"
An institution so mysterious and wide-spread as this could not exist
without some degree of abuse of power. Unworthy persons would attain
membership, who would use their authority for the purpose of private
vengeance. This occasional injustice of the Vehmic tribunal became more
frequent as time went on, and by the end of the fifteenth century many
complaints arose against the free courts, particularly among the clergy.
Civilization was increasing, and political institutions becoming more
developed, in Germany; the lords of the land grew restive under the
subjection of their people to the acts of a secret and strange tribunal,
no longer supported by imperial power. Alliances of princes, nobles, and
citizens were made against the Westphalian courts, and their power
finally ceased, without any formal decree of abrogation.
In the sixteenth century the Vehm still possessed much strength; in the
seventeenth it had grown much weaker; in the eighteenth only a few
traces of it remained; at Gehmen, in Muenster, the secret tribunal was
only finally extinguished by a decree of the French legislature in 1811.
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