The canons forbade the bishops to meddle in cases of blood.
Amongst the ancient Gauls and Germans the Druid could alone condemn to death; so that on the introduction of Christianity there was none who could, in ordinary course, sentence a man to capital punishment: necessity alone forced it in a few cases.
Concerning the right of appointing the Alderman of the Shire there is some uncertainty.

That he was anciently elected by his county is indisputable; that an alderman of the shire was appointed by the crown seems equally clear from the writings of King Alfred.

A conjecture of Spelman throws some light upon this affair.

He conceives that there were two aldermen with concurrent jurisdiction, one of whom was elected by the people, the other appointed by the king.

This is very probable, and very correspondent to the nature of the Saxon Constitution, which was a species of democracy poised and held together by a degree of monarchical power.