Frrcauson—On a Passage in the “ Confessio Patricii.” 5) 
seems to point to its proper interpretation here. Ennodius, who was 
consecrated bishop of Pavia, a. p. 510, has this passage in his life of 
Hpiphanius, his predecessor in the See :—‘‘ Ninguido aére, et quali 
solent homines ad tecta confugere, Ravennam egressus est, et per 
omnes Aimilie civitates celer venit, tanquam ad sepulchri receptacu- 
lum properans, omnibus sacerdotibus in itinere positis munificus, com- 
munis, affabilis, et quasi exagellam relinquens se ipso preestantior.”— 
(Ennod. ‘‘ Vita Epiphanii,” p. 413.) 
That is:—‘‘ In snowy weather, such as wherein men rather seek 
the shelter of their houses, he left Ravenna, and rapidly visited the 
several cities of the Aimilian province, as if hastening to the resting- 
place of the tomb, to all the clergy located in his way munificent, 
free, affable, and, excelling himself, leaving them, as it were [his] 
‘exagegella.’”’ 
Here we observe that the ‘“‘ exagalliz ” of the Book of Armagh and 
the “ exagelle ” of Ennodius are equally applied to something to be left 
after death; and looking to the meaning of ‘‘ exagelle,” as we find 
it in Du Cange, “trutina, seu potius quota pars que unicuique 
heeredum ex successione obvenit ; legitima pars heeredis cum aliis ve- 
luti ad exagium exeequata,” find a remarkable concurrence of reasons 
for adopting its secondary sense of ‘‘a legacy, or distributive share of 
one’s goods after death,” as the meaning to be ascribed to it in the 
‘‘ Life of Epiphanius,” and to its kindred vocable “‘ exagalliz ” in the 
“* Confessio”’ of Patrick. 
Du Cange cites another example of the word in the expression, to 
enjoy property or to leave it ‘‘ titulo exagillario,” where he suggests 
‘‘Jegendum exagellario.”” Perhaps, if he had had before him this pas- 
sage of the ‘‘ Book of Armagh,” he would have written ‘‘ exagallario,” 
in analogy to the ‘‘ exgalatio,’’ which he also cites in the meaning of 
“ owelty”’ or equality of partition amongst co-heirs (Du C. ad verb.) 
I do not enter on the question whether the ‘‘exagella” of Enno- 
dius and the ‘‘exgalatio” just referred to be derived from éfayor, a 
balance, or from the same root which has given us the Latin ‘‘ eequalis,” 
and the French ‘‘ égal”; but I fancy enough has been shown to justify 
the conclusion that the ‘‘ exgalliz” of the Bodleian copy, and the 
““exagallie ”’ of the Book of Armagh, are in effect the same word, 
and in both cases signify legacy, bequest, inheritance. 
The passage, then, would read, ‘“‘so as also after my death, to 
leave as a legacy to my brethren and sons whom I have baptized in 
the Lord, these so many thousands of men”; recalling the Scripture 
which, having regard to what had already been said of his having 
been sent ‘‘etiam usque ad ultimum terre,” I think I may now say 
was probably in the mind of the writer :—‘‘ Ask of me, and I shall 
give thee the Heathen for an inheritance, and the uttermost ends of 
the earth for a possession.” 
