Last Will and Testament

O most high and sovereign Creator of heaven and earth, not one of Your countless creatures can resist Your will. Without it neither men nor birds nor brutish beasts could live upon the earth. Unless Your desire and will sustained them and ordered the elements [of the world], the heavens would become confused; their natural orbits would vanish; the whole earth would shake; the peaks of the lofty hills would tumble; the waters of the sea would cover the land and no living thing would have a chance of surviving.

But by Your infinite goodness and mercy You give order and sustenance to all, not that this is necessary for You, but for the sake of the common good and benefit of men.

And since You employ such kindness and boundless mercy with them, I, the poorest and most wretched among them all, ask and beg of You not to abandon me in the perilous entry into death, where I have elected to go for the sake of Your most holy name and true Law. Accept as a sacrifice this poor life which You have given me. Look not at my countless sins, but rather at Your lovingkindness and upon my immortal soul which You have created in Your own likeness for life eternal. I beg You to pardon it and receive it when it has left my mortal frame.

Wherefore, having prepared my last and final will and testament and given it its final form, I write and affix my signature to the religious truths in which I believe and in which I profess to die in Your presence. [ . . . ]

Furthermore, I confess and declare that if I gave my consent for theologians and [religious] pundits [to come to talk to me] on two occasions, it was not because I ever doubted these sovereign and certain truths. Indeed, I trust them more than I do my own human existence. I did it merely to be able to acknowledge them more fully, as is confirmed by the last chapter of [the Book of] Tobit: [Tobit XIII:3], “Acknowledge the Lord, O children of Israel, and praise Him before the nations, because He has scattered you among them for this purpose, that you might tell strangers of His wonders and inform them that besides Him there is no (other) god omnipotent and true,” etc. [I also did it] to see if I could convert them and even the chief Inquisitors themselves because they showed a sincere desire for my salvation, although Holy Scripture, in Second Maccabees, states that any mercy which is contrary to the Law of the Lord our God is not good.¹

By God’s most exalted name, I again swear that I will live and die in this faith. May God favor me that I may imitate the holy zeal of Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael,² and Mattathiah,³ and joyously give up my soul for the faith of the holy covenant in which they died. [As the Book of Deuteronomy says:] Et si omnes obediant [“And if all obey . . . (the Lord will make you abundant in all the work of your hand).⁴ And these holy truths are so evident that, as our Lord God said in His own words in the song which He taught Moses, Audite caeli (“Give ear, you heavens”), His very enemies acknowledge it and are unable to deny it: [Deuteronomy XXXII:31]: Non enim est Deus noster ut dii eorum; et inimici nostri sunt iudices [“For our God is not like their gods, even when our enemies are judging”].

And thus it is my desire and will to die for God’s holy faith and true Law. I look to the Lord for strength, lacking all confidence in my own, for after all I am flesh born of fragile seed. And if instead of five sisters—in addition to my mother—who are now in danger because of their trust in God’s Law, I had a thousand, I would give them all up for my faith in each one of God’s holy commandments.

In witness whereof I have written and signed this testament of mine, and with this final deposition, in which I [re]affirm and [re]confirm my faith, I [hereby] conclude the process of my trial.

My God and Lord, give me grace in the eyes of my captors that it may be seen and known in this kingdom and in all kingdoms of the earth that You are our God and that You, O most high and sanctified God, named Adonay, are correctly invoked by Israel and his descendants.

I commend this soul which You have given me to Your most holy hands, solemnly declaring that I will not change my faith until I die, nor when I die. I happily bring to an end the course of my present life, bearing a living faith in Your divine promise of salvation through Your infinite mercy, and when Your holy will is fulfilled, of resurrection in the company of our saintly patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their faithful children. For the sake of their holiness, I very humbly entreat You to admit me to your love and not to abandon me, and to deign to send to my succor and aid that saintly angel, Michael, our prince, with his saintly and angelical soldiery, to help me persevere and die in Your holy faith, and to free me from the Adversary’s hands and temptations.

My good God and Lord, have mercy upon the glory of Your name, [Your] Law and [Your] people, and upon the world which You have created. Fill it with Your light and with the true knowledge of Your name, that heaven and earth may be filled with praise of Your glory. Amen. Amen.

Dated in Purgatory this fifth month of the year of our creation, five thousand three hundred and fifty-seven.