PROCEEDINGS 
OF 
THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 
POLITE LITERATURE AND ANTIQUITIES. 
PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ACADEMY. 
1.—Own a Passage in THE “ Conressio Parrici.” By Sm Samvuen 
Fereuson, LL. D., Q. C. 
[Read April 28, 1879]. 
HE copy of the ‘‘Confessio”’ in the ‘‘ Book of Armagh” purports 
to have been transcribed from an older book written by Saint 
Patrick with his own hand, and is justly regarded as the most authen- 
tic text of that document. In two places the scribe intimates by mar- 
ginal notes that the original is uncertain. The second of these occurs 
at fol. 23 r. col. 1, lines 18, 19, where the difficulty appears to be 
caused by a word or words not understood by the transcriber, and 
which he presents as terminating one line and commencing another, 
thus :— 
There is nothing to show whether the ‘‘ ex” is a separate particle 
or whether it is not one of the components of a single word to be read 
as ‘‘exagallias.’” The Bodleian text (Fell. 1), which is next in 
authority to the “‘ Book of Armagh,” omits the ‘‘a,” and presents the 
vocable as one word, ‘‘exgallias.”” Fell. 3 (also in the Bodleian) has it 
in two words, ‘‘ex gallicis.”” These resemblances of sound, which, 
if Gaul were really indicated, would contribute some support to one 
of the theories of St. Patrick’s birth-place, have led to much canvass- 
ing of the meaning. The general disposition has been to take the 
words as two, and to accept the expression as haying Gaul and some 
relation of the writer or of his brethren with that country, in view. 
SER, II-, VOL. IZ., POL. LIT. AND ANTIQ. B 
