booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

sider one more link in the chain of the masonic tradition-the " Holy Vehm."
The Vehmgerichts(54)
These dread tribunals, said to have been established by Charlemagne in 772(55) in Westphalia, their
avowed object the establishment of law and order amidst the unsettled and even anarchic conditions that
reigned in Germany. But by degrees the power arrogated to itself by the " Holy Vehm " became so formidable
that succeeding emperors were unable to control its workings and found themselves forced to become
initiates from motives of self-protection. During the twelfth century Vehmgerichts, by their continual executions,
had created a veritable " Red Terror " so that the East of Germany was known as the Red Land. In
1371, says Lecouteulx de Canteleu, a fresh impetus was given to the " Holy Vehm " by a number of the
Knights Templar who, on the dissolution of their Order had found their way to Germany and now sought admission
to the Secret Tribunals.(56) How much of Templar lore passed into the hand of the Vehmgerichts it
is impossible to know, but there is certainly a resemblance between the methods of initiation and intimidation
employed by the Vehms and those described by certain of the Templars, still more between the ceremony
of the Vehms and the ritual of Freemasonry.
Thus the members of the Vehms, known as the Wissende (or Enlightened), were divided into three degrees
of initiation: the Free Judges, the veritable Free Judges, and the Holy Judges of the Secret Tribunal.
The candidate for initiation was led blindfold before the dread Tribunal, presided over by a Stuhlherr (or
master of the chair) or his substitute, a Freigraf, with a sword and branch of willow at his side. The initiate
was then bound by a terrible oath not to reveal the secrets of the " Holy Vehm," to warn no one of danger
threatening them by its decrees, to denounce anyone, whether father, mother brother, sister, friend, or relation,
if such a one had been condemned by the Tribunal. After this he was given the password and grip by
which the confederates recognized each other. In the event of his turning traitor or revealing the secrets confided
to him his eyes were bandaged, his hands tied behind his back and his tongue was torn out through the
back of his neck after which he was hanged by the feet till he was dead, with the solemn imprecation that his
body should be given as a prey to the birds of the air.
It is difficult to believe that the points of resemblance with modern masonic ritual (57) which may here
be discerned can be mere matter of coincidence, yet it would be equally unreasonable to trace the origins of
Freemasonry to the Vehmgerichts. Clearly both derived from a common source either the old pagan traditions
on which the early Vehms were founded or the system of the Templars. The latter seems the more
probable for two reasons: firstly, on account of the resemblance between the methods of the Vehmgerichts
and the Assassins, which would be explained if the Templars formed the connecting link; and secondly, the
fact that in contemporary documents the members of the Secret Tribunals were frequently referred to under
the name of Rose-Croix.(58) Now, since, as we have seen, the degree of the Rosy Cross is said to have been
brought to Europe by the Templars, this would account for the persistence of the name in the Vehmgerichts
as well as in the Rosicrucians of the seventeenth century, who are said to have continued the Templar tradition.
Thus Templarism and Rosicrucianism appear to have been always closely connected, a fact which is
not surprising since both derive from a common source-the traditions of the near East.
This brings us to an alternative theory concerning the channel through which Eastern doctrines, and particularly
Cabalism, found their way into Freemasonry. For it must be admitted that one obstacle to the complete
acceptance of the theory of the Templar succession exists, namely, that although the Judaic element
cannot be traced further back than the Crusades, neither can it with certainty be pronounced to have come
into existence during the three centuries that followed after. Indeed, before the publication of Anderson's "
Constitutions " in 1723 there is no definite evidence that the Solomonic legend had been incorporated into
the ritual of British Masonry. So although the possession of the legend by the conpagnonnages of the Middle
Ages would tend to prove its antiquity, there is always the possibility that it was introduced by some later
body of adepts than the Templars. According to the partisans of a further theory, these adepts were the
Rosicrucians.
Rosicrucian Origin
One of the earliest and most eminent precursors of Freemasonry is said to have been Francis Bacon. As
we have already seen, Bacon is recognized to have been a Rosicrucian and that the secret philosophical doctrine
he professes was closely akin to Freemasonry is clearly apparent in his New Atlantis. The reference, to
the, " Wise Men of the Society of Solomon's House " cannot be a mere coincidence. The choice of Atlantisthe
legendary island supposed to have been submerged by the Atlantic Ocean in the remote past-would suggest
that Bacon had some knowledge of a secret tradition descending from the earliest patriarchs of the hu-
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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