AZYMUS

AZYMUS, something not fermented, or that is without leaven. See FERMENT and LEAVEN. The term azymus is much used in the disputes betwixt those of the Greek and Romish Church; the latter of whom contend, that the bread in the mass ought to be azymus, unleavened, in imitation of the paschal bread of the Jews, and of our Saviour, who instituted the sacrament on the day of the Passover; and the former strenuously maintaining the latter, from tradition, and the constant usage of the Church. See SACRAMENT, EUCHARIST, etc. This dispute was not the occasion of the rupture between the Greek and Latin Churches; Photius having broken with the Popes 200 years before.—The Patriarch Cerularius, in the XIth century, excommunicated the Latins for adhering to the use of azymus bread. St. Thomas, in 4 Sent., Dist. 1. q. 2. Art. 2. Quaestiunc. 3. relates, that during the first ages of the Church, none but unleavened bread was used in the Eucharist, till such time as the Ebionites arose, who held that all the observances prescribed by Moses were still in force: Upon which, both Eastern and Western Churches took to the use of leavened bread; and after the extinction of that heresy, the Western Church returned to the use of the unleavened bread, the Eastern pertinaciously adhering to the former usage. This account is controverted by Fa. Sirmond, in a dissertation express; wherein he shows, that the Latins had constantly communicated in leavened bread, till the Xth century. And Cardinal Bona, Rerum Liturgic., c. 23. p. 185. owns a deal of distrust of what St. Thomas alleges.—In the Council of Florence it was decreed that the point lay at the discretion of the Church; and that either leavened or unleavened bread might be used: The Western Church has preferred the latter. The word is derived from the Greek ἄζυμος, sine fermento, which is composed of the privative α, and ζύμη, ferment.

AZYMUS