The village court lords were in their function not endowed with plentiful power like miniature dictators, but rather were themselves subject to the local legal norms, and even had to face legal consequences for any wrongdoing on their part, too. The 1506 "Fürfelder Weistum" (cognate with English "wisdom", this was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times) cleary bears witness to a certain tense relationship between the court lord and the legal community. The court lords at the time were: In the 1519 "Sendweistum", the office of "Heimburge" is mentioned, and that warrants special attention. The office of "Heimburge", who was no lordly official, but rather a representative of the community, shows that the village constitution in Fürfeld exhibited strong collective traits. The municipality under a "Heimburge" was called a "Heimgerede". It is surely not superfluous to refer to such early forms of political organization not exercised by the nobility, because a common preconception has it that Germans only ever learnt democracy by French Revolutionary or, even later, Anglo-Saxon coaching. In April 1521 came the famous confrontation between Martin Luther and Emperor Charles V. In Fürfeld, the proceedings drew much attention, for a Fürfeld villager was known to be Luther's supporter and penfriend. The family von Cronberg, whose castle seat lies north of Frankfurt at the edge of the Taunus, cropped up in Fürfeld not, as was formerly believed, in 1553. much less as late as 1571, but rather as early as 1521. In this year, a man named "Hartmann von Cronberg" acquired the properties of Wiegand von Dienheim. Because in bygone ages the names Hartmann and Hartmut were used haphazardly and interchangeably throughout records, and because in 1521, no other member of the family von Cronberg of a suitable age was living, it seems conclusive that this reference to the buyer meant none other than Hartmut XII (1488-1549), the "follower and fighter of the Lutheran Reformation". For the assumption that Hartmut von Cronberg, Luther's penfriend and reform-minded publicist, subscribed in Fürfeld to the schism then taking place, there is no proof. There is speculation to this effect, but in the 16th century, the church patronage rights were never in the Cronbergs’ hands.