264 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

jippcmiix acts of public administration. The preambles to allI. the laws of Etheibert , Ina, Alfred, Edward theElder , Athelstan , Edmond , Edgar , Ethelred ,and Edward the Confessor ; even those to thelaws of Canute, though a kind of conqueror,put this matter beyhnd controversy, and carryproofs every where of a limited and legal govern-ment. But who were. the constituent membersof this Wittenagemot has not been determinedwith certainty by antiquaries. It is agreed, thatthe bishops and abbots 1 , were an essential part;and it is also evident, from the tenor of thoseancient laws , that the Wittenagemot enactedstatutes which regulated the ecclesiastical as wellas civil government, and that those dangerousprinciples, by which the church is totally severedfrom the state, were hitherto unknown to theAnglo-Saxons ’. It also appears , that the aldermenor governors of counties , who, after the Danishtimes , were often called earls*, were admittedinto this council, and gave their consent to thepublic statutes. But besides the prelates andaldermen, there is also mention of the wites orwise-men, as a component part of the Wittenage-mot ; but who these were , is not so clearlyascertained by the laws or the history of that

3 Sometimes abbesses were admitted; at least, they oftensign the king’s charters or grants. Spellm. Gloss, in ver bofarliamentwn.

5 Wilkins, passim.

* See note sGJ at the end of the volume.