694 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
ment of Isaac tells how Isaac is told by an angel to make his tes¬ 
tament and to set his house in order for his death. Then fol¬ 
lows the apocalypse. In this, as in the Arabic version of The 
Testament of Abraham, the story is told in the words of the tes¬ 
tator. 
In The Testament of the Forty Martyrs (308 A. D.) in¬ 
tended to represent a real will, the moral element is also pres¬ 
ent. 1 The Martyrs exhort the boy Eunoikos to keep th© law of 
Christ that he may receive such a reward as they have received. 
Among the Byzantine Greeks the Moral Testament was a fav¬ 
orite form of literature. 2 A good example is The Testament 
of Theodoros. 3 The testator was an abbot of Constantinople 
who died in 826 A. D. This testament was accustomed for a 
long time to be read each year on the day of his feast. G. A. 
Schneider 4 in enumerating his works says, “Als letze Schrift 
mag sich die AiaOrjKy oder das Testamentum anreihem worm 
Theodor sein Glaubensbekenntnis niedergelegt hat und seinen 
Haehfolger sowie den Monchen nochmals ihre verschiedenen 
Phichten einscharft.” 5 
There were in the Middle Ages many such documents of in¬ 
struction which did not call themselves Testaments. Such is 
the Mordta ad Filium of Stephen I, King of Hungary, ivho died 
in 1038. 6 With such books are also to be compared the numer¬ 
ous books of etiquette which were so popular throughout the 
Middle Ages. As examples we may mention How the goode 
wyfe taught her Doughter and IIow the wise man taught his 
son, both printed in Caxton’s Booh of Curtesye. 7 
1 Edited by G. N. Bonwetsch in Studien zur Geschichte der Theo- 
Togie und KircTie , erster Band, Heft 1, Leipsic, 1897, p. 71. See also 
Neue Kirchliche Zt. y 1892, p. 705, and p. 978. 
2 See Leo Wiener, Anthology of Russian Literature, New York, 1902, 
p. 50. 
3 Krumbacher, Geschichte der Byzantinischen Litteratur, Miinchen, 
1897, p. 147. 
4 Der HI. Theodor von Studion: Sein Lehen und Wirlcen, Munster* 
i. W., 1900, p. 6. 
s It is not to be doubted that the application of the word AiaBr/urf 
to the New Testament had so little to do with its application to such a 
document of instruction written by a Church Father. Cf. page 
e Printed in J. P. Migne, Patrologae , Paris, 1853, CLI; cf. also Louis 
IX’s dying instructions to his son. Peignot, II, 363. 
7 Ed. Furnival, for E. E. T. S., London, 1868. 
