power of the Vehmic courts; and in the 16th century they were but seldom held. The last public sitting was in 1568, near Oelle; but there were secret sittings of the court in the 17th and 18th centuries, and according'to Kohlrausch even as late as 1811, in Münster. But they ceased to excite terror or to exert any considerable influence before the close of the 17th century. - Kopp, Verfassung der heimlichen Gerichte in Westphalen (Gottingen, 1794); Hutter, Das Vehmgericht des Mittelalters (Leipsic, 1798); and Wigand, Das Vehmgericht Westphalens (Hamm, 1825).