Page "Vehmic court" Paragraph 17

They were, in fact, a survival of an ancient and venerable German institution ; and if, during a certain period, they exercised something like a reign of terror over a great part of Germany, the cause of this lay in the sickness of the times, which called for some powerful organization to combat the growing feudal anarchy.

Such an organization the Westphalian free courts, with their discipline of terror and elaborate system of secret service, were well calculated to supply.