coastline of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.
Mass The central ceremony of Christian worship; it includes prayers and readings
from the Bible and culminates in the consecration of bread and wine as the body
and blood of Christ, offered to believers in the sacrament of the “Eucharist,” or
“Holy Communion.”
New Testament This work, a compilation of the second century, contains the four
Gospels (accounts of the life of Christ) by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the
Acts of the Apostles; various letters, mainly from Saints Paul, Peter, and John to
fledgling Christian communities; and the Apocalypse. It is distinguished from the
“Old Testament” (see below).
Office In the context of monastic life, the day and night were punctuated by eight
periods in which the monks gathered to recite a precise set of prayers. Each set
was called an “Office,” and the cycle as a whole was called the “Divine Office.”
Special rites and ceremonies might also be called offices, such as the “Office of
the Dead.”
Old Testament The writings of the Hebrew Bible that were accepted as authentic by
Christians, though reinterpreted by them as prefiguring the coming of Christ; they
were thus seen as the precursor of the “New Testament” (see above), which
fulfilled and perfected them.
Presentation in the Temple An event in the life of Christ and his mother. See The Virgin
below.
referendary A high Merovingian administrative official responsible for overseeing the
issuing of royal documents.
relief This has two separate meanings. In connection with medieval English
government, the “relief” refers to money paid upon inheriting a fief. In the history
of sculpture, however, “relief” refers to figures or other forms that project from a
flat background. “Low relief” means that the forms project rather little, while
“high relief” refers to forms that may be so three-dimensional as to threaten to
break away from the flat surface.
sacraments The rites of the church that (in its view) Jesus instituted to confer
