TITULUS VII.
OF THE BEER-CONVENTIONS.
(a) OF THE SPECIAL.
§ 63. The Beer-convention is that competent Board which is called by a beer-honourable Beer-bursch, in order to decide upon a fact before it, of a nature to be punished by a beer-penalty, or on other beer-business. It consists of three Beer-honourable beer-burschen.
64. A Fox may not sit in a Beer-convention; if he dares to do that, he is to be be-thundered in a viertel. He falls under the same penalty if he calls a Beer-convention.
65. So soon as a Beer-convention is called, the functionaries and all parties concerned must neither touche, foreswear, nor fore nor after drink so long as the business lasts. As little may this be done by another person towards them. Whoever violates this rule is regarded as a disturber of the convention.
66. The Beer-convention being called, is conducted as follows. The beer-judge summons the accused; the accuser then lays the case before the court, which he confirms on his cerevis, which the convention demands from him, and makes his petition. Hereupon he names his witness, who is questioned on the alleged fact, and his cerevis also taken upon it.
67. The accused is now required to bring forward his defence; whereupon the convention also demands his cerevis, and his witness is heard, also on his cerevis.
68. Accuser and accused, as well as every one of the judges, have the right to demand that the witnesses of both parties state the facts upon which they give their cerevis, fully.
69. When the two parties, with their witnesses, have been heard in this manner, the beer-judge demands whether either party has yet any thing further to advance. If this is not the case, the minutes are closed, and the judge immediately pronounces his judgment.
70. The beer-judges give their judgments in the same order of succession in which they were called to be judges by the accuser. The last-voting judge must, on a penalty of a viertel, within five minutes after the closing of the minutes, write on the beer-table the name of the be-thundered, or appellant.
71. The agreeing judgments of two beer-judges constitute a sentence, with the exception of the cases in §§ 81 and 84.
72. No beer-judge is allowed to state publicly the grounds of his judgment, when he gives that judgment.
73. No beer-judge may give his vote before the examination is concluded, and the minutes closed. If he fails in this respect, either of the parties can expel him from the Beer-convent. In this case, the accuser has to call another judge. The same is the case when a beer-judge closes the minutes before the examination is complete. If the case is disputable, the party who has the right to expel, may call an umpire, who shall decide.
74. If the Beer-convention has cited the accused, and he omits to appear and make his defence, he is, on that account, held to be convicted.
75. No one can refuse to be a beer-judge because he would act as witness to the accused; but the accused can object to a judge, in case he takes the office, being received as his witness, but this, at the latest, must be done before the examination of the witness of the accuser had been heard, upon which the accuser must choose another judge.
76. The accuser must put in his petition before his witness is heard. A petition once put in, cannot be changed. If the accuser puts in a false one, or none at all, the case will be decided in favour of the accused.
77. Every accusation must be confirmed by the witness or the beer-tablet. If this is not the case, the accusation is nullified, and the accuser is nonsuited.
78. If the assertions of both parties are positive, the judge must decide in favour of the accused.
79. An assertion is negatived when it totally contradicts the fact of the opponent without supplying another fact, which supersedes the first fact.
80. Every beer-honourable student, be he Fox or Beer-bursch, can appear as witness before a Beer-convention.
81. A witness becomes amenable to punishment by giving false evidence on his cerevis. Whether he has given a false cerevis remains for the Beer-convent to decide, before which he has appeared as witness, which, without further proceeding, can immediately be-thunder him as beer-banned, and mulct in a viertel; but this requires that all the Beer-judges shall be unanimous.
82. Each party may only call three witnesses in succession. If none of these speak out satisfactorily, it is to be held that he has no witness. For the rest, neither party can present more than one sufficient witness in support of its assertion.
83. Such witnesses as were not present at the fact on which the Beer-convention has to decide, are held as false witnesses.
84. Intruding witnesses; that is, such as without being called by name as witnesses by the parties, offer themselves as witnesses, shall not be accepted, and are to be punished with the beer-bann. The judges must, however, be unanimous on this head.
85. A beer-judge having once given his vote cannot recall it.
86. No beer-judge can, during the proceedings, speak to any of the parties concerned, out of the regular course of inquiry. He who does this is punishable with a viertel.
87. In no case is any one allowed to disturb the proceedings. He who does this for a fourth time, having thrice been ordered to be quiet, is to be be-thundered by the same Beer-convention to the Beer-bann, and penalty of a viertel without further delay. The beer-judges must, however, be unanimous.
88. When a punishable fact is not laid before a Beer-convention within three days, it cannot be laid at all, unless the actual absence of accuser or accused creates sufficient hindrance. But a cerevis given for a future day, or which requires time to prove whether it may not be false, forms an exception. Farther, a cerevis given for a future day is not nullified by a Beer-bann falling between that time and the time for which it is given.
89. A Beer-convention may only be postponed three days, and only then when the witness of the accused is absent.
90. If one is accused on account of a quantity not drunken at the right time, or not drunken at all, the said quantity is to be added to the penalty in his be-thundering.
91. If a quantity has been fore-drunken to the be-thundered, before the commencement of the Beer-convention, which he has not after-drunken, then must they who have fore-drunken this quantity on his be-thundering show this same quantity to the Beer-convention, corroborating their assertion with their cerevis and a witness, whereupon also this must be added to his Beer-penalty.
92. The same is the case when he has contracted a beer-scandal with any one before the Beer-convent sate, and has not fought it out: but the latter party with whom he has made this contract, must drink the prescribed quantity before the Beer-convent.
93. Not more than one Beer-convent can be called over one and the same person on account of the same fact, except if a Beer-convention is postponed; or a Beer-convention being called, is rendered null by a Fox, or one under Beer-bann having been called upon it, and in it having sat.
94. A Fox may neither for himself nor for another call a Beer-convent, but he must procure this to be done through a beer-honourable Beer-bursch. The last can, however, call himself as one, in case other beer-honourable Beer-burschen are wanting for the Beer-convention.
95. Only one Beer-convention may be called at the same time in the same kneip.
(b) OF THE GENERAL BEER-CONVENTION.
96. The general Beer-convention, which must consist at least of five Chore Burschen, is the highest and last Court of Appeal; and therefore its decision is final and unalterable.
97. Every Saturday evening, at an hour fixed in the beginning of each course, is the General Beer-convention held, to which every Verbindung then existing in Heidelberg, must send a Chore-bursch, who must, however, be a beer-honourable Beer-bursch. Should less than five Chores exist, the S. C. must take care that still five beer-judges must sit in the General Beer-convention.
98. These judges must assemble themselves, at the appointed hour, at the kneip of the Secretary, under the penalty of a quarter-crown for coming late, and of a half-crown for not coming at all. A beer-judge comes late when he is not present on the striking of the fixed hour.
99. In case that, at the fixed hour, the Beer-judges of all the Verbindungs are not present, five beer-judges are sufficient to open the court and proceed to business.
100. When the required number of beer-judges are present, the Beer-convent must be opened with the stroke of the appointed hour. If they find no appellant, they must wait half-an-hour. If no one appears at the expiration of this time, the judges are authorized to withdraw.
101. If, after the expiration of this half-hour, five judges agree to wait longer, they can still represent the General Beer-convention; but the General Convention must be closed at the end of an hour, unless instantly occurring and pressing business make that impossible.
102. It is free to the accuser as to the accused to appeal to the General Beer-convention, against a sentence of the Special Convention; but this must be done within five minutes after the declaration of the sentence, and the judges concerned must be cited at the same time. The appeal must come on at the General Beer-convention, at the fixed place, the next Saturday evening.
103. If the appellant exceeds this time, without being able to show the impossibility of then proceeding with the business on which the Beer-convention has to decide, he loses the right to appeal, and moreover, must pay a viertel. If on the contrary, one cited to appear before the General Beer-convention is prevented, he can, though a proxy, bring forward his excuse; upon the acceptance of which the General Beer-convention is to decide. If it finds the excuse satisfactory, the business stands over to the next General Beer-convention.
104. An appeal to the General Beer-convention can indeed be revoked, but this must be done within five minutes after declaring an intention to appeal, and, in fact, before a Beer-convention called for the purpose. If it he revoked later, the revoker must pay a viertel.
105. He is excluded from the right to appeal to a General Beer-convent who has been declared to be a false or intruding witness by a special Beer-convention, and is, on that account, be-thundered; and so is he also who has more than three times disturbed the proceedings of the Special Beer-convention.
106. The proceedings of the General Beer-convention in matters laid before it, is the same as that of the Special Beer-conventions, with the following exceptions. If the parties cited before the General Beer-convention do not appear, nor appoint proxies, they may, after the accuser has made his complaint, and corroborated it by witnesses, be punished for contempt of court.
(1) Moreover, any one who has to appear before the General Beer-convention, must present himself before the table with uncovered head.
(2) No beer-judge of the General Beer-convention is bound to take a beer-challenge from any one while he sits in the General Beer-convention.
(3) The General has the right to punish with the punishment, for the disturbance of Beer-conventions, prescribed by the Comment, any one who, during one and the same proceeding, shall have broken the silence enjoined four times; and he who more than four times shall have broken the same, shall, moreover, be reported to the S. C. and by it be fined a half-crown.
107. The majority of voices decides here, as in the Special Beer-conventions. Is the number of the represented Chores equal, the representative of the Chore to which the secretary belongs gives the casting vote.
108. No appellant can lay his complaint before the General, till he has set before it a viertel; but, in case he carries his charge through, he has the right to name one of the condemned to the General, who shall reimburse him this viertel.
Should the accused be be-thundered, so go they every one into Beer-banishment, and have two viertels to set forth; but that viertel which has been reimbursed by one of them to the accuser is reckoned off.
If the appellant is cast, he is equally condemned to two viertels. But as he has already set one viertel before the General, he is only written down on the beer-tablet one viertel. If he was the accuser before the Special Beer-convention, the General has to give its commission, to wipe him out from the beer-tablet, and to write him down as chargeable with a viertel under its order. If he was the accused, so must he, according to the commission of the General, be wiped out of the beer-tablet with the B. A., and with the prescribed penalty of the Special Beer-convention, together with the new viertel, be written down on the beer-tablet, under the order of the General.
The appointed penalties are written down in the Special Chore-kneip.
109. During the vacation, the number of five beer-honourable Beer-burschen are authorized to represent a General Beer-convention, without respect to Verbindungs. Such a General Beer-convention in the vacation, must be called within eight days, or, otherwise, if no sufficient grounds of excuse are brought forward, the sentence of the Special Convention remains in full force; the appellant is be-thundered, and the right to further appeal is lost.