CHAPTER XI.

Eiaminntions iiiEiiglaud — GennaDf — Spuin — Itaiy — Naples and Proi'iina; — Sicily — Cypnis — Meeting of the Council of Vienoe — Suppression of the order— Fata of its Members — Dtiuth of Malay.
The time fined for the meeting of the council at Vieime was now at hand, in which the fate of the order was to be. decided. Before we proceed to narrate its acts we will briefly state the result nf the examinations of ihe Templars in other countries.
The pope sent, as his judges, to England, Dieu- donntj, abbot of Lagny, and Sicard de Vaux, canon of Narbonne; and the examinationB commenced at York, London, Lincoln, and other places, on the 25th November, 1309. The inquiry continued till the council held in London in 1311; the number of Templars eKamined was two hundred and twenty- eight; that of the witnesses against the order was aeventy-two, almost all Carmelites, Minoriles, Do- minicans, and Augustinians, the natural foes of the order. The Templars were treated with great mild- ness; and in England, Ireland, and i^cotland, they were unanimous and constant in their aasertiou of the innocence of the order. The evidence against the order was almost all hearsay : its^ture will be shown by the following specimens.
John de Goderal, a Minorite, had heard that fiobert de Raxat, a Templar, had once gone about a meadow crying "' Wo, wo is me ! ihul ever I was born. I have been liirced to deny God, and give myself up to the devil."
8BCBBT SOGIGTIES,
A TcmplHT had said to William de Berney, in the presence ofseverBl respectable people, at the fuQeml i)f the parish-priest of Duxvmrlh, near Cambridgr. that a man has no Tnore a soul, afler death, that) a dof,'.
John DeEure, n secular knight, said that he e invited the prior William de Fenne to dine with him. After dinner the prior took from his boEOm a book, and gave it to the knight's lady lo read. She . found on a paper which was fastened into the book Hie Following words, " Christ was not the Son of God, nor born ol" a virgin, but conceived by Mary, the wife of Joseph, in the same way aa all other men. Christ was not a true but a false prophet, and was crucified for his own crimes and not for the redemplion of mankind, &c." The lady showed this paper to het husband, who spoke lo the prior, who only laughed at it ; but, being brought before a court of justice, he confessed the truth, excusing himself on the grounds of his being iljllerate and ignorant of what the book contained.
Robert of Oteringham, a Minorile, said, "One evening my prior did not appear at table, as relics were come from Falestiue which he wished to show the brethren. About midnight i beard a confused noise in the chapel ; I got up, and, looking through, the kejhole, saw that it was lighted. In the mom- inn; I asked a brother who was the saint in whose honour they had celebrated the festival during ihe night ? He turned pate with terror, thinking ( had seen sumethiM;, and said " Ask me not; and if you vaiae jour lift say nothing of it before the su- periors."
Another witness said that the son of a Templar had peeped through the slits of the door into the chapicr-room, and seen a new member put to death for hesitating lo deny Christ. Long afterwards.
THE TBUPLARS.
being asted by liis fallier lo become a Templar, he refused, tellitin- what he had seen: his falher instantly
John of Gertia, a Minorite, was told by a woman named j\.g>ies Lovecote, who said she had it Irom Envalethus. prior in London, that when m one of the chapters a brother had refused to spit on the cross, they suspended him in a well and covered it up. This witness also deposed to some other enormities which he said he had heard of from the same woman, herself speaking from hearsay. .
In June, 1310, the pope wrote to King Edward, blaming his lenity and calling on him to employ tbe torture in order to elicit the truth. The council of London, after a long discussion, ordered it to be em- ployed, hut BO as not to inutilale the limbs or cause an incurable wound or violent effusion of blood. The knights persisted in asserting their innocence.
In Germany the different prelates enamined tbe Templars in their respective dioceses, Nothingwas elicited. At Mentz the orderwas pronounced inno* cent. The Wildgraf Frederic, preceptor on the Rhine, offered to undergo the ordeal of glowing iron. He had known the Master intimately in the East, and belieVed him lo be as good a Christian 09
The Templars in the Spanish peninsula were ex- amined, and witnesses heard for and against them in Castile, Leon, Aragon, and Portugal, and nothing was proved against them. The council of Tarra- gona in Aragon, after applying thojorlure, pro- nounced the order free Irom the stain of heresy. A t the council of Medina del Caq|ipo in Leon, one wiu ncss said that he had heard that, when some MiJ* rites visited the preceptor at Villalpando, they found him reading a little book, which he instantly locked up in three boxes, saying, " This book might fall
GBCRET BOOIKTIES.
into hands where it may be very dmigeroiiB to the
The influence of the pope may be supposed to have been stronger ia Italy than in the countries above mentioned, and accordingly nc find that de- clarations similar to those made in France were given there. Yet it was at Florence that the adora- tion of the idols, the cal, &c., was most Tolly acknow- ledged. Ill the patrimony of St. Peter some con- fessions to the same effect were made; but at Bologna, CfBCoa, and Ancona, nothing transpired. Nine Templars maiiitained the innocence of the order before the council of Ravenna. It was debated whether tlie torture should be employed. Two Do- minican inquisitors were for it, the remainder of the council declared against it. It was decreed that the innocent should be absolved, the guilty punished according lo law. Those wko had revoked the con- feitioiia made vnder torture, or through fear of it, were to be regarded as innocent — a very different rule from that acted on by King Philip.
Charles II. of Anjou, the relation of King Philip, and the enemy of the Templars, who were on the side of Frederick, king of Sicily, had the Templars seized and examined in Provence and Naples. Those examined in Provence were all serving-brethren, and Home oi'them testified to the impiety and idolatry of the order. Two Templars were examined at Brin- diai, ill the kingdom of Naples, in June, 1310; one had denied the cross in Cyprus, he said, six years ailer he hud entered the order; the other had tram- pled on the cross at the time of his reception. He, as well as others, had bowed downand worshipped a ^y cat in the chapters.
In Sicily six Templars, the only ones who were arrested, deposed aguinst the order. One of them eaid he bad been received in the unlawful way in
n
THE TEMPLAUS. 32V
Calalonia, where, »s we have just seen, the inno- cPtice of the order was fully recogni/.ed. His evi- dence was full of absurdity. He said the cat had not appeared for a long time in the chapters but that the ancient statutes of Damietta said that it nsed to appear and be worshipped.
In Cyprus 110 witnesses were examined; 75 belonged to the order and maintained its inno- cence ; the testimony of the remainder was also in favour of it. ^
We thus find that, in every place^eyond the sphere of the influence of the king of France and his creature the pope, the innocence of the order was maintained and acknowledged; and undoubtedly the same would have been the case in France if the proceedings against it had been regulated by justice and the love of truth.
The time appointed for the meeting of the genera! council was now arrived. On the Isl October, 1311, the pope came to Vienne, which is a short distance from the city of Lyons, and found there 114 bishops, besides several other prelates, already as- sembled. On the 13lh, the anniversary of the arrest of the Templars four years before, the council com- menced its sittings in the cathedral. The pope, in his opening speech, stated the grounds of its having been convoked, namely, the |]roeess against the Tem- plars, the support of the Holy Land, the relormation of the Church. The bishops of Soissons, Mende, Leon, and Acjuila, who had been appointed to draw up a report of the result of the different examina- tions respecting the order, read it before the assem- bled fathers, who then once more invited any TeiA* piars who wished to defend the order to appear.
Though the order was now broken up and persecuted, and numbers of its ablest members dead or languishing in dungeons with their superiors, yet
I
SECRET BOGIETIBS.
nine knighla had the courage to come forward in de- fence of tlieir order, and preReiit LhemselveB before the council as tlie representatives of from 1500 to 2000 Templars, who were siill dwelling orrather lurking' in Lyons and its vicinity. The pope was not preseut when they appeared, but his letter of the lllh No- vember shows how he acted when he heard that de- fenders of the order had presented themselves. Cle- ment had these brave knights arrested and thrown into prison, ud, in real or affected terror at the num- ber of Tempnira at larse, he took additional precau- tions for the security of hia person, and counselled the king to do the same,
To the honour of the assembled fathers, they re- fused to sanction this fiugraiit act of injustice. The prelates of Spain, Germany, Denmark, England, Ireland, and Scotland, without exception ; the Ila- hans, all but one ; the French, wilh the exception of the archbishops of Rheims, Sens, and Rouen, de- clared, but in vain, for admitting the Templars and hearing their defence. Instead of complying witb this demand of justice and humanity, Clement sud- denly put an end to the session. The winter p&ssed away in arguments and negociations.
Philip, whose practice it was always to look after his affairs himself, deeming his pi'esence necessary at Vienne, set out for that place, where he arrived early iu February, aceompanicd by his three aons, his brother, and several nobles and men-at-arms. The effect of his presence was soon perceptible ; the pope assembled the cardinals and several other prelalcB in a secret cousistory, and abolished the order, by hia ■9le authority, on the 2-2d March, 1313.
The second session of the council was opened on the 3d April, with great solemnity; the king of France, his sons, and his brother, gave their pre- sence at it, and the royal guards appeared fur honour.
THS TEMPLARS. 323
i'oT prnteclioH, nr for inlimidalion. The pope read his bull of aboliiiiHi. All present lialened in silence. No one Tenlured lo raise his voice in the cause of justice. The wealthy and powerful order of the knights of the Temple was suppressed. On the 2d May the bull was published, and tlie order as such censed to exist.
The order being suppressed, persetutinn betTime needless, and it consequently ceased in a great mea- sure. The king and the pope conveHed to their ownuse the moveable properly of the order in France. Its other possessions were, sorely ag-ainst the will of iheking.assignedtotheorderoi'the Hospitallers, who were, however, obliged to pay such large fines to the king and pope as completely impoveriahfe 1 them. This extended to all countries, except the ['phnish peninsula and Majorca, The property of the Tem- plars in Aragon was given to the order of Our Lady of Monlesa, which was founded in 1317. Its > (esti- nation was to combat the Moors ; its habit was similar to that of the Templars; audit might, ihi re- fore, be almost called the same order. Diniz, the able and enlightened king of Portugal, did not sup- press the order, whose innocence his prelates had recognised. To yield a show of obedience lo the papal will, he made it change its name, and ihe great-prior of the Templars in Portugal became the master of the Oriler of Christ, which has continued to the present times.
With respect to the remaining Templars, who were in prison, it was ordered in council that those who should be found guiltless should be set at liberty, and maintained out of the property of the order ; thait the guilty, if they confessed and lamented their olfences, should he treated with mildness ; if they did not, dealt with according to Ihe ecclesiastical law, and kept in custody in the Ibrtner temple-houses
3ii SECRET S0CIIBT18S. }
aiiJ ill tlie convents. Tliose who had escaped were, if they did not appear within a year before the council or their diocesiin, to be excommunicated.
Must of the knights were immediately set at liberty : but the property of the order was all goae, and uo means of support remained for them : they were, therefore, reduced to the greatest distress, and many of them obliged to submit to the most ineniiil employment in order to gain a livelihood. A great number were received into the order of St, Johii,onthesamefootingaa they had stood on in their own order — ^a strong proof tlial the guilt of the order of llie Templars was not, by any means, re- garded as proved. Gradually, us the members died off, or merged into other orders, the name of the Templarfj fell into oblivion, or was only recollected with pity fur their unmerited fate.
While the noble order over which he had presided was thus suppressed, its members scattered, its pro- perty bestowed ou others, the Muster, James de Mol?y, with his tliree companions, the great-prior of Wormaiidy, Hugh de Peyraud, visiter of France, and Guy, brother to tlie Dauphin of Auvergne. still languished in prison. Molay had there but one attendant, his cook ; the allowance made to him was Larely sufficient to procure him common necessaries, and life had now lost all its value in his eyes. The pnpe at length determined to inform the captives of the fate destined for them.
A papal commission, composed of the bishop of Alba and Iwo other cardinals, proceeded to Paris, not to hear the prisoners, but, taking their guilt for proved, to pronoimce their sentence. To give al! publicity to this act, probably in accordance with the desire of the Ifing, a stage was erected in front of the church of Notre Dame, on which the thrive commissioners, with the archhisliop of Sens and several other pre-
THE TEMPLARS.
lates, took their places, on the ISth March, 1314. An immense concourse of people stood aruund. The four noble prisoners were conducted tVuoi their dniigeons, and led up on the stag^e. The cardinul of Alba read out their former coalessions, and pro- naunced the sentence of perpetual imprisonment. He was then pro;jeeding (o expose the guilt of ihe order, when the Master intetriipted him, and thus spoke, taking all Ihe spectators lo witness ; —
" It is Just that, in so terrible a da;, and in the lust moments of my hfe, I should discover all the iniquity of falsehood, and make the truth to triumph. I de- clare, then, in the face of heaven and earth, and acknowledge, though to my eternal shame, that I liave committed ihe greatest of crimes ; but it baa been the acknowledgin}; of those which have been so foully charged on the order. I attest, and truth obliges me to attest, that it is innocent. I made the contrary declaration only tn suspend the excessive pains of torture, and to mollify those who made me endure them. I know the punishments which have been inflicted on all the knights who had the courage to revoke a similar confession ; hut the dreadful spectacle which is presented lo me is not able to make me confirm one lie by another. The life offered me on such infamous terms I abandon with-
Molay was followed by Guy in his assertion of the innocence of the order ; the other two remained silent. The commissioners were confounded, and stopped. The intelligence was conveyed to the king, who, instantly calling his council together, without any spiritual person being present, con- demned the two knighls to the flames.
A pile was erected on that point of the islet in the Seine where al\erwards was erected the statue of Henry IV,, and the following day Molay and his
SECRET aOCIETIRS.
eompaiiion were brought ibrih and placed upon iL they Etill persisied in their assertion oi' the inno cpQce of the order. The flames were first applied ti their feel, theu to their more vital parts. The (elid smell cit' iheir burning flesh infected the Hurmunding' air, and added tii tlieir torments; yet still tliey per- severed in their declaraliuns. Al leng'th death ter- miniited their misery. cThe spectators shed tears at the view of their constancy, and during the sight their ashes were gathered up to be preserved i
a tradition b) some historians,
[i la\ ere he enpirvri Mimmoned f lemeat to Hill m ioLi} dujs beloie the buprerae Judge,
THE TEMPLARS. 327
and Philip to the same tribunal within the space of a year. The pontifF actually did die of a cholic on the night of the 19th of the following month, and, the church in which his body was laid taking fire, the corpse was half consumed. The king, before the year had elapsed, died of a fall from his horse. Most probably it was thesee vents which gave rise to the tradition, which teaflles the general belief of the innocence of the Templars. It was also re- marked that all the active persecutors of the order perished by premature or violent deaths.
It remains to discuss the two following points: — Did the religio-military order of the Knights Templars hold a secret doctrine subversive of religion and morality .? Has the order been continued down to our own days ?
We have seen what the evidence against the Templars was, and it is very plain that such evidence would not be admitted in any modern court of jus- tice. It was either hearsay, or given by persons utterly unworthy of credit, or wrung from the accused by agony and torture. The articles themselves are absurd and contradictory. Are we to believe that • the same men had adopted the pure deism of the Mahommedans, and were guilty of a species ot idolatry* almost too gross for the lowest super- stition ? But when did this corruption commence among the Templars? Were those whom St. Ber- nard praised as models of Christian zeal and piety, and whom the whole Christian world admired and revered, engaged in ^a secret conspiracy against religion and government ? Yes, boldly replies Hammer, the two humble and pious knights who founded the order were the pupils and secret allies of
* Almost every charge brought against the Templars had been previously made against the Albigenses, with how much truth every one is aware.
u 2
SECRET SOCIBTfES.
the Mahominedan Ismaelites. This was goia^ too far for Wilike, and he thinks that the ^uilt of in- troducing tlie secret doctrine lies on the chaplains ; i'cr he could discern that the doctrines of gnos- ticism, which the Templars are supposed to have held, were beyond the comprehension of illiterate kni£;hts, who, thoua;h Ih^ could tight and pray, were but ill qualified to enlemnto the mazes of mystic metaphysics. According, therefore, to one party, Ihe whole order was corrupt from top to bottom ; according to atiother, the secrets were confined to a tew, and, contrary to all analogy, the heads of the order were frequently in ignorance of them. Neither offer any thing like evidence in support of their assumption.
The real guilt of the Templars was their wealth and their pride* ; the last alienated the people from them, the former excited the cupidity of the king of France. Far be it from us to maintain that the morals of the Templars were purer than those of the other religioua orders. With such ample means as they possessed of indulging all their appetites and passions, it would he contrary to all experience to suppose that they always restrained them, and we wil! even concede that some of their members were obnoxious to charges of deism, iinpiety, breaches of Iheir religious vows, and gross licentiousness. We only deny that such were the rules of the order. Had they not been so devoted as they were to the Holy See they would perhaps have come down to us
• Our readers will call to miad tha wbll-kDova auvcclote of Kiufc Rjchutil I. When ulmunislied by the zealoua Fulk, of Neuilly, to get rid of hi» three favourite daughli^ta, pride, uvorice, ami VDluptuouineai, — "You couoael wtll," said the liliig, " and I hereby diapoae of the first to the Templars, of Iht second to the BencflicliuBs, and of the tliird to my pre- hltn."
THE TEMPLARS.
329 I
as unsullied as the knights of St, John* ; hut tliey sided with Pope Bonilace against Philip the Fair, and a subservient pontiff sacrificed to his own avarice and personal ambition the most devoted adherents of the court of Home t-
We make little doubt that any one who coolly and candidly considers the preceding account of the manner in which the order was suppressed will readily concede that the guilt of its members was anything but proved. It behoves their modern impugners to furnish some stronger proofs than any they have as yet brought forward. The chief adversary of the Templars at the present day is a writer whose veracity and love of justice are beyond suspicion, and who has earned for himself enduring fame by his labours in the field of oriental literature, but in whose mind, as his most partial friends must allow, learning and imagination are apt to over- balance judgment and philosophy J. He has been replied to by Raynouard, Miinter, and other able advocates of the knights.
We now come to the question of the continuance of the order to the present day. That it has in some sort been transmitted to our times is a matter of no
■ SimiUr chacgeG aie laid to have been brought against the Hospitnlters ia tlie yent 1-238, but without effect. There was no Philip the Faii at that luae in France.
f ClemeDt, iu a. ball dated but fuur days after that of the soppresBiun, acknowleilged that the whole o£ the evidence agoimt the order amounted only to suepicioa I
X We mean the illustrious Jos. von Hannner, vrhotie essay on the subject is to be fuund in tlie sixth volume of the Miues de rOrient, where it will be seen that he regordu Sir W. Scolt, in his Ivanhoc, at a competent wilnesa against the TempUrs, on account of his oorrecl imd failhful pictuns of the manners and opinions of the middle ages. We apprehend that people are beginning now to aolerlain somewhat differtnt ideas on the subject of our great romancer's fidelity, ut' which the pie sent pag«R prcnent u * ' ~
330 SBCRBT SOCIETIES.
doubt ; for, as we have just seen, the king of Portugal formed the Order of Christ out of the Templars in his dominions. But our readers are no doubt aware that the freemasons assert a connexion with the Templars, and that there is a society calling them- selves Templars, whose chief seat is at Paris, and whose branches extend into England and other countries. The account which they give of them- selves is as follows : —
James de Molay, in the year 1314, in anticipation of his speedy martyrdom, appointed Johannes Mar- cus Lormenius to be his successor in his dignity. This appointment was made by a regular well- authenticated charter, bearing the signatures of the various chiefs of the order, and it is still preserved at Paris, together with the statutes, archives, ban- ners, &c., of the soldiery of the Temple. There has been an unbroken succession of grand-masters down to the present times, among whom are to be found some of the most illustrious names in France. Ber* trand du Guesclin was grand-master for a number of years ; the dignity was sustained by several of the Montmorencies ; and during the last century the heads of the society were princes of the different branches of the house of Bourbon. Bernard Ray- mond Fabrt^ Falaprat is its head at present, at least was so a few years a^*.
This is no doubt a very plausible circumstantial account ; but, on applying the Ithuriel spear of criti- cism to it, various ugly shapes resembling falsehood start up. Thus Molay, we are told, appointed his successor in 1314. He was put to death on the
* See Manuel des Templiers. As this book is only sold to members of the society, we have been unable to obtain a copy of it. Our account has been derived from Mills's History of Chivalry. That this writer should have believed it implicitly is, we apprehend, no pioof oC its truth.
THE TEMPliRS. 331
18th March of that year, and the order had been abohshed nearly ayear t>elore. Why then did he delay so long', and why was he become so appreheQsive of martyrdom at that time, especially wlien, as is well known, there was then no intention of putting him to death? Again, where were the chiefs of the society at that time ? How many of them were living ? and how could they manage to assemble in the dnngeon of Molay and execute a formal instrument ! More- over, was it not repugnant to the rules and customs of the Templars for u, Master to appoint his successor? These are a few of the objections which we think may be justly made ; and, on the whole, we feel strongly disposed to reject the whole story.
As to the freemasons, we incline to think that it was the accidental circumstance of the name of the Tem- plars which has led them to claim a descent from that order; andit is possible that, if the samefate had fallen on ihe knights of St. John, the claim had never been set up. We are very far from denying that at the time of the suppreijsion of the order of the Temple there was a secret doctrine in existence, and that the over- throw of the papal power, with its idolatry, super- stition, and impiety, was the abject aimed at by thuae who held it, and that freemasonry may possibly be that doctrine under another name*. But we are perfectly convinced that no proof of any weight has been given of the Templars' participation in that doctrine, and that all probability is on the other side. We regard them, in fine, whatever their sins may have been, as martyrs — martyrs to the cupidity, blood- ihirstiness, and ambition of the king of France.
* This has, ve Ihiak, bven fully jiroirdd by Sr. KusKi^tti, It must iiiit b Ibe 1% iiinlua wura a branch uf Ibis uuciely.
332 SECRET SOdSTUS.
THE
SECRET TRIBUNALS OF WESTPHAOA*
Chapter !•
Introduction — The Original Westphalia— Conquest of the Saxons by Cbademag^ — His Regulations — Dukes Saxony — State of Gennany — ^Henry the Lion — His Out- lawry — Consequences of it — Origin of German Towns— Origin of the Fehm-gerichte, or Secret Tribunals — Theories of their Origin — Origin of their Name — Synonymous Terms.
We are now arrived at an association remarkable in itself, but which has been, by the magic arts of romancers, especially of the great archimage of the north, enveloped in darkness, mystery, and awe, far beyond the degree in which such a poetical investi- ture can be bestowed upon it by the calm inquirer after truth. The gloom of midnight will rise to the mind of many a reader at the name of the Secret
* Dr. Berck has, in his elaborate work on this subject (Geschichie der WettpKdIiKhen Femgerichte, Bremen, 1815), collected, we believe, nearly all the infurmation that is now attainable. This work has been our principal guide; for, though we have read some others, we canuot say that we have derived any important information firom them. As the sub- ject is in its historical form entirely new in English hterature, we have, at the hazard of appearmg occasionally dry, traced with some minuteness the construction and mode of procedure of these celebrated courts.
SECRET TRIBUNALS OF ■WEBTPHALfA. 333
Tribunals of Westphalia: a dimly ligliled caverii beneath the walls of some castle, or perat! venture Swiss kottelrie, wherein sit black-robed judges in solemn silence, will be present to his imagination, and he is prepared with breathless anxiety to peruse the details of deeds without a name *.
We fear that we cannot promise the full gratifi- cation (if these high-wrought expectations. Extra- ordinary BS the Secret Tribunals really were, we can only Tiew them as an instance of that compensating principle which may be discerned in the moral as well as in the natural empire of the Deity ; for, during the most turbulent and lawless period of the history of Germany, almost the sole check on crime, in a large porlion of that country, was the salutary terror of these Fehm-Gerichte, or Secret Tribunals. And those readers who have taken their notions of them only from works of fiction will learn with sur- prise that no courts of justice at the time exceeded, or perhaps we might say equalled, them ill the equity of their proceedings.
Unfortunately their history is involved in much ob- scurity, and we cannot, as in the case of the two preceding societies, clearly trace this association from its lirst formation to the time when it became evanes- cent and faded from the view. While it flourished, the dread and the fear of it weighed too heavily on the minds of men to allow them to venture to pry into its mysteries. Certain and instantaneous death was the portion of the stranger who was seen at any place where a tribunal was sitting, or who dared so
* The romimtic aecoBnt* of tlie Secret Tribimola will be found in Sit W. Scott'a trBnalatioo of Goelbn's Gijii von Bet- lichingen, and in his Hoiue of Aspen and Anne uf Gtientein. Fiom viriout pasaagn in Sir W. Sc^utt's hiugniphiral nnd othei easnyi, it is plain that he belieied iucb to be the trkiu chafBclec of the Secret Tribunalii.
i
334 SBCRBT SOOIETIBS.
much as to look into the books which contained the laws and ordinances of the society. Death was also the portion of any member of the society who revealed its secrets ; and so strongly did this terror, or a principle of honour, operate, that, as iBneas Sylvius (afterwards Pope Pius II. )> the secretary of the Empe- ror Frederick III., assures us, though the number of the members usually exceeded 100,000, no motive had ever induced a single one to be faithless to his trust. Still, however, sufficient materials are to be found for satisfying all reasonable curiosity on the subject.
To ascertain the exact and legal sphere of the operation of this formidable jurisdiction, and to point out its most probable origin, are necessary prelimi- naries to an account of its constitution and its pro- ceedings. We shall therefore commence with the considemtion of these points.
Westphalia, then, was the birth-place of this insti- tution, and over Westphalia alone did it exercise authority. But the Westphalia of the middle ages did not exactly correspond with that of the later times. In a general sense it comprehended the coun- try between the Rhine and the Weser ; its southern boundary was the mountains of Hesse; its northern, the district of Friesland, which at that time extended from Holland to Sleswig. In the records and law- books of the middle ages, this land bears the mystic appellation of the red earthy a name derived, as one writer thinks, from the gules, or red, which was the colour of the field in the ducal shield of Saxony ; another regards it as synonymous with the bloody earth; and a third hints that it may owe its origin to the red colour of the soil in some districts of West- phalia.
This land formed a large '})ortion of the country of the Saxons, who, after a gallant resistance of thirty
SECRET TRIBUNALS ny WESTPHALIA, 335
years, were forced to submit to the sway of Charle- taagne, and to embrace the religion of their con- queror. The Saxons had hitherto lived in a stale of rude independence, and their dukes and princes possessed Utile or no civil power, being merely the presidents iu their assemblies and their leaders in war. Charlemague thought it advisable to abolish this dignity allogether, and he extended to the country of the Sa sons the French system of counts and counties. £ach count was merely a royal officer who exercised i[i the district over which he was placed the civil and military authority. The mim dominici or reg-ji were despatched from the court to hold their vbitations in Sasony, as well as in the other dominions of Charles, and at these persons of all classes might appear and prefer their complaints to the representative of the king, if they thought themselves aggrieved by the count or any of the inferior officers.
In the reign of Louis the German, the excellent institutions of Charlemagne had begun tu fall into desuetude; anarchy and violence had greatly in- creased. The incursions of the Northmen had become most Ibrmidable, and the Vends * also gave great disturbance ,to Germany. The Saxon land being the part most immediately exposed to invasioa, the emperor resolved 1o revive the ancient dignity of dukes, and to place the district under one head, who might direct the energies of the whole people against the invaders. The duke was a ro]-al lieutenant, like the counts, only differing from them in the extent of the district over which he exerciseil autho- rity. The first duke of Saxony was Count Ludolf, the founder of Gandersheim; on his death the dig- nity was conferred on his son Bruno, who, being
336 SECRET SOCIETIES.
slain in the blo6dy battle of Ebsdorf fought against the Northmen, was succeeded by his younger brother Otto, the father of Henry the Fowler.
On the failure of the German branch of the Carlo- vingians, the different nations which composed the Germanic body appointed Conrad the Franconian to be their supreme head; for a new enemy, the Mag- yars, or Hungarians, now harassed the empire, and energy was demanded from its chief. Of this Con- rad himself was so convinced, that, when dying, after a short reign, he recommended to the choice of the electors, not his own brother, but Henry the Fowler, Duke of Saxony, who had, in his conflicts with the Vends and the Northmen, given the strongest proofs of his talents and valour. Henry was chosen, and the measures adopted by him during his reign, and the defeat of the Hungarians, justified the act of his elevation.
On the death of Henry, his son Otto, afterwards justly styled the Great, was unanimously chosen to succeed him in the imperial dignity. Otto conferred the Duchy of Saxony on Herman Billung. From their constant warfare with the Vends and the Northmen, the Saxons were no>v esteemed the most valiant nation in Germany, and they were naturally the most favoured by the emperors of the house of Saxony. This line ending with Henry II. in 1024, the sceptre passed to that of Franconia, under which ' and the succeeding line of Suabia, owing to the contests with the popes about investitures and to various other causes, the imperial power greatly declined in Germany ; anarchy and feuds prevailed to an alarming extent ; the castles of the nobles became dens of robbers; and law and justice were nowhere to be found.
The most remarkable event of this disastrous period, and one closely coonec^d with our subject,,
SECRET TRIBUNALS OF WESTPHALIA. 3SJ
is the oullawry of Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria. Mag-nus, the last of the Billung-a of Saxony, died, leaving only two daughters, of whom (he eldest was married to Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria, who consequently had, according to the maxima of that age, a right to the Duchy of Saxony; but the Emperor Henry V, refused to admit his claim, and eonfeired it on Lolhaire of Supphnburg-, As, however, Henry ihe Black's son, Henry the Proud, was married to the only daughter of Lolhaire, and this prince succeeded Henry V. in the empire, Henry found no difficulty in obtaining the Duchy of Saxony from his father-in-law, who also endeavoured to have him chosen his successor in the imperial dignity. But the other princes were jealous of him, and on the death of Lothaire they hastily elected Conrad of Suabia, who, under the pretext that no duke should possess two duchies, called on Henry to resign either Saxony or Bavaria. On hia refusal, Conrad, in conjunction with the princes of the empire, pronounced them both forfeited, and conferred Bavaria on the Margraf of Austria, and Saxony on Albert the Beur, the son of the second daughter of Duke Magnus of Saxony.
Saxony was, however, afterwards restored by Conrad to Henry the Lion, son of Henry the Proud, and Conrad's successor, Frederick Barbarossa, gave him again Bavaria. Henry had himself carried bis arms from the Elbe to the Baltic, and conquered a considerable territory from the Vends, which he regarded as his own peculiar principality. He was now master of the greater part of Germany, and it was quite evident that he must either obtain the imperial dignity or fall. His pride and his severity made him many enemies ; but as he had no child but a daughter, who was married to a cousin of the emperor, liis power was regarded withtut much
i^rebensiou. It was, however, the ambrtion of Henry to be the father of a race of heroes, and, after the fasfainn of those timei^, he (livorced his wif« &n espoused Matilda, daughter of Henry II. of Dng^luid, by whom he liad four sons. Owing to tliis aad other circumstances all friendly feeliug ceased be- tween Henry and the emperor, whom, however, he uccuiDpanied on the expedition lo Italy, which ter- Riinaled in the battle of Legnano. But he suddenly drew off his forces aud quilted tlie imperial army on the way, and Frederick, imputiny; the ill success which he met with in a great measure lo the conduct of Ihe Duke of Saxony, was, on his return to Ger- many, in a mood to lend a ready ear to auy charges against bim. These did not fail bdou to pour in : the Saxon clergy, over whom he had arrogated a right of investiture, appeared as his principal accusers. Their charges, which were partly true, partly tilse, were listened to by Frederick and Ihe princes of the empire, and the downfall of Henry w>is resolved upon. He was thrice summoned, but in vain, to appear and answer the charges made against hitn. He was summoned a fourth time, but to as little purpose ; the sentence of outlawry was then formally pronounced at Wiirizburg. He denied the legality of the sentence, and attempted lo oppose its execu- tion; several counts stood by bim in his resistance ; but be was forced to submit and sue for grace at Erfurt. The emperor pardoned him and permitted him to retain his allodial property on condition uf his leaving Germany for three years. He was deprived of all his imperial fiefs, which were imme- diately bestowed upon others.
In the division of the spoil of Henry the Lion Saxony was cut up into pieces ; a large portion of it went to the Archbishop nf ColcH^ne; and Uemhardof Anhall, son of Albert the Bear, obtained a consider-
SECEET TRIBUNALS OF WESTPHALIA, -339
able part oFthe remainder ; tlie supremacy over Hol- slein, Meckleiibm-g, and Pome rani a, ceased ; and Lfl- faeck became a free imperial city. All (he archbishops, bishops, counts, and t^rons, seized as much as they could, aud became immediate vassals of the empire. Neither Bernhard uor the Archbishop of CoIog;ne was able completely to establish his poner over the portion assigned him, and lawless violence everywhere prevailed. " There was no king in Israel, and every one did that which was right in his own eyes,'' is the language of the Chronicler *.
We here again meet an instance of the compensii- tory principle which prevails in the arrangements of Providence. It was the period of turbulence and anarchy succeeding the outlawry of Henry the Lion which gave an impulse to the building or en- larging of towns in ihe north of Germany. The free Germans, as described by Tacitus, scorned to be peut up within walls and ditches ; and their descend- ants in Saxony would seem to have inherited their sentiments, for there were no towns in that country till the time of Henry the Fowler. As a security against the Northmen, the Slaves, and the Magyars, this monarch caused pieces of land to be enclosed by earthen walls and ditches, within which was collected a third part of the produce of ihe surrounding country, and in which he made every ninth man of the population fix his residence. The courts of justice were held in these places lo give them consequence ; and, their strength augmenting with their population, Ihey became towns capable of resisting the attachs of the enemy, and of giviug shelter and defence to the people of the open country. Other towns, such as Munster, Osnabriick {pgnabiirgfi), Paderborn,and Mindeu, grew up gradually, from the desire of the
•ArnuW of Lubsck, Chronica Sla^Dium, 1. iii. r. 1., apud Leibuiti Scriptorei Kerum BnuuTicirum, I. ii p. 653.
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]>rotectioD from the A third class of tows period of which we i open country, the vii lietl to where they
people to dwell close lo abbeys, churches, and epis- copal residences, whence they might obtain succour in time of lemporHl or spiritual need, and der' everence shown to thi; church. )wed their or^n to the stormy K write; for the people of the ms of oppression and tyranny, ight. in return for their obe- ne degree of protection, and erected their houses at the foot of the castle of some powerful nob letnan. These towns gradually increased in power, with the favour of the emperors, who, like other monarchs, viewing in tliem allies ai^inst the excessive power of the church and the notnlity, gladlf bestowed on them extensive privileges; and from these originated the celebrated Hanseatic League, to which almost every town of any importance in West- phalia belonged, either mediately or immediately.
But the growth of cities, and the prosperity and the better system of social regulation whicb thej presented, were not the only beneficial effects which resulted from the overthrow of the power of Henry the Lion. There is every reason to conclude that it was at this period that the Fehm-gerichle, or Secret Tribunals, were instituted in Westphalia; at least, the earliest document in which there is any clear and express mention of them is dated in the year 1267, This is an instrument by which Engelberl, Count of the Mark, frees one Gervin of Kinkenrode from tJie feudal obligations for his inheritance of Broke, which was in the county of Mark ; and it is declared to have been executed at a place named Berle, the court bein^ preaidefl over by Bernhard of Henedorp, and the Fehmcnoles being present. By the Fehmenotes were at all timesunderstood the initiated in the secrets of the Westphalian tribunals; so that we have here r and decisive proof of the existence of these
SECRET TRIBUNALS OF WBSTPHAtI*.
341 1
tribunals at that time. In auother document, dated 1'280, the Fehmeiiotes a^in appear as witnesses, and after this time the mention of them becomes frequent.
We thus find that, in little more than half a cen- tury after the outlawry of Henry ihe Lion, the Fehm- g^richte were in operation in Westphalia; and there is not the slightest allusion to them before that date, or any proof, at all convincing', to be produced in favour of their having been an earlier institution. Are we not, therefore, justified in adopting the opinion of those who place (heir origin in the first half of the thirteenth century, and ascribe it to the anarchy and confusion consequent on the removal of ihe power which had hitherto kept within bounds the excesses of the nobles and the people? And is it a. conjecture altogether devoid of probability that some courageous and upright men may have formed a se- cret determination to upply a violent remedy to the intolerable evils which afflicted the country, and to have adopted those expedients for preserving the pub- lic peace, out of which gradually grew the Secret Tribunals? nr that some powerful prince of the country, acting from purely selfish modves, devised the plan of the society, and appointed his judges to make the first essay of it*?
Still it must be confessed that the oriiiiu of the Fehm-gerichte is involved in ihe same degree of ob- scurity vfhich hangs over that of the Hansealic league and so many other institutions of the middle ages ; and little hopes can be entertained of this ob- scurity ever being totally dispelled. Conjecture will, therefiire, ever have free scope of the subject ; and the opinion which we have just expressed ourselves as inclined to adopt Is only one of nine which have been already advanced on it. Four of these carry
• Berck, pp. 23a, 250.
SB CBBT SOCIETIB5.
back the origin of the Fehm-trerichte to the time of Charlemagne, making ihein ti) have been either di- rectly instituted by that great prince, or to bavc gra- dually gronn out of Kome of his other iustitutioDS for the better governing of his stales. A tiflh places their origin iii the latter half of the eleventh centnr;, and regards them as an invention of iha Westpha- lian clergy for forwarding the views of ihe popes in . their attempt to arrive at dominion over all temporal princes, A sixth ascribes the institution to St. En- gelbert. Archbishop of Coloj^ne, to nhom the thnpe- ror Frederic II. committed the administration of afiairs in Germany during his own absence in Sicily, and who was distinguished for his zeal in the p«se- cution of heredcs. Ue modelled it, the advocates of Ibis opinion say, on that of the Inquisition, which had lately been es(&blished. The seventh and eighth theories are undeserving of notice. On the others we shall make a few remarks.
The first writers who mention the Fehm-gerichte are Henry of llervorden, a Dominican, who wrote a^nst them in thereign of the Emperor Charles IV,, about the middle of Ihe fourteenth century; and £neas Sylvius, the secretary of Frederic III^ a cen- tury later. These writers are among those who reler the origin of the Fehm-gerichte to Charlemagne, and such was evidently the current opinion of the time — an opinion studiously dii.seminated by the members of the society, who sought to give it consequence in the eyes of the emperor and people, by associating it with the memory of the illustrious monarch of the WesL There is, however, neither external testimony nor internal probability to suppurt that opinion. Egiuhajl, the secretary and bLog;rapher of Charle- magne, and all the other titntemporary writers, are silent on the subject ; the valuable frai^ments of the ancient Saxon laws collected in the twelfth century
SECRET TRIBUNALS 09 WBSTPHALIA. 343
make not the slightest allusion to these courts ; and, in fine, their spirit and mode of procedure are utterly' at variance with the Carlovingian institutions. As to the hypothesis which makes Archbishop Engelbert the author of the Fehm-gerichte, it is entirely unsup- ported by external evidence, and has nothing in its favour but the coincidence, in point of time, of Engel- bert's administration with the first account which we have of this jurisdiction, and the similarity which it bore in the secrecy of its proceedings to that of the Holy Inquisition — a resemblance easy to be accounted for, without any necessity for having recourse to the supposition of the one being borrowed from the other.
We can therefore only say with certainty that, in the middle of the thirteenth century, the Fehm-gerichte were existing and in operation in the country which we have described as the Westphalia of the middle £^es. To this we may add that this jurisdiction extended over the whole of that country, and was originally confined to it, all the courts in other parts of Germany, which bore a resemblance to the West- phalian Fehni-gerichte, being of a different character and nature*
It remains, before proceeding to a description of these tribunals, to give some account of the origin of their name. And here again we find ourselves in- volved in as much difficulty and uncertainty as when inquiring into the origin of the society itself.
Almost every word in the German and cognate lan- guages, which bears the slightest resemblance to the wordFe^mf, has been given by some writer or other as
* See Berck, L i. c. 5, 6^ 7.
f Spelt also Fern, Fdm, Ftm, Fehm, In German / and v are pronounced alike, as also are a and e. The words from which Fahm has been derived are FahnCf a standard ; Femen, to skin; Fekde, feud; Femi (i. e. v» mihi), wo is me; Fe or Faem, which Dreyer says signifieiy in th§ northera languages,
344
BBC BET BOCIBTTBS.
ils true etymon. It is unnecessary, in the present sketch of the liistory of the Fehm-geri elite, to dis- cuss the merits of each of the daimants: we shnll content ourselves with remarking that, among those which appear to have most probability iii their favour, is the Latin Fama, which was first proposed by Leib- nitz. At the time when we have most reason for sup- posing' these tribunab to have been instituted the Germans were familiar with the language of the civil and canonical laws; the Fehm-gerichte departed from the original maiim of German law, which was — no acciiier, no judge, and, in imitation of those foreigpn laws*, proceeded on common fame, and without any formal accusation against persons suspected of crime or of evil courses. Moreover, various tribunals, not in Westphalia, which proceeded in the same manner, on common report, were also called Fehm-gerichte, which may therefore be interpreted Fa me -tribunals, or such as did not, according lo the old German rule, require a formal accusation, but proceeded to the in- vestigation of the iTuth of any charge which common fame or general report made against any person — a dangerous mode of proceeding, no doubt, and one liable to the greatest abuse, but which the lawless slate of Germany at ihat period, and the consequent impunity which great criminals would else have enjoyed, from the fear of them, which would have kept back accusers and witnesses, perhaps abun- dantly justified. It is proper to observe, however, that/em appears to be an old German word, signify-
Ao/y ; nilt (old German), pnulence; Fetir, puuishmeat; tlte Fimmiha of the Salic Uw; Swedish Ffm, Islandic Fimnt, Bve, Buch being erroQeously supposed tu be Ibe Dumber of judges in a Fehm, or court. Finally, Mdier ileduee FaJun, which he says is employed in Au§tria and some other countries for Rahta, cream.
* Common fame vas a sufficient i^round of airaigumeut ia Sngland, also, in Uie Anglo-Saxon p«rbd.
SECRET TRIBUNALS OF WESTPHALIA. 34S
ing condemuatLon ; and it is far from being unlikely, at^erall, that the FehiD-gericlite may mean merely the tribunals of condemnation^ — -in other words, courts for the punishment of crime, or what we should call criminal courts.
The Fehm-gerichte was not the only name which these tribunals bore J they were also called Fehm- diiig, the word ding* being, in the middle ages, equivalent to gericht, or tribunai. Thfty were also called the Westphalian tribunals, as they could only be holden in the Red Land, or Westphalia, and only Weiitphalians were amenable to their jurisdiction. They were further styled free -seats (PVei-iiuAfe, ftuhl also being the same as gericht), free-tribu- nals, &c., as only freemen were subject to them. A Frei-gericht, however, was not a convertible term with a Westphalian Fehm-gericht ; the former was the genus, the latter the species. They are in the records also named Secret Tribunals, {Heimiiche Gerichle), and Silent Tribunals {Stillgerichte), from the secrecy of their proceedings ; Forbidden Tribu- nals {Ferboteiie Gerichfe), the reason of which namR is not very clear ; Carolinian Tribunals, as having been, as was believed, instituted by Charles the Great; also the Free Bann, which last word was equivalent to jurisdiction. A Fehm-gericht was also termed a Heimliche Achi, and a Heimiiche beacklosaene Acht (secret and secret-closed tribunal); ackt also bein^ the same as gericht, or tribunal.
• In the Dorthera lansuHges, Tmg ; hence (he Store Ting Cm our j,.uriials usually wtitti;aS*or(AiBy),Le.(;rm(71i^,0[P«l- liflment utNorwny.
346 SECRET SOCIETIES.