Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/585

 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 535 The only penalty of these criminal courts was death. If three or more members of the Vehm caught a criminal red- handed in the act, they killed him on the spot Vehmic without further trial. Otherwise crimes were in- P rocedure vestigated by the method of sworn inquest, every member of the Vehm being pledged to tell what he could of crimes in his neighborhood. Having thus determined whom they should accuse and bring to trial, the next step was to sum- mon the accused before the Vehm. This was done mysteri- ously by nailing a notice on a tree or leaving it in some other spot where the accused would be sure to see it, but would not know who had posted it. At, the trial, if the accused appeared and were himself a member of the Vehm, he could usually clear himself of the charges against him by his soli- tary oath. If not himself a member, he would have to pro- duce more oath-helpers who were members to swear on his behalf than had already taken oath against him. If, how- ever, as many as twenty-one initiates gave their oaths in his favor, he was acquitted anyway. If condemned and present, he was executed without delay. Otherwise it was the duty of the first member of the Vehm who met him to hang him to the nearest tree, leaving by his side a knife marked with the cryptic symbols, "S.S.G.G.," to show that the Vehm had done its work. This impressive method of intimidating the criminal classes, which reminds us of lynchings and vigilance com- mittees, but whose self-help and summary pro- itspopu- cedure were to a large extent a survival of primi- lanty tive German custom, was favorably received by the society of the time, as the Vehm proved more efficacious than any other court. Only at a later date did the secret character of the organization breed abuses and call forth complaints and lead finally to its suppression. In the fourteenth and fif- teenth centuries it was joined by entire cities, by bishops and great lords, and finally by the emperor himself, who en- couraged this rough-and-ready way of dealing with offend- ers against justice because he had nothing better to offer — indeed, had no imperial system of justice at all.