Part 2 of 2
XII. Idea sottomessa all'Alta Vendita da tre suoi membri il 23 febbraio 1839.To renounce our plans against the Roman See, since the slightest indiscretion can reveal everything. An assassination that will not go unnoticed like many others will put our meetings on track. It is therefore necessary to take effective measures, and to promptly stop certain acts that compromise us.
"What the Christian Society allows itself for its defense, and what Carbonarism, through some of its leaders, regards as lawful and political, must not frighten us more than Society and Carbonarism. The death penalty is applied by the courts. The Sainte-Vehme of young Switzerland and young Italy the same right arrogates; why wouldn't we do the same? Its four or five members who recruit their dagger mercenaries and point them to the victim to be hit in the shadows, are supposed to be superior to all laws. They challenge them now in Switzerland, now in England, now in America. The hospitality accorded by these states is a guarantee of impunity for international killers. They can thus, and with all their comfort, agitate Europe, threaten princes and individuals, and make us lose the fruit of our long vigils. Justice that really has an eye patch sees nothing, guesses nothing, and above all it could do nothing, because between the dagger and the victim's this is his business. Ours will be much less complicated, since we must hope that we will not have vain scruples.
"Now, therefore, certain dissidents who today are not very dangerous, but who may become later, even for their proud incapacity and for their disordered infatuation, put the High Sale in danger at any moment. They begin their experiments with the assassination of princes, or dark individuals. Soon, by the force of things, they will reach us; and, after compromising us with a thousand useless crimes, they will mysteriously make us disappear as obstacles. It is simply a matter of preventing them, and turning the dagger against them that they point against us.
"Would it be very difficult for High Sale to put into practice a project that one of its members presented to the Prince of Metternich [1st State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire]? Here is the plan in all its simplicity: "You cannot" -- he said confidentially to the Chancellor -- "hit the heads of secret societies, who, in neutral or protective territory, challenge your justice and despise your laws. The decrees of your criminal courts are powerless before the coast of England; they spring up on the hospitable rocks of Switzerland, then, month after month, you find yourself weaker and weaker, more and more disarmed in the face of daring provocations. The justice of your courts is condemned to sterility. You could not find yourself in the arsenal of your state needs, in the Salus populi suprema lexa [The health of the populace is the supreme law] remedy for the evils that all honest hearts deplore? Occult associations judge and enforce their decrees with the right that they arrogate themselves. Constituted governments, having a double interest in defending themselves, since in defending themselves they safeguard the whole Company, would they not have the same right that Sales usurp? Would it therefore be impossible to combine any means which, bringing disorder within the social enemy, reassured the good, and promptly ended up frightening the wicked? These means are also indicated by the latter. They strike second or third hand; hit like them. Have discreet agents, or better yet, erratic carbonari who want to redeem their old sins by attacking the secret police, that they are tacitly helped to take precautions to escape the first investigations who ignore the plot of which the instruments [they] will be. That the government does not rage either to starboard or left, that it does not miss a beat; but that you aim right, and after making two or three men disappear, you will restore order in society. Those who do the job of killing will be surprised at first, then they will be afraid to find terrible executioners no less than they. Ignoring whence the blow starts, they will inevitably attribute it to their rivals. They will be afraid of their accomplices, and will soon put the sword back in their sheath, since fear is soon communicated in the darkness. Death occurs. Who ignore the plot of which the instruments will be? Close your eyes, and since the righteousness of men cannot affect our modern Old Men of the Mountain in their caves, let the justice of God penetrate you in the form of a friend, a servant, or an accomplice who will have a perfect passport in Rule".
"This plan which the incurable carelessness of the Court and State Chancellor rejected for reasons which the Empires may repent of later, procured for our brother and friend the full confidence of the government; but the means of health that the heads crowned disdain for themselves will therefore be forbidden to use them for our preservation? If in one way or another the High Sale was discovered, it would not be possible to make us responsible for attacks by other salespeople? We do not go forward with the insurrection or with the assassination: but since we could not divulge our anti-Catholic projects, it would follow that the High Sale would be accused of all these ignominious pitfalls. The expedient that remains for us to escape such a disgraceful fact, one has to discreetly arm some good will brave enough to punish, but limited enough not to understand too much.
"The dissidents voluntarily put themselves out of the law of nations, they put themselves out of the law of secret societies; why wouldn't we apply the code they invented to them? The governments, brutalized in their lethargy, back away from the axiom: Patere legem quam fecisti [Google translate: That you obey the law]; wouldn't it be appropriate to take it? We have a combination that is as simple as it is infallible to get rid of the fake brothers and sisters who allow themselves to harm us by decreeing the murder. This combination, well used, inevitably brings upset and distrust in insubordinate sales. By judging in turn and chastening those who judge and punish others so summarily, we separate the good wheat from the tares, and restore the social balance with a method of which some wretched provide us with the recipe. The combination is applicable; we can strike without arousing suspicion, thus paralyze and dissolve the opposite Sales where the murder is taught: and we will be authorized, if necessary.XIII. Letter from Gaetano to Nubius dated January 23, 1844.After contributing, as far as he was concerned, to the perversion of the people, the reflections came, and he gives advice which is an early renunciation, or an end to opposition.
There are insatiable passions that I did not imagine, unknown appetites, wild hatreds that ferment around and below us. Passions, appetites and hatreds, all this can one day devour us, and if there were time to remedy this gangrene, it would be a real benefit for us. It was very easy to pervert, will it be equally easy to always turn the mouths of perverts? Here is the serious question for me. Often I have tried to deal with you; you have avoided the explanation. Nowadays it is no longer possible to update it, since time is pressing, and in Switzerland, as in Austria, in Prussia, as in Italy, our sectarians who will tomorrow be our masters (and what masters, or Nubius!) waiting for a signal to break the old model. Switzerland intends to give this signal; but
those Swiss radicals full of the ideas of their Mazzini, their Communists, their alliance of saints and the Proletariat-Thief are not capable of leading the secret societies to the assault of Europe. France must stamp its footprint on this universal orgy: be convinced that Paris will not fail in its mission. Given and received the impulse, where will this poor Europe go? I am worried, since I get old, I have lost my illusions, and I would not, poor and naked of everything, assist like a theater figure to the triumph of a principle that I would have hatched and that would repudiate me, confiscating my possessions or taking my head.
To update this moment?
Do you believe that your measurements were taken well enough to dominate the motion that we have impressed? In Vienna, when the bell of the revolutionary flock rings, we will be swallowed up by the crowd, and the precarious leader who will come out is perhaps at this hour in the bathroom, or in some place of bad business. In our Italy, where a double game is played, you must be troubled by the same fears. Have we not stirred the same mud? This slime mounts to the surface, and I fear I will die suffocated by it. "
Whatever the future reserved for the ideas that the secret societies propagated, we will be defeated and find masters. This was not our dream of 1825, nor our hopes of 1831! Our strength is ephemeral, and passes on to others. God knows where this progress towards the brutalization will stop. I would not retreat from my works if we could always direct them, explain them, or apply them. But don't you feel the fear that I feel in Vienna yourself? You don't confess like me that if there is still time to stop in the temple before making it above the ruins? This stop is still possible, and you alone, or Nubio, can decide it. And while doing this with skill, you could not play the part of Penelope and break the plot that would occur in the warp night?]
"The world has launched itself on the slope of Democracy; and, for my own part, for some time, democracy has always meant demagoguery. Our twenty years of conspiracies run the risk of being wiped out in front of some braggart who will flatter the people and pull to the legs of the nobility after strafing the clergy. I am a gentleman, and I sincerely confess that it would cost me to walk with the plebs, and wait for his daily bread, and the light that shines from his approval. With a revolution like what is being prepared for us we can lose everything, and I want to keep it. You too, dear friend, must be of my opinion, because you own and will no longer love me to hear the word of confiscation and proscription of the Egloghe repeat in your ears,the fatal cry of the stripper:
Haec mea sunt; veteres, migrated settlers [Google translate: This is mine; The ancient migrated settlers.]
"I own, I want to possess, and the Revolution can strip us of everything fraternally. Other ideas still worry me, and I am sure that they worry many of our friends at the same time. I still do not feel remorse; but I am agitated by fears, and in your place, in the situation in which I see the spirits in Europe, I would not want to assume on my head a responsibility that can lead Giuseppe Mazzini to the Capitol. Mazzini to the Capitol! Nubius to the Tarpea cliff or to oblivion! Here is the dream that pursues me if if your vows were fulfilled. Does this dream smile to you, O Nubio?"
The Tarpeian Rock (/tɑːrˈpiːən/; Latin: Rupes Tarpeia or Saxum Tarpeium; Italian: Rupe Tarpea) is a steep cliff of the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Roman Forum in Ancient Rome. It was used during the Roman Republic as an execution site. Murderers, traitors, perjurors, and larcenous slaves, if convicted by the quaestores parricidii, were flung from the cliff to their deaths. The cliff was about 25 meters (80 ft) high.
-- Tarpeian Rock, by Wikipedia
XIV. Beppo's letter written by Livorno to Nubius on 2 November 1844."We walk at a gallop, and every day we are enlisting new and fervent neophytes in the plot. Fervet opus [Google translate: Smells]; but the most difficult is still to be done, indeed to begin. We have made the conquest of some friars of all orders very easily, of priests of almost all conditions, and also of some intriguing or ambitious monsignors. It is not the best, nor the most respectable; but it does not matter. For the purpose that is sought, a Friar in the eyes of the people is always a religious; a prelate will always be a prelate. We, however, have made a complete fiasco with the Jesuits. Since we conspire, it has not been possible for us to put our hand on a follower of Ignatius, and we should know the reason for this unanimous obstinacy. I don't believe in the sincerity of their faith and their attachment to the Church; why then have we never been able to grab only one by the conjuncture of the armor? We don't have a single Jesuit with us; but we can always say and make say that we have it, and the conclusion will always be the same. But it will not be so with the cardinals; they all escaped our pitfalls. The best combined adulations served no purpose, so that at the present hour we find ourselves as advanced as at the beginning. Not a single member of the Sacred College has fallen into the net. Those who were probed and tempted, all at the first word on the secret societies and their power, made gestures of exorcism as if the devil were going to take them to the mountain. Pope Gregory XVI is about to die, and we find ourselves as in 1823 at the death of Pius VII.
Whatever he is, he will never come to us. Could we go to him? Will he not be like his predecessors and successors? And won't it do like them? In this case, will we remain in the breach waiting for a miracle? The time for miracles has passed, and we have no more hope than in the impossible. Gregorio dead, we will be updated indefinitely. The Revolution, which is advancing everywhere, will perhaps give a new course to ideas. It will change, it will modify; but, to tell the truth, we will not be the ones who will raise it. We are too closed in the shadows and in the dark; having failed (in our intent), we will be forgotten and neglected by those who will profit from our work and their result. We fail, and we cannot succeed.XV. Letter from Cardinal Bernetti to a friend of his, on 4 August 1845.it is not this work that forms their happiness and ambition. They care little about becoming learned theologians, serious casuists, or doctors who are versed in all the difficulties of canon law. They are priests, but aspire to become men, and it is unheard of that they all mix of Catholic faith and Italian extravagance under this title of man, which they advocate with burlesque emphasis. The hand of God punishes us, humiliate us and weep; but this perversion they advocate with burlesque emphasis. Human youth is not yet what worries and torments most.
"The part of the clergy who naturally comes to business after us, and who already pushes us to the grave, tacitly reproaching us for having lived too long, well! This part of the clergy is a thousand times more attacked by the liberal vice than youth. Youth is without experience; she lets herself be seduced and goes as a novice can go who escapes the convent's rule for two beautiful hours of sunshine, then returns to the cloister; but with men of mature age such tendencies are more dangerous. Many know neither the character nor the things of this time, and allow themselves to be overcome by suggestions from which evidently great crises for the Church will arise. All the hearted or talented people who work are today the object of public curses; the stupid, the weak and the cowards are seen ipso facto covered with a halo of popularity which will be more ridiculous for them. I know that in Piedmont, in Tuscany, in the Two Sicilies, as in Lombardy-Veneto, the same spirit of discord blows over the clergy. New deplorable news come from France. It breaks with the past to become new men. The sect spirit replaces the love of neighbor; individual pride, which certain badly employed talents put in the place of God's love, grows in the shadows. A day will come when all these constitutional and progressive dust laden mines will explode. May heaven, after having seen so many revolutions and witnessed so many disasters, do not witness to new misfortunes of the Church! Peter's boat will certainly not sink: but I get old, I have been suffering for a long time, and
I feel the need to gather in peace, before going to account to God for a life so troubled in the service of the Apostolic See. His divine will be done, and everything will be for the best!"XVI. Letter sent from Livorno to Nubius by Piccolo Tigre, which ignores the forced rest of his boss, January 5, 1846.In Germany, and even in Russia, the work of our societies, the assault that will be given to the princes of the earth from a few years from now, will bury them under the leftovers of their impotent armies and their falling monarchies. Everywhere there is enthusiasm in the midst of ours, and apathy or indifference in the midst of enemies. It is a sure and infallible sign of success; but this victory, which will be so easy, is not what caused all the sacrifices we have made. It has a more precious, more durable and long desired. Your letters and those of our friends from the Roman States allow us to hope so; it is the end we aim for, it is the term we want to reach. Indeed, what have we asked for in recognition of our pains and sacrifices.
"It is not already a revolution in one district or another: this is always obtained when we want it. To surely kill the old world, we believed that it was necessary to suffocate the Catholic and Christian germ, and you, with the audacity of the genius, you offered to hit the papal Goliath with the slingshot of the new David. Very well, but when will you hit? I am impatient to see the secret Societies grappling with these cardinals of the Holy Spirit, poor sick natures never leave the circle in which impotence or hypocrisy encloses them.I want to use the rest in Legations. I will be in Bologna around the 20th of this month. You can make me keep your instructions with the ordinary address. From there, I will take you wherever you judge that my presence will be more necessary. Speak, I am ready to perform."
XVII. Letter from an Agent of Secret Societies in 1845."There are now several parties in Italy. The first is satisfied with everything. After it comes what he wants to go further; he wants progressive but continuous reforms, not only in administration, but also in politics. The last of they are the Italian party, which pushes the first and the second, which accepts everything to go forward, it masks, disguises and hides its ultimate goal, which is Italian unity. In the midst of these parties, you have another division or subdivision; I intend to speak of the clergy, for whom Gioberti is what Mazzini is for the Italian party.
The priest Gioberti speaks to the priests their language, and I will tell you that I come to know from all sides that, in the ranks of the secular and regular clergy, the doctrines of freedom, and the Pope at the head of this freedom and Italian independence, are a thought that seduces many, to such an extent that they are convinced that Catholicism is an essentially democratic doctrine. This party increases more and more among the clergy; looks forward to Gioberti's new work; this work is for priests. Gioberti's book, or rather the five volumes, are not yet published;
Mazzini waits impatiently for them to talk about it in the last chapter of the work that is about to appear and will have as its title: The parties in Italy or the Italy with its principles, or Italy with the Pope".In a Brief, directed to Crétineau-Joly, on February 25, 1861, Pius IX consecrated, so to speak, the authenticity of the passages above:"Dear son, health and Apostolic blessing.
"You have acquired a particular right to our gratitude, when, two years ago, you had the idea of composing a work recently completed, and again printed, to show with documents this Roman Church always exposed to the envy and hatred of the wicked, and in the midst of the political revolutions of our century, always triumphant. And it is with joy that we received the specimens for which you paid us homage, and for this most affectionate attention we rightly thank you. For that matter, the times that followed, alas! so sad and cruel, so fatal to the See of Peter and to the Church, they cannot disturb our soul, because we defend the cause of God, the cause for which our predecessors suffered prison and exile, thus leaving a beautiful example to imitate. Let us therefore beg the almighty Lord to strengthen us with his virtue, and to answer the prayers that the Church raises fervently everywhere, to dispel this frightening storm. We confirm our particular affection with the Apostolic Blessing, a pledge of every heavenly grace that we grant to you, dear son, and to the whole family, in the affectionate outpouring of our paternal heart.
"Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, on the 25th day of February 1861, of our Pontificate XIV year.
"PIUS IX, PP."
The great work that the High Sale had been commissioned to perform since 1820, was not accomplished with the occupation of Rome by the Piedmontese; the continuation is entrusted to other hands.Twenty years after the downfall of the Temporal Power, Lemmi, the Grand Master of framasonry in Italy, addressed the following document to all the lodges of the Peninsula:
"From T. . ., October 10, 1890.
"To the Ven. . . F. . . The Italian Loggie,
"The building that the FF. . . Are rising in the world will not come to be regarded as a good point until the FF. . . of Italy will not have made a gift to humanity of the ruins of the destruction of the great enemy .
"The company is progressing rapidly in Italy ... We have applied the chisel to the last refuge of superstition, and the loyalty of F. . . 33. . . That is their political power (Crispi). There is a guarantee that the Vatican will fall under our hammer ... the last life-giving efforts will encounter more obstacles from the chief priests and his vile slaves ... the G. . . O . . invoke the genius of humanity so that all the F. ... work with all their might to disperse the stones of the Vatican, to build with them the temple of the emancipated nation."The G. . . O. . . Of the Tiber Valley".
_______________
Remarks(1) The Carbonarism Sales at the height of which the High Sale was placed.
(2) This writing bears the date of 1819.
(3) "The special commission appointed by our Holy Father Pope Leo XII, happily reigning, and chaired by Mons. Tommaso Bernetti, governor of Rome, met this morning, three hours before noon, in one of the rooms of the Palazzo del government, to judge the crime of lese majesty and wounds with treason and other aggravating circumstances with which they are accused: Angelo Targhini, born in Brescia, domiciled in Rome; Leonida Montanari di Cesena, surgeon at Rocca di Papa; Pompeo Garofolini, Roman, legal; Luigi Spadoni, of Forlì, first soldier in foreign troops, then waiter; Ludovico Gasperoni, of Fusignano, province of Ravenna, student in law; Sebastiano Ricci, of Cesena, unemployed servant, all of age.
"The discussion that opened with the usual prayers, and with the invocation of the Holy Name of God, made the report of the case according to the tenor of the trial and the preliminary summary distributed. The tax lawyer and the attorney general took the points of the legislation, and the Constitutions concerning the attacks in question.
"The advocate of the poor presented the reasons for the defense, both by voice, and through previously distributed memoirs.
"After examining the results of the trial, the reasons for the defense and the provisions of the laws, the Special Commission said:
"That Angelo Targhini, during his imprisonment for murder committed in 1819 in the person of Alessandro Corsi, got involved in everything he had with the forbidden secret societies, then joined the Carbonari sect, and finally became the founder in the capital itself as soon as he was able to return to it;
"That after having made some proselytes, these, for the most part, did not attend this society in which he appeared as head, indeed as a despot, as reported by his own companions;
"After having made, together with his other co-defendants, all the efforts to induce them to enter the said sect, and to frequent it so that it could progress further, he resolved to frighten the individuals who had separated with some terrible examples: he therefore formed the project to assassinate any of them treacherously;
"Another affiliate of the sect who did not frequent it; and while one remained in the street, the other went up to the house indicated with the same design, as is believed, to let him out because he was murdered, which fortunately did not happen because he, being indisposed, was taking a bath at that moment at the feet;
"That at the same time, and in the same moment in which Targhini left his home with Montanari, and immediately after them, Spadoni and Garofolini, Lodovico Gasperoni and Sebastiano Ricci, all of whom had previously met, came out again;
"Others no less remarkable than these facts which are in the trial for a long time, it can be concluded that previously the accused had established the execution of the crime which was not carried out except on the person of only one of the designated individuals;
"That therefore the Special Commission, considering the seriousness of this crime, as well as that of injured majesty, and the evidence that meets against the accused, judges and unanimously condemns Angelo Targhini and Leonida Montanari to the death penalty; Luigi Spadoni and Pompeo Garofolini to prison in life; Lodovico Gasperoni and Sebastiano Ricci to prison for ten years".
Leo XII to whom we succeed, despite our unworthiness, subsequently hit on anathema these secret Societies, whatever their name, through Apostolic Letters, whose dispositions we confirm with the fullness of our power, wanting them to be fully observed. We strive with all our power to ensure that the Church and public affairs suffer no conspiracy from these sects, and we ask for your daily help for this great work, so that, dressed in the armor of zeal, and united with the bonds of the spirit, we vigorously support our common cause, or rather the cause of God, to destroy these bulwarks behind which the wickedness and corruption of perverse men entrench themselves.
"Among all these secret societies, we have resolved to point out one recently formed, whose purpose is to corrupt the educated youth in gymnasiums and high schools. As it is known that the precepts of teachers are very powerful in forming the heart and spirit of their disciples, so all the cures and tricks are put in place to give depraved teachers to the youth, who lead her in the paths of Baal through doctrines that are not according to God.
"From this it follows that we see, groaning, these young people who have come to such a license, that having shaken every fear of Religion, skidded the rule of morals, despised the sound doctrines, placed the rights of the one and the other power, they do not blush more than any disorder, no mistake, no attempt, as can be said of them with St. Leo the Great: their law is the lie, the devil is their god, and their cult is that which is most shameful to you. Remove, venerable Brothers, all these evils from your Dioceses, and procure, with all the means that are in your power, with authority and with gentleness, that distinct men, not only in the sciences and letters, but still for the purity of life and for mercy, be in charge of youth education.
"As these infectious books are growing in a frightening way every day, and with their favor the doctrine of the wicked penetrates like a gangrene in the whole body of the Church, watch over your flock, and do everything you can to remove this plague from it, bad books, the most fatal of all. Remember often to the sheep of Jesus Christ that you are entrusted with these warnings of Pius VII, our holy predecessor and benefactor, which they do not consider as healthy if not the pastures where the voice and authority will lead them, of Peter, who do not feed if not of them, who consider harmful and contagious all that this voice indicates to them as such, that they go away with horror, and that they do not allow themselves to be seduced by any appearance, nor fooled by any attraction."
(5) Cardinal Castiglioni was appointed Pope with the name of Pius VIII.
(6) Who was then Secretary of State.
(7) Memorandum.
"I. It seems to the representatives of the five Powers that, with regard to the State of the Church, it is a question, in the general interest of Europe, of two fundamental points:
"1. That the government of this State is established on solid foundations through improvements meditated and announced by SS herself from the beginning of her reign;
"2. That these improvements which, according to the expression of the edict of S. Ecc. Cardinal Bernetti, will form a new era for the subjects of SS, sieno, for an internal guarantee, protected from changes inherent in the nature of each elective government.
"II. To achieve this salutary purpose, which, due to the geographical and social position of the State of the Church, is of European interest, it seems indispensable that the organic declaration of SS starts from two vital principles:
"1. From the application of the improvements in question, not only in the provinces where the revolution broke out, but also in those that remained faithful and in the capital;
"2. From the general admissibility of the laity in the administrative and judicial offices.
"III. It seems that the improvements themselves must first embrace the judicial system, and that of the municipal and provincial administration.
"A. As for the judicial order, it seems that the full execution and consequent development of the promises and principles of the motu proprio of 1816 present the safest and most effective means of removing the fairly general complaints relating to this so interesting part of social organization.
"B. As for the local administration, it seems that the restoration and general organization of the municipalities elected by the people, and the establishment of municipal franchises that would regulate the action of these municipalities in the local interests of the municipalities, should be the indispensable basis for any administrative improvement.
"In the second place, the organization of the provincial councils, both of a permanent administrative council, destined to help the governor of the province in the fulfillment of his functions with suitable attributions, and of a more numerous meeting, taken especially within the new municipalities, and intended to be consulted around the most important interests of the province, it seems extremely useful to lead to the improvement and simplification of the administration to control the municipal administration, to restore taxes, and to illuminate the government of the true needs of the province.
"IV. The immense importance of a regulated state of finances, and of such an administration of public debt, which would give the guarantee so desirable for the financial credit of the government, and would essentially contribute to increase its means, and ensure its independence, seems to make indispensable a central establishment in the capital, entrusted, as the Supreme Court of Auditors, with the control of the annual service accounts, with each branch of the civil and military administration, and with the surveillance of public debt, with attributions corresponding to the great and salutary purpose which aims to achieve.
"The more such an institution will have the character of independence, and the imprint of the intimate union of the government and the country, the more it would respond to the benevolent intentions of the sovereign and to the general expectation.
"In order to achieve this goal, there should reside persons, chosen by local councils and councilors, with forming the government a junta or consult administrative. Such a junta would or would not form part of a Council of State, whose members would be appointed by the Sovereign among the notables, by birth, fortune, and talents, of the country.
"Without one or more central establishments of this nature, intimately linked to the notables of a country rich in aristocratic and conservative elements, it seems that the nature of an elective government would necessarily take away from the improvements that will form the glory of the Pontiff reigning this stability whose need it is generally and deeply felt, and it will be all the more strongly the more the benefits of the Pope are great and precious".(8) La Sainte-Vehme, secret court established by Charlemagne to keep the Saxons in obedience.
The Vehmic courts, Vehmgericht, holy vehme, or simply Vehm, also spelt Feme, Vehmegericht, Fehmgericht, are names given to a "proto-vigilante" tribunal system of Westphalia in Germany active during the later Middle Ages, based on a fraternal organisation of lay judges called “free judges” (German: Freischöffen or French: francs-juges). The original seat of the courts was in Dortmund. Proceedings were sometimes secret, leading to the alternative titles of “secret courts” (German: heimliches Gericht), “silent courts” (German: Stillgericht), or “forbidden courts” (German: verbotene Gerichte). After the execution of a death sentence, the corpse could be hung on a tree to advertise the fact and deter others.
The peak of activity of these courts was during the 14th to 15th centuries, with lesser activity attested for the 13th and 16th centuries, and scattered evidence establishing their continued existence during the 17th and 18th centuries. They were finally abolished by order of Jérôme Bonaparte, king of Westphalia, in 1811.
The Vehmic courts were the regional courts of Westphalia which, in turn, were based on the county courts of Franconia. They received their jurisdiction from the Holy Roman Emperor, from whom they also received the capacity to pronounce capital punishment (German: Blutgericht) which they exercised in his name. Everywhere else the power of life and death, originally reserved to the Emperor alone, had been usurped by the territorial nobles; only in Westphalia, called “the Red Earth” because here the imperial Blutbann was still valid, were capital sentences passed and executed by the Vehmic courts in the Emperor's name alone.
-- Vehmic court, by Wikipedia