WIT 



W I T 



WITTEM, a citadel of France, in the department of 

 the Roer. It heretofore gave name to a lordfhip, wholly 

 furrounded by the duchy of Limburg ; 6 miles S.E. of 

 Aix-la-Chapelle. 



WITTEN, in Commerce, a money of account at Pernau 

 and Stettin, &c. At Pernau a current rix-doUar is reckoned 

 at 60 widens, or 75 copecks ; and an Albert's rix-doUar 

 is eftimated at 80 wittens, or 100 copecks ; a Pernau mark 

 is worth 3 wtttens ; a LettiHi mark = 2 wittens ; and 4 

 wittens = 5 copecks. At Stettin the rix-dollar was for- 

 merly divided into 36 (hillings current, 72 (hillings Sundifh, 

 or 144 wittens ; which monies of account are now nearly 

 difcontinued. 



WiTTEN, in Geography, a town of Gernnany, in the 

 county of Mark ; 7 miles S.E. of Bockum. 



WiTTEN See, a lake of the duchy of Bremen ; 10 miles 

 S.E. of Bremen. 



WITTENA-GemoTE, among our Saxon Jncejlors, a 

 term literally fignifying a council, or affembly of fages, or 

 wife men ; applied to the great council of the land, m later 

 days cz&eA parliament ; which fee. See alfo Gemote. 



In the Saxon times, this was the chief court of the king- 

 dom, where all matters, both civil and criminal, and thofe 

 relating to the revenue, were determined. In civil and 

 criminal matters, 5t was a court, in the iirft inftance only, 

 for fads arifing in the county where it fat ; but it heard 

 aad determined caufes from all other counties by way of 

 appeal. To this court were fummoned the earls of each 

 county, and the lords of each leet, as alfo the reprefentatives 

 of towns, who were chofen by their burgeffes. This was 

 the legidative and fupreme judicial aflembly of the Anglo- 

 Saxon nation. As higheft judicial court of the kingdom, 

 it refembled our prefent houfe of lords ; and in thofe 

 periods, when the peers of the realm reprefented terri- 

 torial property rather than hereditary dignities, the 

 comparifon between the Saxon wittena-gemote, and the 

 upper houfe of our modern parliament, might have been 

 more correftly made in their legiOative capacity. The 

 German ftates are recorded by Tacitus to have had national 

 councils, and the continental Saxons are alfo Hated to have 

 pofleffed them. When the Cyning was only the tempgrary 

 commander of the nation for the purpofes of war, whofe 

 funftion ceafed when peace returned, the wittena-gemote 

 muft have been the fupreme authority of the nation ; but 

 when the Cyning became an eftabh(hed and permanent dig- 

 nity, whofe privileges and power were perpetually increafing 

 till he attained the majeftic prerogatives and widely-diffufed 

 property which Athelilan and Edgar enjoyed, the wittena- 

 gemote then affumed a fecondary rank in the ftate. This 

 council was called by different names, and it was compofed 

 of perfons who were denominated witan from their prefumed 

 wifdom, and with reference to their rank and property 

 eadigan, (the wealthy,) optimates, principes, primates, 

 proceres, cucionatores angliae, &c. The gemotes of the 

 witan, without doubt, varied, as our parliaments vary, in 

 the number and quality of the perfons who from time to 

 time attended. Moll of thofe whofe names are fubfcribed 

 to councils or charters, and who appear to have been the 

 witan who conftituted the gemote, have fome titles after 

 their names ; but there are fome gemotes which have names 

 without any addition. It is not eafy to afcertain all the 

 qualifications which entitled perfons to a feat in the wittena- 

 gemote. There is, however, one curious paffagCj cited from 

 the Book of Ely, in Gale's Script, vol. i. p. 513, which 

 has been alleged by fome writers as afcertaining that a 

 certain amount of property was an indifpenfable requifite, 

 and that acquired property would anfwer this purpofe as 

 12 



well as hereditary property. The pofleflion ftated to be 

 neceflary to conftitute one of the proceres was forty 

 hides of land. The incident to which this paflage refers 

 occurred in the reign of Edward the Confefror. It 

 related to the brother of an abbot, who, though nobly 

 born, could not be reckoned among the nobility of the 

 kingdom, bccaufe he had not an ellatc of forty hides of 

 land ; and, therefore, he was refufed by a lady, whom he 

 fought in marriage, till his eftate was increafed to that 

 magnitude by grants of land from his brother. This pafiage 

 merely proves, that a certain portion, and that a very large 

 one, of landed property in dominio was a neceifary qualifica- 

 tion, under the Anglo-Saxon government, to admit any 

 perfon to the "rank and degree of . nobility." But no 

 argument, fays lord Littelton, can be juftly drawn from 

 hence, that, in order to be qualified for a place in the Saxon 

 great council, or wittena-gemote, it was requifite to be 

 lord of forty hides of land. Such a notion does not agree 

 with any accounts that are given us of that affembly in the 

 writings or records of thofe times. By a paffage in the 

 preface to Ina's laws, as trandated by ^\ ilkins, it appears, 

 that the Saxon legiflature was compofed of the king, cum 

 omnibus fuis fcnatorihus, which fenators Littelton fuppofes 

 to have been the " nobility of the kingdom," fnch as after- 

 wards formed the ordinary council of lords under our kings 

 of Norman race ; et cum feniorihus fapientilus popuU fui, by 

 whom he underftands the deputies or reprefentatives of the 

 people, either by ele(Sion or magiftracy ; et cum mulla etiam 

 fuietate minijlrorum Dei, which words evidently denote the 

 inferior clergy, mentioned by Eadmer as prefent in the 

 parliaments of thofe times. It appears alfo, by a paragraph 

 in Spelman's Councils Sub. Ann. 855, that the Saxon con- 

 ftitution required not only the " prefence," ( fee BoROUGll,) 

 but the " approbation of the people," to the cnafting of a 

 law ; though, by way of marking the diftinftion between 

 thefe and the higher orders of the ftate, the nobility alone 

 fet their hands to the aft. " Whoever," fays fir John For- 

 tefcue Aland, who was very learned in the Saxon language 

 and legal antiquities, in his preface to the book of chancellor 

 Fortefcue on the difference between an abfolute and limited 

 monarchy, " carefully and flcilfully reads the Saxon laws, 

 and the prefaces or preambles to them, will find, that the 

 commons of England always in the Saxon times made part 

 of that auguft affembly." In a pafiage occurring in lib. iii. 

 f. '^(s. of William of Malmfbury, we have an exprefs decla- 

 ration, that by the Saxon conftitution eftabliflied in England, 

 the " people," as well as the nobles, had a right to be 

 called to the " General Affembly" upon affairs of great 

 moment, and to join in. the " edifts" made there; fo that, 

 without " their confent," the fucceflion to the crown 

 could not be fettled. The term Senatus ufed by this 

 hiltorian denotes the ordinary affembly of the nobles, which 

 he diftinguiffies from the •' people ;" but he fuppofes that 

 the latter ought to be joined to the former, in order to 

 compofe the entire legiflature and great council of the nation, 

 upon extraordinary occafions. This was agreeable to the 

 cuftom afcribed by Tacitus to the Germans, from whom 

 they fprung ; " De minoribus rebus principes confultant, 

 de majoribus omnes ; ita tamen, ut ea quoque, quorum apud 

 plebum arbitrium eft, apud principes pertraftantur." See 

 Borough. 



It has been, among conftitutional antiquarians, an intereft- 

 ing queftion, whether they who poffeffed this quantity of land 

 had thereby the right of being in the wittena-gemote ; or 

 whether the members of this great council were elefted 

 from the territorial proprietors, and fat as their reprefenta- 

 tives \ One perfon is mentioned by Mr. Turner (ubi infra), 



whofe 



