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.
Mighty was the power of these secret courts, and striking the traditions
to which they have given rise, based upon their alleged nocturnal
assemblies, their secret signs and solemn oaths, their mysterious
customs, and the implacable persistency with which their sentences
sought the criminal, pursuing him for years, and in whatever corner of
the empire he might take refuge, while there were none to call its
ministers of justice to account for their acts if the terrible knife had
been left as evidence of their authority.
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