Kellys Heroes

Sold on alibris.com
( 4.7/5.0 ★ | 291 downloads )
-- Click the link to download --

https://click.linksynergy.com/link?id=*C/UgjGtUZ8&offerid=1494105.26
530012569515628&type=15&murl=https%3A%2F%2F2.zoppoz.workers.dev%3A443%2Fhttp%2Fwww.alibris.com%2Fsearch%2
Fbooks%2Fisbn%2F0012569515628
Kellys Heroes

ISBN: 0012569515628
Category: Media > DVDs & Movies
File Fomat: PDF, EPUB, DOC...
File Details: 13.0 MB
Language: English
Website: alibris.com
Short description: Very Good. USED.

DOWNLOAD: https://click.linksynergy.com/link?id=*C/UgjGtUZ8&
offerid=1494105.26530012569515628&type=15&murl=http%3A%2F%2F
www.alibris.com%2Fsearch%2Fbooks%2Fisbn%2F0012569515628
 Kellys Heroes

• Click the link: https://click.linksynergy.com/link?id=*C/UgjGtUZ8&offerid=1494105.2653001256951562

8&type=15&murl=https%3A%2F%2F2.zoppoz.workers.dev%3A443%2Fhttp%2Fwww.alibris.com%2Fsearch%2Fbooks%2Fisbn%2F0012569515628 to do
latest version of Kellys Heroes in multiple formats such as PDF, EPUB, and more.

• Don’t miss the chance to explore our extensive collection of high-quality resources, books, and guides on
our website. Visit us regularly to stay updated with new titles and gain access to even more valuable
materials.
.
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.74%
accurate

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR 1W so forth. The questions having

been satisfactorily answered, and the minutes of the replies reported
to the brethren, the matter was again put to vote. Next, the
candidate was brought before the chapter, and, after more
questioning, took the vows and was formally admitted. In the secret
rite of admission the Receptor showed to the candidate the Idol,
with these words: "Believe in this, put your trust in this, and all will
be well with you." Then he girded the candidate with a cord of white
wool fibres, the Baptist's girdle, as it was called, which he was to
wear over the shirt. The obligation of secrecy was very sternly
enforced. Those who betrayed any of the secrets of the order were
cast into prison, and the candidate was threatened with dungeons
and death should he communicate to an outsider any information
about the ceremony of initiation. Thus did the Templars, an order
instituted for the purpose of guarding the Church's interests, in the
end reject the Church's doctrines, and adopt principles that tended
inevitably to the overthrow, not only of the Papacy, but of
Christianism itself. Such was the irreconcilable opposition between
the avowed and the 'secret convictions of the Templars, and such
was the hypocrisy of the order: for, though they had apostatized
from the creeds of the Church, they would not formally quit her
communion; and though they regarded as true many points of anti-
Christian doctrine, they veiled these with mystery, or even on
occcasion made sport of them, instead' of publishing them, as so
many poor, unarmed heretics did ; and hence their aspirations were
foiled, and the most powerful association of that time perished, not
in glorious battle, but in ignominious dungeons and at the stake.
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.66%
accurate

140 MYSTERIA 4. THE DOWNFALL OF THE KNIGHTS

TEMPLAR. The Crusades having failed utterly, the Holy Land having
again come under the power of the "infidels," and the occupation of
the knightly orders having gone, the Popes cast about for a remedy
for this undesirable state of things. The order of German Knights
hlad already forestalled the problem by choosing as their theatre of
action the countries on the Baltic Sea, and the Spanish orders by
waging continual wlars against the Moors; and the Knights of Saint
John (Hospitalers) later found a place for themselves by occupying
Rhodes. But the Templars were without any fit employment, and
that circumstance was the occasion of their downfall. About the year
1305 Pope Clement V. proposed a union of the Templars with the
Hospitalers, and, if possible, with other orders, but both Templars
and Hospitalers rejected the advice. Philip IV. (the Fair) of France
found in the Templars a serious obstacle to his ambition, and in the
early years of his reign sought to compel them by force to aid him in
his schemes; but failing in that design, tried to win them by loading
them with favors. Many different explanations have been offered to
account for another change of policy on the part of Philip, but none
of them is historically sound* Probably the change noticeable in the
king's attitude toward the order in 1305 was in some way connected
with the outrageous doings of the Inquisition in the South of France;
doubtless rumors of heresy in the Templar order had come to the
omnipresent ear of the Holy Court. The Inquisitor-General of France,
William Imbert, prior of the Dominicans in Paris, begged the King to
call the Templars to account. The King, on Nov.
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.65%
accurate

THE KNIGHTS TEMPDAR 141 14, 1305, informed Clement

V. of the accusation, but Clement, notwithstanding this, invited not
only the Grandmaster of the Hospitalers, but also the head of the
Templars, to meet with himself in conference about the project of a
new Crusade. Yet in his letter to the Templars' Grandmaster, James
Molay (who resided in his palace in Cyprus), he counseled him to
come without escort, "lest the news of his departure should give
occasion to enemies (of the order) to make a sudden onslaught."
The Master of the Hospitalers was unable to come, being busied
with the siege of Rhodes, and Molay, contrary to the Pope's advice,
came to France escorted by his entire council, sixty knights, and
bringing the treasure and the archives of his order. In May, 1307, the
Pope and the King met at Poictiers, and, it is supposed, discussed
thoroughly the question of the Templars: about the same time the
Templars informed the Pope of the dangers that threatened them,
and asked for an investigation of the charges brought against them:
such investigation the Pope decided to institute. It cannot be
determined whether it was with the Pope's approval, or against his
wishes, that Philip on Oct. 13, 1307, had all the Templars in France
arrested and their goods seized. Five heads of complaint were
alleged against the order; viz., profanation of the cross, worship of
an idol, indecent rites of initiation, omission of the sacramental
words (i.e., the words of consecration or of transubstantiation, Hoc
est corpus meum) in masses performed by priests belonging to the
order, and indulgence of unnatural lusts. Two days after the arrests
the people of Paris, whose partiality for the Templars was feared,
were assembled before the royal palace, and there were labored
with by monks and royal officials, to turn them against
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.82%
accurate

142 MYSTEBIA the order. The King took up his residence in

the "Temple," the Paris house of the order, in which was hid the
treasure of the Grandmaster (150,000 gold florins, and twelve
horseloads of silver pence). It was not quite 500 years later when
the Temple became the prison of a descendant of the King. In that
same building, in presence of the masters and bachelors of the
university, the trial of the Grandmaster and his brethren was
commenced, and proceeded under the direction of Imbert. The
procedure was the same as in the ordinary trials for heresy and
witchcraft in the court of the Inquisition. Confessions were obtained
by use of the torture, and it is impossible at this day to tell how
much in those confessions was due to the employment of that
peculiar method of eliciting truth, and how miich, if any part, was
prompted by the desire to atone for past offenses by truthful (even if
forced) admission of guilt. The Pope was not pleased with this turn
of affairs. He claimed for himself the right to proceed against the
Templars, declared that the King was infringing the privileges of the
See of Rome, and attributed the action taken against the Templars
to a desire to get possession of the order's treasury and to annihilate
a society whose existence was a cause of anxiety to the King. He,
therefore, protested against the whole proceeding, and demanded
that the arrested Templars and their property should be surrendered
to him as judge of the questions at issue. The King refused, but he
came to an understanding with the Pope in the matter of the
prosecution, and Nov. 22 the Pope, by the bull "Pastoralis
Praeeminentiae," ordered the arrest of all the Templars throughout
the Christian world. The King of England, Edward II. who was
Philip's son-in-law, obeyed this precept, though
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.23%
accurate

THE KNIOHTS TBMPDAR 143 he had previously expressed

disbelief of the guilt of the Templars. A like change of mind was seen
in Aragon. In Cyprus the Templars attempted resistance, but
submitted. Denis, King of Portugal, refused to institute a prosecution
against them. Inasmuch as the measure was one that affected all
countries, the case of the Templars belonged of right to the Papal
jurisdiction. Even Philip admitted this; but he mistrusted the Pope,
and feared that the Templars might be acquitted, and then take
revenge on the King. Negotiations were opened. The King demanded
the death of the Templars, but the Pope would not consent to this till
their guilt was fully proven; and again he demanded the surrender to
him of their persons and their possessions. The King at last acceded
to the demand, for he had need of the Pope's assistance in
procuring the election of his brother as successor to the assassinated
German King, Albert. Under the Papal jurisdiction the trials were
conducted with more lenity : torture was not employed. But the
Pope became convinced of the guilt of the accused; till then he had
been in doubt. Molay made, without compulsion, many very
important admissions, as did several high officials of the order, but
on sundry points they contradicted one another. Nevertheless, the
Pope was still firmly of the opinion that only individual Templars
were on trial, not the order, while for the King the annihilation of the
order was the main thing. August 8, 1308, the bull "Faciens
Misericordiam" ordered a prosecution of the Templars in every
country of Christendom ; and on the I2th of the same month, by the
bull "Regnans in Coelis," a council was summoned for the year 1310,
to determine the question of the Templars. Further ordi 
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.64%
accurate

144 HYSTERIA nances of the Pope had to do with the

surrender of the properties of the order to the Church. Meanwhile
the Pope had forgotten to aid the French King's brother in his
pretentions to the crown of the Roman Empire. On the contrary, he
favored the election of Henry VII. of Luxemburg, and was glad to
find in him a prince who would strenuously oppose the overweening
ambition of Philip IV. The tension between the Pope and the French
King was increasing, and the trials of the Templars went on
sluggishly for two years more. There was much arbitrary ill-usage of
Templars. The bishops, to whom the Pope had committed the
prosecution of the individual members of the order, in many places
gave loose rein to their ancient enmity toward the Templars, and
freely used the torture; nevertheless, very many of the accused
maintained the innocence of their order, and declared the prior
confessions false. This can be explained only by supposing that the
abuses in the order did not extend to all the houses. Molay's
behavior on his trial was neither firm nor dignified, ever balancing
between self-accusation and vindication. He was never sure of his
ground, sought to retard procedure, used equivocal and obscure
phrases, and continually protested his orthodoxy; and the other
members for the most part acted in like manner: but their excuse is
the hard usage they endured, and Molay was not permitted to
complain of that. All the Templars arrested in Paris, numbering 546,
were on the 28th of May, 1310, mustered in the garden of the
Bishop's palace, and there the accusation was read to them. Six of
the accused — three knights and three clerics — protested in the
name of all against the treatment they had received, and demanded
the release of all
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.26%
accurate

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR 145 Templars and arrest of their

accusers. In vain! During the investigation thirty-six members of the
order died in prison at Pans. May 12, 1310, those who had retracted
their confessions, to the number of 54, were burned alive: to these
were afterward added eight more, and at Rheims nine met the same
fate: they all protested their innocence at the supreme moment. It is
worthy of note that the Pope, who till then had favored delay in the
proceedings, was now for instant action. He sharply reproved the
English authorities for refusing to employ the torture; and he did his
best to accomplish the destruction of the Templars at Avignen, who
had taken up arms to defend themselves; but, though defeated,
they were adjudged innocent; and it was the same in Castile. In
Germany, where the order, though weak in numbers, made a
resolute stand, the Pope offered no convincing proof of the charges ;
and in England, too, nothing could be proved against the accused
members. But throughout the greater part of Italy the Templars
fared as in France, except that they were not condemned to the
stake. In vain did the celebrated Raymond Lully, at the Council of
Vienne (1312), plead for the preservation of the order by a
consolidation of all the military orders in one, whose Grandmaster
should be that French prince who happened to be King of Jerusalem
: for he hoped thus to conciliate the good will of Philip. The Pope,
who had long been urged by the King to suppress the ofder, now
made haste to save the property of the Templars from falling into
secular hands, and so, by the bulls "Vox in Excelso" and "Ad
Providam Christi Vicarii," published April 3 and May 2, 1312,
respectively, he made over to the Hospitalers all the estates of the
Templars, estates in Spain excepted.
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.59%
accurate

148 MYSTE'RIA The unfortunate Grandmaster Molay, who

received a pittance of four sous per diem to alleviate his misery, bore
his imprisonment with great fortitude; but March n, 1313, he and
Godfrey de Charney, an official of the order, having retracted their
confessions, were slowly burnt to death on an island in the Seine, by
order of the King, without any judicial process. Molay, it is said, cited
the two murderers of his brethren1, Philip and Clement, to appear
before the judgment seat of God. They both died, one of colic, the
other in consequence of a fall from his horse, eight and thirteen
months, respectively, after the death of Molay. The order was
suppresed everywhere except in Portugal, where it took the name
"Order of Jesus Christ," and continued in existence. Its Grandmaster,
Prince Henry the navigator, a hundred years afterward, employed its
wealth in promoting the high ends of civilization. In other countries
the Templars either wandered about as fugitives^ or entered the
order of Hospitalers. The seizure of the order's estates in France was
annulled by the bull of suppression, but Philip, nevertheless,
maintained his hold on the house of the order in Paris, and on the
treasure there stored. The remainder of the property was plundered
by the nobility and the Church ; and the Pope surely was not
forgetful of his own interest. The Hospitalers afterward succeeded to
their rights, but that did them hardly less harm than good, for it cost
them a great sum to release the estates of the Templars from the
grasp of the robbers; besides, many a small piece of property was
made away with by princes, great lords, orders, churches, and
monasteries.
The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.61%
accurate

PART SEVENTH The Femgerichte. I. COURTS OF JUSTICE

IN THE -MIDDLE AGE. The wild disorder attending the irruption of
the Gothic nations having subsided, society, which had lost its
bearings, had to organize itself anew. The first step toward this end
was taken when society's task was distributed among innumerable
fractional parts of itself, each fraction trying to do its own share of
the work ; the next step was the uniting of all these fractional parts
under one religious idea — that of Christianism, and under one
political law — that of feudalism. The Pope and the Emperor
represented the religious and the political ideas respectively. As long
as one was true to Pope and Emperor— i.e., was a good Christian
and a good subject — all was well with him, and he might, in all
other matters, do as he pleased. The principle of Justice was not
regarded : no wrong act was punished as violating right, but always
as doing harm. Even murder was not regarded as infringement of
human right to life, but simply as harm done to the people of the
murdered one. If one was without relatives, his slayer went
unpunished; but if the murdered man left a family or kinsmen, the
murderer, on paying to them a certain sum, went forth free. Thus,
the utmost unrestraint prevailed in the several small aggregations of
people, and the utmost diversity between 147
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.51%
accurate

148 . (MYSTEHUA one little community and another. Of

bureaucratic, centralized, cast-iron government there was nc faintest
foreshadow; nor was government a function assigned to any one,
but, like the administration of justice, an acquired right. In a given
province this one had acquired the government, that one the civil
and a third the criminal judiciary; one was obeyed in peace, another
commanded the people in war. Jurisdictions were undefined and
inextricably mixed up — a consequence of the feudal system, under
which the King granted rights now to one man, again to another, as
favors, never inquiring how these might consist with rights
previously granted to others. In this way it became possible in the
Middle Age for such juristic abnormities as the Femgerichte to come
into existence. The Femgerichte resulted from the confusion existing
in judiciary affairs, just as the religious abnormity of the monastic
orders of knights resulted from the veiy opposite condition of things
in the Church — the excess of regulation. For the confusion (absence
of regulation) and the excessive regulation were near akin; they
both sprang out of the unrestraint of private life in the Middle Age,
which unrestraint naturally produced, under the rule of the Church, a
multitude of monastic rules (e.g., the Rule of St. Augustin, of St.
Benedict, of St. Columba, etc.); while, on the contrary, the
feebleness of the Empire, due to the jealousy of the Popes and the
ambition and avarice of the feudal lords, was fatal to any
organization of the administrative and judicial functions, and though
there were many codes of law, there could be no standard for
distinguishing right and wrong. The cause of this difference of
development between State and Church was, that the Church had
grown from
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.27%
accurate

THE FEOMGE'RTCrHTE 149 the top downward, from the

hierarchy down to the people; while the State, on the contrary, had
grown from below upward. During1 the process of migration and
settlement, each nation or horde was self-governed, perfectly free
and independent: hence, the popular, genial, oftentimes even jovial
and humorous cast of Teutonic law, as compared with the hard,
pedantic, abstruse, austere character of the Jus Romanum. Roman
law has only a corpus juris ; Teutonic law has Wise Saws, Juristic
Proverbs, Juristic Drolleries, Juristic Myths (Weistuemer,
Rechtssprichtwoerter, Rechtsschwoernke, Rechtssagen). Originally,
among the Germans, the freemen themselves were the court and
chose their president, the Graf (graf now equals count). Not until the
time of Karl the Great (Charlemagne) did the grafs become standing
officials, and later an hereditary order and lords proprietary. As the
functions of government were by degrees entrusted to fewer and
ever fewer hands, being transferred from the people to favored
feudal lords, and from them passing finally into the hands of an
individual sovereign — a quite natural process, for while the people
increased in number they did not become better educated, and
therefore grew ever less fitted for self-government — so, too,
judgment, quitting the open, embowered courts amid the lindens,
with heaven's breezes whispering among the leaves, and heaven's
blue dome overarching all, withdrew behind dank and frowning
walls, from the countenance of the whole people to a meeting of a
small bench of stern judges. Thus gradually were the rights of the
freemen diminished. The freemen was less and less frequently called
to sit in judgment, for the president of the court, the graf. was no
longer an equal, but a great lord, their
The text on this page is estimated to be only 26.57%
accurate

150 MYSTEBIA superior, who made up the court as to him

seemed best, and who even cared nothing for the Emperor.*
Westphalia was the original home of the Femgerichte, and they
owed their rise to the fact that there the royal ban (Koenigsbann),
that is to say, the right possessed by the King alone, of conferring
the grafship on the grafs, was still alive, in modified form indeed, yet
with its substance unimpaired. Owing to the granting of various
privileges to ecclesiastical and secular magnates the jurisdiction of
the grafs was in time divided up. Besides, there were special courts
for freemen, and special courts for the half-free and the unfree, the
former courts being under the free grafs, and the other under the
gaugrafafs (district grafs). Now, as the majority of the population
were under the gaugrafs, the possession oi a gaugrafship developed
into sovereignly ; while the position of the free grafs became
peculiar : the office was often sold and passed from hand to hand.
The free grafs, who were often persons of little means, in1 order to
maintain their dignity, had to lean on the King's ban, or warrant,
obtainable from the King alone. But often the free grafships died
out, or they were consolidated with gaugrafships. But nowhere did
they retain so much of their original character as in Westphalia — a
geographical expression of various meanings, indeed, but in general
it denoted the region between the Rhine and the Weser. The term
Freigraf dates from the twelfth century. *What folfloiws regarding1
tlh& Femgeri'cMe is teased on T(h'eodor Dimdmier's work, "Die
Feimgerichte/' Miinslter and Faderborn, 1888. (Whatever may Wave
been the original meaning of tihe word "fern" in "femgeriohit," it is
eniou)g*h to kntaw thait in udage.it is equivalent to "-secret"; hence
fem-g-ericht— secret Judgmenlt, or secret tribunal.)
The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.57%
accurate

THE FEIMGEIRICHTE 151 Not only the King but the duke
also had influence over the free grafships. After the break-up of the
ancient duchy of Saxony, every princely land proprietor within its
territory was duke of Westphalia; this is specially true of the
Archbishop of Cologne, and also of the bishops of Muenster,
Osnabrueck and Minden, and of the Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg —
dukes of Westphalia all, but with more or less limitation. Probably
the duke was entitled to preside over any free court, and to summon
to his own tribunal, the "botding," the free grafs. So, too, the
stuhlherT (lord of the manor) possessed the right of presiding, even
when he was no prince, but only a graf ; and often he assumed that
the free graf gave judgment only in his (the lord's) name, and so
granted release from the jurisdiction of the free courts, to cities, for
example. The free graf and his assessors, the schoeffen (a lower
grade of judges), afterward called freischoeffen, constituted the
freigericht (free court), afterward known as femgericht. These
offices might fall to any freeman — and any one was reckoned a
freeman who had "his own smoke," i. e., a house of his own. In the
latter half of the Hth and the first half of the 1 5th century the
emperors bestowed on the archbishops of Cologne, as dukes of
Westphalia and lieutenants of the Emperor, the right of investiture of
all free grafs and supervision of them all over Westphalia, A chapter
of free grafs was held yearly at Arnsberg, and hence the Arnsberg
tribunal obtained the first rank. As the free grafs held their
investiture from the king, they looked on themselves as king's
officers, and little by little went on extending their jurisdiction over
the whole empire — a design favored by the confusion reigning
everywhere, and even approved by the emperors
The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.87%
accurate

152 HYSTERIA themselves. At last the free grafs began to

think that they were higher than the emperor, and had no need of
his meddling: this arrogance was at its height in the reign of
Sigmund, and it was still to be seen under Frederic VII. ; in fact,
Frederic, for having taken steps to punish some insubordinate free
grafs, was summoned by free grafs to stand trial. Some of the
emperors did, indeed, set up free graf tribunals outside the limits of
Westphalia ; but these never prospered. In the I5th century it was
an axiom that such courts could exist only in Westphalia, or, as the
saying was, "on red earth," a phrase that does not occur prior to
1490, and the sense of which is not quite clear; for neither is the soil
of all Westphalia red, nor is red soil confined to Westphalia: and the
same criticism may be made if "red earth" be taken for "blood-
stained earth." 2. THE SECRET TRIBUNAL. The early "free courts"
were in a certaim sense "private" courts, inasmuch as they were not
open to all like the courts of the gaugrafs (or judges of districts).
The associate judges (Freischoeffen) were called "wissende"
(wisemen, knowing ones), which, in old times^ meant "judges." The
"private" tribunal of the Feme became by degrees a "secret" tribunal
about the middle of the I4th century, as the free grafs became more
conscious of their ambitious aims. The Schoeffen were now required
to bind themselves by oath to observe secrecy: the one who proved
false to his oath was first to have his tongue plucked out, and then
he was to be hanged, either three or seven feet higher than a thief.
The penalty was exacted very rarely, and probably never the first
item of it.
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.26%
accurate

THE FEMGERICHTE 153 The obligation of secrecy extended

over all the proceeding's of the secret courts, even their letters and
summonses. But the most important secret was the countersign, by
means of which the initiated recognized each other. This was made
up of four words (taken from the oath), Stock, Stein, Gras, Grein;
and as the words were pronounced one laid his right hand on the
others' left shoulder. Poetry and romance have made the Feme
courts sit in subterranean chambers, at night, the faces of the
judges masked. The fact is that the tribunals of the Feme were set
up at the ancient seats of the free tribunals, and of such places
there were in Westphalia more than a hundred; and the trials were
always held in the open air, in broad daylight Whether in certain
cases they were also public, so that any one might be present, is not
known. In all cases where testimony was taken the proceedings
were secret; whoever willingly or unwillingly was present unbidden
at the secret deliberations was straightway hanged from the nearest
tree. Very remarkable was the universal recognition throughout
Germany of the power of the Femgerichte. In 1387 the most
distinguished people of Cologne were "wissende"; about 1420 the
Rhineland was full of wissende belonging to every grade in society ;
and soon after the same might be said of Bavaria, Tyrol, Switzerland,
Suabia, Franconia, Saxony, Prussia. Every manor lord and every free
city needed the advice of wissende. Princes and cities had their
judges admitted as schoeffen; archbishops and princes, even the
Emperor Sigmund, were initiated: in the middle of the 1 5th century
there must have been more than 100,000 freischoeffen in the
empire. To be initiated became a craze, a fad; the native
Westphalians were amazed at the folly of their southern and eastern
countrymen.
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.06%
accurate

154 'HYSTERIA And the long arm of the Femgericht

jurisdiction reached as far as the host of wissende: the localities in
which the activity of the secret tribunals was manifested were
scattered all over the empire ; in fact, the proceedings of these
courts which affected Westphalia itself became a very small fraction
of the whole. But with the spread of the Feme jurisdiction arose
opposition to the same. There were seen faint beginnings of
opposition even in the early part of the i/|.th century, when Bremen
decided not to allow members of the Feme courts to reside within its
jurisdiction; toward the close of that century other cities took more
effective measures, and in the I5th wrere even formed leagues of
cities for self-defense against the encroachments of the Feme.
Brunswick appealed to the Pope and the Emperor, and Hildesheim
and Erfurt to the Council of Basel. In the middle of the I5th century
several cities, especially in Southern Germany and in Holland, were
freed from the jurisdiction of the secret courts by the supreme
ecclesiastical and civil authorities. Then the dukes of Bavaria and of
Saxony forbade their subjects laying complaints in the Westphalian
courts^ and some cities punished that offense with death,
imprisonment, or banishment. A Feme court consisted of a free °raf
and! at least seven schoeffen. The graf was required to be a
freeborn Westphalian of stainless reputation, whatever his station in
life, for peasants were often chosen to* be grafs. The schoeffen also
had to be freemen born, and if not of Westphalian birth, were
required to present proofs of their fitness. There was a fee for
admission to the Feme. As time went on the examination of
applicants became less and less strict, and often very questionable
characters, even serfs and men accused of crimes, were admitted:
such
The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.91%
accurate

THE FEIMOERICHTE 155 admissions were illegal, and the

men chosen under such circumstances were called notschoeffen
(makeshift schoeffen). The free graf sat at a judgment-board, on
which lay a naked sword and a rope as symbols of avenging justice,
and the schoeffen took oath on these instruments. Each free graf
and each schoeffe of a given court was required not only to be
present at a trial, but to take part in pronouncing sentence. When
the trial was one of special importance several hundred schoeffen
would be in attendance. The Femgerichte had their special codes
and statutes, which were from time to time amended. In these the
competence of the courts was defined, and this had to do iwith
matters purely criminal, at least so far as the trials \vere held in
secret. The crimes of which the Femgerichte took cognizance —
vemewrogige punkte (points for femic animadversion) — were,
according tO' the list drawn up at Dortmund in 1430, as follows: i,
robbery and acts of violence against ecclesiastics or churches; 2,
larceny; 3, robbery of a woman in childbed or of a dying person; 4,
plundering the dead; 5, arson and murder; 6, treachery; 7, betrayal
of the Feme; 8, rape; 9, forgery of money or of title to property; 10,
robbery on the imperial highway; n, perjury and perfidy; 12, refusal
to appear in court on summons. Apostasy from the Christian faith
was put at the head of the list in an assembly held at Arnsberg 1437,
and in 1490 heresy and witchcraft were added. For the person found
guilty .there was but one punishment, death, and only one manner
of death, by the rcpe. This penalty could be inflicted without
sentence if the offender were taken in the act, or if he confessed
guilt, or if there were eyewitnesses of the crime.
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.25%
accurate

156 MYSTER'IA That among the offenses punishable by the

Feme heresy and witchcraft held almost the first place shows that
these tribunals were no object of apprehension to the ecclesiastical
power. This secret association, therefore, differed from that of the
Templars, as also from that of the Stonemasons (which will be next
considered) especially in this, that the Feme was no league of
Illuminati, but that their specialty was opposition to the law of the
stronger and to the rule of petty states, and that their aim was to
uphold and exaggerate antiquated judicial institutions. The
procedure of the Femgerichte was entirely in accord with the
principle of ancient Teutonic law, that "where no complainant
appears, neither is there any judge." It was not the inquisitorial
court procedure of the 1 6th- 1 Qth centuries, in which the judge
made investigation on his own account, but a procedure founded
entirely in the practice of civil courts, and one that agreed well with
the independent spirit of the Middle Age, and the view that then
prevailed that law was a matter of personal rights. The free tribunals
took up the complaint from whatever quarter it came. All schoeffen,
too, were under obligation to bring to the attention of the free
courts, and to prosecute all doings coming under the animadversion
of the Feme. Hence were a schoeffe to give information regarding
such offenses to any other court, he was Hable to be hanged; and
the same fate befel the one who, having been entrusted with a bill
of accusation, should open the same and betray its contents.
Accusations were not entertained unless when submitted by
wissende. The accuser had to stand betwixt two fellow schoeffen,
his sponsors, in front of the tribunal in kneeling posture. In every
case the first thing done was to decide
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.38%
accurate

THE FBMGERICHTE 157 whether the crime was one meet

for animadversion by the Feme. That decided, the accused was
summoned to appear, if he was a wissender, before the secret
tribunal, if not a wissender, before the open court. The first
summons to a wissender to appear before the secret tribunal was
drawn up in writing by two schoeffen, and allowed the accused a
delay of six weeks and three days. If he did not obey the summons,
then four schoeffen summoned him in person ; and this proving-
ineffectual, six schoeffen and one free graf repeated the summons,
which now was called the "warning." The delay allowed was the
same as at first. If the accused was a free graf the number of
schoeffen employed in each of the three processes of summoning
was 7, 14 and 21, respectively, and of free grafs 2, 4 and 7. The
schoeffe, on receiving the summons, could appear at any time within
the three delays before the free court and demand a statement of
the charges and the names of the accusers; then he might on his1
sword swear to his innocence, and obtain his freedom; but he was
liable to be summoned again. Outsiders were summoned once only,
and usually by only one schoeffe. When the whiereabouts of an
accused person was unknown, four summonses were prepared, and
these were posted in four places where he might possibly be found.
If the accused was one who inspired fear, the summons might in the
night time be posted or left at the gate of the castle or of the city m
which he lived. In such cases the schoeffen walked or rode up
before the gate, hacked off the crossbeam three chips, which they
kept, put a penny of the realm in the notch, affixed the summons,
and cried out to the castellan or the burgomaster, "We have stuck a
king's brief in the notch and taken the proof with us: say you to him
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.46%
accurate

158 MYOTBBItA that is in the castle that he must on his

appointed day present himself before the free tribunal, on behalf of
highest law and the Emperor's ban." When the opposition to the
Femgerichte began to gain force, the summoners were in greater
peril often than the summoned: often they lost their lives. The day
of the trial having arrived, if the accuser was not on hand the
accused was discharged. But if the accused failed to appear, the
accusation was repeated and testimony taken. The free graf then
thrice called the accused by name, and asked if any one was there
as his attorney. If there was no appearance of the accused, the
accuser could demand judgment "after a se'ennight." In making this
demand, he knelt, laid two fingers of the right hand on his naked
sword, affirmed the guilt of the accused, and six schoeffen, as his
sponsors, maintained the truth of what he swore. If the verdict was
against the accused, the free graf arose, and outlawed the accused,
in words like these: "The accused (name and surname) I except
from the peace, the laws and the freedom (of -the empire) as the
same have been stablished and decreed by popes and emperors;
and I cast him down and place him in uttermost unquiet and
disgrace, and make him illegitimate, banned, outside the peace,
dishonored, insecure, loveless; and I do outlaw him according to the
sentence of the secret tribunal, and devote his neck to the rope, his
carcass to the birds and beasts to devour; and I commend his soul
to the power of God in heaven; and his fiefs and goods I give up to
the lords of whom the fiefs are held; and I make his wife a widow
and his children orphans." Then the free graf threw a twisted c©rd
out over the bounds of the court, the schoefTen spat out, and the
name of the outlaw was written in the book of the
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.72%
accurate

THE FBMGERICHTE 159 condemned. Among the persons

thus condemned were numbered some men of high station, as the
dukes Henry and Louis of Bavaria (1429), John, bishop of
Wurtzburg, and others. All free grafs and schoeffen were henceforth
under obligation to arrest and to execute sentence upon the outlaw
(but three members of the Feme were required); and executing
sentence meant hanging the culprit from the nearest tree. Often the
relatives of executed outlaws of the Feme accused the executioners
in the free courts as assassins, and the court could outlaw its own
ministers for carrying out its own decrees. Many were the abuses
that arose, assassination) of innocent persons, for example.
Murderers, too, pretended to be schoeffen; and highwaymen robbed
under pretense of sequestering the property of persons condemned
by judgment of the Feme. If ever the condemned, being a wissender
and not having overstayed the se'ennight of grace, appeared in
court with six compurgators he was set free; but if he confessed his
guilt, or was convicted, he was executed forthwith in the usual way.
The ban of the Feme could never be lifted ; but the number of death
sentences actually carried out was, says Lindner, "so very small that
one might readily allow the Feme's decree of outlawry to be
pronounced upon him." Pope Nicolas V. in 1452 condemned the
capital executions done by the Feme. If a man under sentence of
death should be proved innocent before he fell into the hands of the
executioners, he was, if a wissender, brought before the court, with
a rope around his neck, wearing white gloves, carrying a green
cross, and attended by two schoeffen; falling on his knees before
the free graf he pleaded for mercy. The free graf, taking him by the
hand, bade him rise, removed
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.03%
accurate

160 MTSTERHA. the rcpe from around his neck, and

restored him to the grace and favor of the Feme. But one who was
not a wissender had no rights! He merely escaped death, but there
was no amend. The Emperor gave him "a reprieve of 100 years, 6
weeks and a day" — that was all; he was forever ineligible to
become a schoeffe. Both processes were called the "entfemung"
("unfeming," undoing of the Feme's judgment). Many of the
condemned, unable to procure the entfemung, ventured to appeal to
the Emperor, the camera, the Pope, or a Church Council. But the
Femgerichte never recognized such appeals, and protested strongly
to the Emperor against them. They regarded the condemned as
dead, and said that no one had the right "to awaken the dead." The
Emperor Sigmund could think of no means of saving a man under
condemnation, except by taking him into his own service, for the
Femgerichte did not care to take measures against officials of the
Kaiser and the empire. Women, too, as well as aged men an«J
children, were excepted from the cognizance of the Feme, also, in
theory, Jews, for Jews were "''servants of the Emperor's
bedchamber"; ecclesiastics, also, for they could in the Middle Age be
tried only in the spiritual courts; but in the I5th century the Feme
disregarded these provisions, and summoned) both' Jews and
ecclesiastics. 3. THE END OP THE FEME. But the Initiates of the Red
Earth league met the fate that overtakes all movements that lag
behind the times. The Feme did by no means render in the days of
"faustrecht" (fist-right, the rule of the stronger) so great services as
it has been credited with: never was
The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.94%
accurate

THE PEMOERTCHTE 161 the insecurity of life and property

so great as when the Femgerichte were most flourishing. If the
extension of the Feme beyond the borders of Westphalia was a
wrong, that wrong became aggravated through the excessive
secrecy of the tribunals. The Feme degenerated steadily, and the
respect in which it was held declined in equal degree. The free grafs
forgot the fair promise of their original institution — that their
function was to protect innocence against the machinations of bad
men. They, and especially the presidents of courts, enriched
themselves with feco for admission of new members, with costs of
court, with fines and fees, and even with moneys got by extortion
and oppression. They delayed trials, condemned innocent persons,
overstepped the limits of their jurisdiction so as to condemn to death
the entire male population (over 18 years) of a town, for not obeying
a summons. The opposition to the Femgerichte culri mated in the
decree of the Emperor Maximilian I. creating the supreme court of
judicature (kammergericht), which left no further excuse for
protecting the free courts. The applications for admission to the
Feme soon grew less, and at last ceased. The princes changed the
free courts into ordinary tribunals, or abolished them. At the end of
the i6th century a capital execution by a Femgericht was a thing
unknown; at the end of the i/th these courts had nearly all
disappeared. But even when Westphalia was a Napoleonic kingdom
there were still living some schoeffen, and not till the decade 1880-
90 did the last free graf disappear, "taking with him to the grave the
secret of the countersign." The existence of the Feme is still
commemorated by the stone judgment seats under the lindens; and
the branches overhead are still whispering the story of the
redoubtable Wissende of the Red Earth country.
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.78%
accurate

PART EIGHTH. Stonemasons' Lodges of the Middle Ages. 1.

MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE. We have already noted as a prominent
characteristic of the Middle Age this, that freedom of action, except
so far as it interfered with the interests of the clergy or the nobles,
was left unrestricted and that individuals formed social unions for
the exercise of it. Thus we have seen these two dominant classes
uniting to form associations which finally were crowned by the
institution of the military orders. But the medieval world had not
followed the arts of peace very long after the stormy times of the
barbarian invasions, before it became conscious of a need not only
of a union of swordsmen and penmen, but also and still more of a
union of handicraftsmen. True, the Middle Age could not rise to such
an intellectual height as would enable it to see that work is more to
be honored than indolence, peace than war: hence the worker had
to take a subordinate place. Of the agricultural laborer this is true
without any reservation : but the artisan was more favorably
situated as soon as the cities had begun to develop. But the
progress made by the artisans was due to their union in corporations
or gilds. The constitutions of the trade gilds derive partly from the
"collegia" of artisans in ancient Rome and partly from the mo162
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.61%
accurate

THE STONEMASONS 1G3 nastic orders. The "collegia" had

secret rites, mysteries, but of these we have no reliable information;
and it is certain that the medieval gilds had their mysteries, too. Of
not all the gilds is this true; in some of them the secret ceremonial
consisted only of passwords and countersigns by which craftsmen
recognized their fellows. The most elaborate of these mysteries was
that of the Stonemasons. And the reason if this is obvious, for of all
trades that of the builder not only makes most demands on the
thinking faculty, involves most details, is the first to require new
methods of facilitating operations, new "wrinkles," and these easily
are made trade secrets: besides, as builders of temples, the masons
acquired a sacred and mystical character. After the great migrations
the mason's trade had its home in the monasteries. As long as
architecture or the builder's art was thus under monastic guidance, it
affected the Romanic style — simple columns, rounded arches, squat
towers; but when the monks forsook art and science, in the nth and
I2th centuries, the craftsmen no longer saw why they should serve
under the direction of men who had no taste for anything but wine,
the chase, and war. And so there arose unions of masons outside of
the monasteries, especially in the cities, and henceforth the
monastic churches were inferior to the city churches in size and
splendor. The change in the circumstances of the builders' unions,
which were now self-controlled, was seen in the development of a
new style. Instead of the single columns rose clustered columns,
symbol of free union, and of the strength that comes of harmonious
action between equals ; in the place of rounded arches, pointed
ones, to show that the forces that conspired to raise the structure
did not sacrifice their
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.44%
accurate

164 MYSTERIA several individualities, but freely contributed

each its share toward the attainment of the end; in place of squat,
close towers', tall spires aspiring" to infinitude, and open on all sides,
as much as to say, "Here we stand free and open, acknowledging no
laws but those of heaven." Then came decoration of the window
arches, which showed a different design in each, thus entering a
protest against all stereotyped uniformity. This was the true
Germanic or Gothic architecture, the triumph of the free Teutonic
spirit, which favors the unhindered development and the unrestricted
independence of individual genius. It was also the expression of
mysticism, with innumerable spirelets striving heavenward to find
the Divine. Hence the Gothic style has somewhat of gloom and
melancholy in its vast arches and narrow windows. It invites the free
spontaneous spirit of man to sound the depths of his own nature,
and so is as adverse to obtrusive dogmatism as to reckless
investigation, and il•luminsm, which disturb prejudices. Hence as the
Romanic style is the architecture of the popedom, so is the Gothic
that of free church life; and then the architecture of illuminism
followed as the style of the Renaissance. 2. THE STONEMASONS'
LODGES OP GERMANY. The meeting places of the masons' unions in
the cities were the board huts that stood on the site of churches in
process of construction, affording- shelter to the masons or stone
cutters while at work. These huts, or "lodges," were at an early
period leagued together, and the members of the leagues, in
memory of their formerly having been1 inmates of monasteries,
called one another Brother, and their unions Brotherhoods; they
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.30%
accurate

THE STONEMASONS 165 also bestowed on their chief

officers such tokens of respect as are found in the clerical epithets
"reverend" and "worshipful." The date of the formation of this
league cannot be determined. It appears to have been in full swing
in the I3th century, and the credit of its definitive organization is
usually given to Albert the Great, Count of Bollstadt, a celebrated
Dominican friar (b. 1200, d. 1280). Albert lived nearly all his life in
Cologne, and therefore the famous Cathedral of Cologne is to be
regarded as the cradle of the great league of stonemasons' lodges.
For the government of this league an assembly of delegates from
the lodges, which came together "in chapter" (another reminiscence
of the monastic origin of these unions) at Ratisbon in 1459, drew up
a trade constitution entitled "Ordnung und Vereinigung der
gemeinen Bruderschaft des Steinwerks und der Steinmetzen"
(Regulation and Combination of the general brotherhood of
stonework and stonemasons): it was revised and amended at Basel
in 1497, and at Strasburg 1498. From this and other ancient
documents relating to the organization of the brotherhood we gather
that the Brethren were classed as Masters, "Parleyers" and
Comrades (meister, parlirer, gesellen), and to these were added,
though not as brethren, yet as dependents, Helpers, — that is,
apprentices. At the head of a lodge stood the Master of Works, or
Master-Builder. The masters of the three lodges at Strasburg,
Cologne and Vienna were the Chief Judges of the league, and he of
Strasburg held the foremost rank among these. To the judicial
district of Strasburg belonged the left bank of the Rhine down to the
Moselle, and on the right bank Suabia, Franconia, Hesse; to the
district of Cologne belonged the region on
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.76%
accurate

166 HYSTERIA! the other side of the Moselle; and to that of

Vienna, Austria, Hungary, Italy. Switzerland stood apart under a
separate master, who had his seat at B^rne; Zurich afterward
succeeded to the place of Berne. The masons of Northern Germany,
on the right bank of the Rhine (Thuringia, Saxony, etc.), were only
nominally members of the league: as matter of fact they were
subordinate to none of these lodges, but they adopted a special
"order" for themselves at Torgau in 1462. In these regulations we
find many striking evidences of the sturdy good sense of the
masons. For example, they were forbidden to disparage deceased
masters and their works; also to teach others their art for money, for
they ought to deal with each other as friends; one master was not to
expel a fellowcraft; to do so he must not only take counsel with two
other masters, but also a majority of the: fellowcrafts must approve;
differences between masters should be settled by arbitrators chosen
from members of the league. In the brotherhoods brotherly
comradeship played an important part. Meetings were held monthly,
and the business ended with a feast. Each General lodge yearly held
as grand assembly; and the festivals of Saint John the Baptist, and
of the so-called "Four Crowned Ones," were holidays for the league.
Each meeting of a lodge was opened and closed with questions and
answers of the master and the comrades. To the journeyman, as
soon as he began to travel, were communicated the secret signs of
the brotherhood — passwords, grip, etc. With these he identified
himself as a brother mason wherever he went, and so had the right
to learn the trade gratis. On coming to a hut where stone-cutting
was going on, he first shut the door, so as to knock on it
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.77%
accurate

THE STONEMASONS 167 after the masonic fashion; then

asked, "Are German masons at work here?" Forthwith the comrades
made search through the hut, shut the doors, and ranged
themselves in a right angle; the visitor placed his' feet at right
angles, saying, "God bless the worthy masons;" to which the answer
was "God thank the worthy masons," and so on, questions and
answers many, among them these: "Who sent you forth"? "My
honored master, honored sureties, and the whole honored masons'
lodge at X." "What for?" "For discipline and right behavior," "What is
discipline and right behavior?" "The usages of the craft and its
customs." Of the rites of initiation in those times we know nothing:
what Fallou has on that head regarding the usages of the German
stonemasons is simply borrowed from the Freemasons' ritual of the
present time. It is highly probable that in the medieval masons'
lodges the technical details of the craft and its secrets played the
chief part in the ceremonies of initiation. The medieval stonemasons
also employed as symbols of their craft the hammer, the circle, the
square, etc., also mystic figures, e. g., the flaming star (which was
the Pythagorean pentagram, or the magic hexagram — two triangles
laid across each other), the two pillars "of Solomon's temple, wine
skins, ears of corn, interlaced cords, etc. The only other point of any
consequence of which we have certainty is that the postulant swore
to observe secrecy. But there is no doubt that the drinking usages as
handed down to us are authentic. For example, the glass was never
to be handed to the banqueter, but set on the table before him;
then, he must not touch it save with the right hand — covered with
a white glove or a white napkin, when a special toast is drunk. ft *
The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.11%
accurate

168 MYSTERIA The masons' brotherhoods were. a distinctly

Christian institution: the members were required by the
"Ordinances" to comply with all the usages of the Church. This was a
survival from the time when the lodges had their origin in
monasteries. The sects that arose on every side despite bloody
persecutions, and the illuminism spread abroad by them, contributed
to bring about a chlange in the spirit of the masons which was
noticeable in the I4th and I5th centuries: many, perhaps a majority,
of them acquired1 a spirit of opposition to Roman ecclesiasf icism,
and it was very plainly manifested in their sculpture. More bitter
satire cannot be imagined than they employed; and what is most
significant is that it found expression in the churches themselves.
Thus in a representation of the Last Judgment in the Berne minster
a pope wearing a glittering tiara of gold is seen tumbling headlong
into Hell; and in the vestibule the Wise and the Foolish Virgins are
shown keeping vigil, but the foolish ones wear cardinals' hats,
bishops' mitres and priests' caps. The Doberan Church in
Mecklenburg shows a mill in which church dogmas are ground out.
At Strasburg was seen a procession of all manner of beasts with
blazing torches and an ass performing the mass; at Brandenburg
was shown a fox preaching to a flock of geese, etc. Illuminism is the
foe of knighthood and ecclesiasticism, for illuminism knows no
privilege of birth or of rank or of vocation. Hence, in so far as such
bodies as the Templars and Stonemasons favored illuminism, they
undermined the institutions to which they owed their existence, and
so were working for their own extinction. The downfall of the
Stonemasons' brotherhood had its causes even in the age before the
Reformation, in that