Eádmund commences his laws by stating that he had assembled a great _synod_ in London at Easter, at which the two archbishops, Oda and Wulfstan, were present, together with many bishops and persons of ecclesiastical as well as secular condition[522]. And having thus given the authority by which he acted, he proceeds to the details of his law, which he again declares to have been promulgated, after deliberation with the council of his witan, ecclesiastical and lay[523]. The council of Culinton, held under the same prince, commences thus: “This is the decree which Eádmund the king and his bishops, with his witan, established at Culinton, concerning the maintenance of peace, and taking the oaths of fidelity.” ----- Footnote 522: Thorpe, i. 244. Footnote 523: Ibid. i. 246. ----- Next comes Eádgár, whose law commences in these words: “This is the ordinance which Eádgár the king, with the counsel of his witan, ordained, to the praise of God, his own honour, and the benefit of all his people[524].” ----- Footnote 524: Ibid. i. 262; see also pp. 270, 272, 276. ----- In like manner, Æðelred informs us that his law was ordained, “for the better maintenance of the public peace, by himself and his witan at Woodstock, in the land of the Mercians, according to the laws of the Angles[525].” In precisely similar terms he speaks of new laws made by himself and his witan at Wantage[526]. In a collection of laws passed in 1008, under the same prince, we find the following preamble[527]: “This is the ordinance which the king of the English, with his witan, both clerical and lay, have chosen[528] and advised;” and every one of the first five paragraphs commences with the same solemn words, viz. “This is the ordinance of our lord, and of his witan,” etc. ----- Footnote 525: Ibid. i. 280. Footnote 526: Ibid. i. 292. Footnote 527: Ibid. i. 304. Footnote 528: The word _ceósan_, to elect or choose, is the technical expression in Teutonic legislation for ordinances which have been deliberated upon. ----- But far more strongly is this marked in the provisions of the council of Enham, under the same miserable prince. These are not only entitled, “ordinances of the witan[529],” but throughout, the king is never mentioned at all, and many of the chapters commence, “It is the ordinance of the witan,” etc. If it were not for one or two enactments referring to the safety of the royal person, and the dignity of the crown, we might be almost tempted to imagine that the great councillors of state had met, during Æðelred’s flight from England, and passed these laws upon their own authority, without the king. The laws of 1014 commence again with the words so often repeated in this chapter[530], and such also usher in the very elaborate collection which Cnut and his witan compiled at Winchester[531]. ----- Footnote 529: Thorpe, i. 314, 316, 318. Footnote 530: Ibid. i. 340, 342, 350. Footnote 531: Ibid. i. 358, 376. -----