Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


The special dominion over which the Vehmic tribunal reigned supreme was
Westphalia, and the country which was subjected to its laws was designated
as the _Terre Rouge_. There was no assembly of this tribunal beyond the
limits of this Terre Rouge, but it would be quite impossible to define
these limits with any accuracy. However, the free judges, assuming the
right of suppressing certain crimes committed beyond their territory, on
more than one occasion summoned persons living in various parts of
Germany, and even in provinces far from Westphalia, to appear before them.
We do not know all the localities wherein the Vehmic tribunal sat; but the
most celebrated of them, and the one which served as a model for all the
rest, held its sittings under a lime-tree, in front of the castle-gate of
Dortmund (Fig. 321). There the chapters-general of the association usually
assembled; and, on certain occasions, several thousands of the free judges
were to be seen there.

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