"15:7 · Rudolph Koch (see the bibliography) writes that this is the sign of the Vehmic Courts. These, Vehmgerichte or Femgerichte from old German fem, meaning sentence or punishment, were tribunals, at times working more or less secretly.
The power struggles between the Popes and the emperors of the Roman Empire of the German Nation made these courts important law enforcing institutions, especially during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They had the right, given them by the emperor, to judge in the case of crimes with capital punishment." http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/15/157.html