“Then I, Ælfred the king, gathered these together, and commanded many of those which our forefathers held, and which seemed good to me, to be written down; and many which did not seem good to me, I rejected by the counsel of my witan, and commanded them in other wise to be holden; but much of my own I did not venture to set down in writing, for I knew not how much of it might please our successors. But what I met with, either of the time of Ini my kinsman, or of Offa, king of the Mercians, or Æðelberht who first of the English race received baptism, the best I have here collected, and the rest rejected. I then, Ælfred king of the Westsaxons, showed these to all my witan, and they then said, that it liked them well so to hold them.” The laws of Eádweard like those of Hloðhere and Eádríc have no proem: next in order of time are those of Æðelstán. The council of Greatley opens with an ordinance which the king says was framed by the advice of Wulfhelm, archbishop of Canterbury and his other bishops: no other witan are mentioned. Now it is remarkable enough that this ordinance refers exclusively to tithes, and other ecclesiastical dues, and works of charity. But the secular ordinances which follow conclude with these words: “All this was established in the great synod at Greátanleá; in which was archbishop Wulfhelm, with all the noblemen and witan whom Æðelstán the king [commanded to] gather together[518].” ----- Footnote 518: Thorpe, i. 214. ----- The witan at Exeter, under the same king, are much more explicit as to their powers: in the preamble to their laws, they say: “These are the dooms which the witan at Exeter decreed, with the counsel of Æðelstán the king, and again at Feversham, and a third time at Thundersfield, where the whole was settled and confirmed together[519].” ----- Footnote 519: Ibid. i. 207. ----- The concurrence of these witan is continually appealed to in the Saxon laws which follow[520], and which are supplementary to the three gemóts mentioned. But in a chapter (§ 7) concerning ordeals, the regulation is said to be by command of God, the archbishop and all the bishops, and the other witan are not mentioned; probably because the administration of the ordeal was a special, ecclesiastical function. Again in the Judicia Civitatis Londoniae the joint legislative authority of the king and the witan is repeatedly alluded to[521]. ----- Footnote 520: Æðelst. iv. Thorpe, i. 220, 224. Footnote 521: Æðelst. v. § 10, 11, 12. Thorpe, i. 238, 240. -----