What was John Lydgate, a Benedictine monk and author of orthodox religious poems, doing translating pagan histories like the Troy Book and Siege of Thebes^ In his late autobiographical poem the 'Testament of Dan John Lydgate', Lydgate explores whether Christian practice was compatible with humanist reading of classical or pagan texts.1 He does this by engaging with Augustine's Confessions and Petrarch's Secretum, taking some of each writer's approach to reading and memory in order to justify ways in which it was acceptable to read classical or pagan literature. In the 'Testament' he applies Augustine's theory of memory in an unorthodox Petrarchan way in order to establish his own active reading approach and explain the value in humanist texts. 1. Augustines "Confessions' Augustine's 'influence on the literature of the Middle Ages is pervasive' and there was an Augustinian revival' in the later Middle Ages.6 Lydgate had access to the Confessions, amongst many other Augustine texts, in Bury St Edmunds abbey library, Duke Humfrey's collection, and probably in numerous other places.7 The most obvious allusion to the text in the 'Testament' is Lydgate's description of stealing apples and grapes as a child (lines 638-40), considered an allusion to Augustine's theft of pears (Il.iv).8 Whilst the allusion is undoubted, it merits greater caution. Nisse thinks this significant because it was the age that St Edmund died; but it is also likely a reference to the frequent plagues that hit East Anglia and perhaps to a specific incident in Lydgate's life.12 Lydgate imitates Augustine in stating that some texts are more valid to read than others, and in regretting his childhood reading tastes.