Ibid. No. 929. Footnote 412: Ibid. Nos. 847, 854. Footnote 413: Cod. Dipl. No. 1288. This is contrary to the provision of archbishop Ecgberht’s Poenitential, iii. § 8: he says that a priest or deacon ought not to be a geréfa, or a wícnere, or to have any concern with secular business. “Nis nánum mæsse-preóste álýfed ne diacone, æt hí geréfan beón né wícneras, né ymbe náne worldbysgunga ábysgode beón, búton mid ðǽre ðe hig tó getitolode beóð.” Thorpe, ii. 198. Perhaps however Ecgberht’s rule was construed to mean private, not public, geréfan, when in process of time it might become useful to have the assistance of priests learned in the law, as judges; especially as in the tenth century the importance of missionary labours was less strongly felt than in the eighth. Footnote 414: Cod. Dipl. No. 1258. Footnote 415: Ibid. No. 1319. Footnote 416: Ibid. No. 858. Footnote 417: Ibid. No. 855. Footnote 418: Ibid. No. 843. Footnote 419: Ibid. No. 785. Footnote 420: Ibid. Nos. 853, 875, 880, 881, 883, 908, 911. Footnote 421: Ibid. Nos. 806, 808. Footnote 422: Ibid. Nos. 863, 904. Footnote 423: Ibid. Nos. 834, 835, 836, 838. Footnote 424: Ibid. No. 821. Footnote 425: Ibid. Nos. 837, 839, 917, 926, 976. Footnote 426: Ibid. Nos. 832, 842. Footnote 427: Ibid. Nos. 874, 905. Footnote 428: Ibid. No. 493. Footnote 429: Ibid. No. 328. Footnote 430: Ibid. Nos. 757, 898, 923. ----- It is possible that increased research may extend this list of sheriffs, and much to be regretted that our information is so scanty as it is. We have no means of deciding whether the office was an annual one, or how its duration was limited. The Kentish list shows that the clergy were neither exempt nor excluded from its toils or advantages: and the position of Wulfsige the priest and sheriff recalls to us the earlier times when priest and judge may have been synonymous terms among the nations of the north[431]. I now proceed to a third class, the ----- Footnote 431: “Si iudex vel sacerdos reperti fuerint nequiter iudicasse,” etc. Leg. Visigoth, ii. c. l. § 33. -----