[Footnote 116: Spelt also _Fem_, _Fäm_, _Vem_, _Vehm_. In German _f_ and _v_ are pronounced alike, as also are _ä_ and _e_. The words from which _Fahm_ has been derived are _Fahne_, a standard; _Femen_, to skin; _Fehde_, feud; _Vemi_ (i. e. væ mihi), wo is me; _Ve_ or _Vaem_, which Dreyer says signifies, in the northern languages, _holy_; _Vitte_ (old German), prudence; _Vette_, punishment; the _Fimmiha_ of the Salic law; Swedish _Fem_, Islandic _Fimm_, five, such being erroneously supposed to be the number of judges in a Fehm, or court. Finally, Mözer deduces it from _Fahm_, which he says is employed in Austria and some other countries for _Rahm_, cream.] [Footnote 117: Common fame was a sufficient ground of arraignment in England, also, in the Anglo-Saxon period.] The Fehm-gerichte was not the only name which these tribunals bore; they were also called _Fehm-ding_, the word _ding_[118] being, in the middle ages, equivalent to _gericht_, or tribunal. They were also called the Westphalian tribunals, as they could only be holden in the _Red Land_, or Westphalia, and only Westphalians were amenable to their jurisdiction. They were further styled free-seats (_Frei-stühle_, _stühl_ also being the same as _gericht_), free-tribunals, &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, (_Heimliche Gerichte_), and Silent Tribunals (_Stillgerichte_), from the secrecy of their proceedings; Forbidden Tribunals (_Verbotene Gerichte_), the reason of which name 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 Acht_, and a _Heimliche beschlossene Acht_ (secret and secret-closed tribunal); _acht_ also being the same as _gericht_, or tribunal. [Footnote 118: In the northern languages, _Ting_; hence the _Store Ting_ (in our journals usually written _Storthing_), i. e. _Great Ting_, or Parliament of Norway.] CHAPTER II. The Tribunal-Lord--The Count--The Schöppen--The Messengers--The Public Court--The Secret Tribunal--Extent of its Jurisdiction--Places of holding the Courts--Time of holding them--Proceedings in them--Process where the criminal was caught in the fact--Inquisitorial Process. Having traced the origin of the Fehm-gerichte and their various appellations, as far as the existing documents and other evidences admit, we are now to describe the constitution and procedure of these celebrated tribunals, and to ascertain who were the persons that composed them; whence their authority was derived; and over what classes of persons their jurisdiction extended.