[Illustration: Fig. 321.--View of the Town of Dortmund in the Sixteenth
Century.--From an Engraving on Copper in P. Bertius's "Theatrum
Geographicum."]
The initiation of a free judge was accompanied by extraordinary
formalities. The candidate appeared bareheaded; he knelt down, and,
placing two fingers of his right hand on his naked sword and on a rope,
he took oath to adhere to the laws and customs of the holy tribunal, to
devote his five senses to it, and not to allow himself to be allured
therefrom either by silver, gold, or even precious stones; to forward the
interests of the tribunal "above everything illumined by the sun, and all
that the rain reaches;" and to defend them "against everything which is
between heaven and earth." The candidate was then given the sign by which
members of the association recognised each other. This sign has remained
unknown; and nothing, even in the deeds of the Vehmic archives, leads one
even to guess what it was, and every hypothesis on this subject must be
looked upon as uncertain or erroneous. By one of the fundamental statutes
of the Terre Rouge, a member convicted of betraying the secrets of the
order was condemned to the most cruel punishment; but we have every reason
for asserting that this sentence was never carried out, or even issued
against a free judge.
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