attest its acts. Again, where the gemót acted as a high court of justice, which often was the case, a lady who had been party to a cause might naturally be called upon to sign the record of the judgment. The instances however in which the signatures of women occur are very rare. Although the members of the gemót are called in Saxon generally by the name of _witan_[487], they are decorated with very various titles in the Latin documents. Among these the most common are Maiores natu, Sapientes, Principes, Senatores, Primates, Optimates, Magnates, and in three or four charters they are designated Procuratores patriae[488], which last title however seems confined to the thanes, geréfan or other members below the rank of an ealdorman. In the prologue to the laws of Wihtrǽd they are called ða eádigan, for which I know no better translation than the Spanish _Ricos hombres_, where the wealth of the parties is certainly not the leading idea. But whatever be their titles they are unquestionably looked upon as representing the whole body of the people, and consequently the national will: and indeed in one charter of Æðelstán, an. 931, the act is said to have been confirmed “tota plebis generalitate ovante,” with the approbation of all the people[489]; and the act of a similar meeting at Winchester in 934, which was attended by the king, four Welsh princes, two archbishops, seventeen bishops, four abbots, twelve dukes, and fifty-two thanes, making a total of ninety-two persons, is described to have been executed “tota populi generalitate[490].” On one occasion a gemót is mentioned of which the members are called the king’s heáhwitan, or high councillors[491]: it is impossible to say whether this is intended to mark a difference in their rank. If it were, it might be referred to the analogy of the autumnal meetings in Charlemagne’s constitution, but nothing has yet been met with to confirm this hypothesis, which, in itself, is not very probable. ----- Footnote 487: I write _wita_ not _wíta_. The vowel is short, and the noun is formed either upon the plural participle of _wítan_ to know, or upon a noun _wit_, _intellectus_, previously so formed. The quantity of the vowel is ascertained by the not uncommon spelling weota, where eo = ĭ (see Cod. Dipl. No. 1073), and the occurrence in composition of the form _uta_, which is consonant to the analogy of wudu, wuduwe, wuce for wĭdu, wĭduwe, wĭce, but excludes the possibility of a long í. Footnote 488: Cod. Dipl. Nos. 361, 1102, 1105, 1107, 1108. Footnote 489: Cod. Dipl. No. 1103. Footnote 490: Cod. Dipl. No. 364. Footnote 491: Chron. Sax. an. 1009. -----