Perrow—The Last Will and Testament in Literature. 687 
mon by virtue of a ring given him of the Archangel Michael 
brought this demon, together with others, into his power and 
made them assist in the work of building the temple. The tale 
looks like a waif from the Arabic fold of demon-story. 
In The Testament of Christ Jhesu, in Guillaume De Guille- 
ville’s Pelerinage de la Vie Humaine (1330) the autobiograph¬ 
ical element is again apparent. In this Jesus names himself 
as “Ihesu, sone of Marye,” and declares himself the Truth, the 
Life, and the Wav. 1 
So again in the English poem, the Testamentum Christi, pre¬ 
served in the Vernon Manuscript, a document of the first part 
of the fourteenth century, Jesus tells how men were driven 
from Paradise, how he came to give them back their heritage, 
how he suffered on the cross, harried hell, and returned to 
heaven, leaving man in the possession of his rightful property. 2 
Thomas TTsk’s Testament of Love (1387) also contains auto- 
bigraphical elements. 3 
§2 Closely allied to the idea of telling who one is and w T hat 
worthy deeds one has done is that of stating what is one’s relig¬ 
ious creed and of confessing how far short one has come of ful¬ 
filling the obligations of such a creed. Nothing could be more 
natural than the impulse at the hour of death to confess one’s 
misdeeds, and often a worthy effort is made to right the wrongs 
for which the testator feels himself responsible. Such a re¬ 
pentance could easily lead to a statement of a standard of con¬ 
duct thought to be ideal and a profession of faith in a Mercy 
that would forgive its violation. 4 '< 
Still less are we surprised to find the confession as one of the 
elements of the Will when we take into account that during the 
Middle x\ges the representative of the church which heard the 
1 Translated by Lydgate in 1426, ed. Loeock (E. E. T. S.), London, 
1904, lines 4773 ff. 
2 Ed. Furnivale (E. E. T. S.) 1901, No. LIV. 
s Skeat, Chaucerian and other Pieces, Oxford. For other testaments 
containing autobiography see pages 468, 469, 472, 485, 486, 489. 
4 W. B. Jensen, attorney-at-law in Boston, Mass., told me recently of 
a case which came into his hands which serves to illustrate the .preva¬ 
lence of the impulse to put religious matter into a will. The testator 
wanted to put into his will a statement of his faith, and Mr. Jensen 
Incorporated therein several things such as the Apostles’ Creed. 
