Vehmgerichtn.

1796 W. Coxe Let. Secret Tribunals Westphalia 6 This Court of Justice was called The Secret Tribunal; the Vehem Gericht, a word not sufficiently explained, but which is chiefly used by the German Jurists.

1797 Monthly Rev. June 114 The Fehm-gericht, (Court of mainprise) or Secret Tribunal, bears at least a strong resemblance to those courts of justice, of which our Welsh antiquaries have lately revealed so many particulars.

1829 W. Scott Anne of Geierstein II. viii. 240 Men initiated and intrusted with high authority by the Vehmegericht, or tribunal of the bounds.

1839 H. W. Longfellow Hyperion I. i. vi Two Black Knights, who pretended to be ambassadors from the Vehm-Gericht.

1905 Jewish Encycl. IX. 332/2 In the fifteenth century several Jews of Nordhausen appeared before the vehmgericht, though its authority was not recognized by the citizens of Nordhausen.

1967 Church Hist. 36 385 There are reports of armed men in the narrow valleys,..of an expert hangman from the Vehmgericht who had been imported for the occasion, [etc.].

1998 H. M. Brown Heinrich von Kleist iv. 335 We find..the same arcane medieval procedures (this time trial by duel in lieu of the Vehmgericht).

1845 Morning Chron. 2 July 4/4 A proof to the magistrates that..an organized Vehm-Gericht through the whole land has already devoted them to destruction.

1848 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair xliv. 398 ‘Was Rebecca guilty or not?’ The Vehmgericht of the servants' hall had pronounced against her.

1902 Mass. Med. Jrnl. 22 536 The professional mind will be prepared for a report of clinical cases; for after all clinical observation is a vehm-gericht from whose sentences there is no appeal.

1937 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Jan. 44/1 A group of conscientious pacifists, a sort of Vehmgericht, who think themselves justified in executing any such financier.