Note 586 — Chapter VI · THE WITENA GEMÓT.

There is evidence of their doing this on a somewhat less solemn occasion, though perhaps it was a shiremoot. Æðelstán, a duke, booked land to Abingdon, by witness of bishop Cynsige, archbishop Wulfhelm, Hroðweard, and other prelates. The boundaries were solemnly led, and then the assembled bishops and abbots excommunicated any one who should dispossess the monastery: and all the people that stood round about cried “So be it! So be it!” “And cwæð ealle ðæt folc ðe ðǽr embstód, Sý hit swá. Amen. Amen.” “Et dixit onmis populus qui ibi aderat, Fiat, Fiat. Amen.” Cod. Dipl. No. 1129.