The largest amount of signatures which I have yet observed is 106, but numbers varying from 90 to 100 are not uncommon, especially after the consolidation of the monarchy[492]. In earlier times, and smaller kingdoms, the numbers must have been much less: the gemót which decided upon the reception of Christianity in Northumberland was held in a room[493], and Dunstan met the witan of England in the upper floor of a house at Calne[494]. Other meetings, which were rather in the nature of conventions, and were held in the presence of armies, may have been much more numerous and tumultuary,—much more like the ancient armed folkmoot or the famous day which put an end to the Merwingian dynasty among the Franks[495]. ----- Footnote 492: See Cod. Dipl. Nos. 353, 364, 1107. There is one document signed by 121 persons (Cod. Dipl. Nos. 219, 220), but I have some doubt whether all the signitaries were members of the gemót. Footnote 493: Beda, H. E. ii. 13. Footnote 494: Chron. Sax. an. 978. Footnote 495: Such perhaps was the gemót which after Eádmund írensída’s death elected Cnut sole king of England, or that in which Earl Godwine and his family were outlawed. ----- That the members of the witena gemót were not elected, in any sense which we now attach to the word, I hold to be indisputable: elective witan ceased together with elective scírgeréfan or ealdormen[496]. But in a system so elastic as the Saxon, it is conceivable that an ealdorman, bishop or other great wita may have occasionally carried with him to the gemót some friend or dependent whose wisdom he thought might aid in the discussions, or whom the opinion of the neighbourhood designated as a person well calculated to advise for the general good,—a slight trace, but still a trace, of the ancient popular right to be present at the settlement of public business. To this I attribute the frequent appearance of priests and deacons, who probably attended in the suite of prelates, and would be useful assessors when clerical business was brought before the council. Generally, I imagine, the witan after having once been called by writ or summons, met like our own peers, as a matter of course, whenever a parliament was proclaimed; and that they were summoned by the king, either _pro hac vice_, or generally, can be clearly shown. Æðelstán, speaking of the gemóts at Greatanleá, Exeter, Feversham and Thundersfield, says that the consultations were made, before the archbishop, the bishops, and the witan present, _whom the king himself had named_: “Swá Æðelstán cyng hit gerǽed hæfð, ⁊ his witan, ǽrest æt Greátanleá, ⁊ eft æt Exanceastre, ⁊ syððám æt Fæfreshám, ⁊ feorðan síðe æt Ðunresfelda, beforan ðám arcebiscope, ⁊ eallum ðám bisceopan, ⁊ his witum, ðe se cyng silf namode, ðe ðǽron wǽron[497].” How these appointments took place is not very material, but as the witan were collected from various parts of England, it is not unreasonable to