azygos (azigos)

[ bread, or a loaf of unleavened bread; especially, the bread eaten among the Jews at the time of the Pa over, or that used in part of the Christian church for consecration in the eucharist: generally in the plural. In the Western Church azyms seem to have been used as far back as positive testimony goes, but the evidence either for or against their use in the earlier centuries is very scanty. In the Eastern Church consecration of leavened bread seems to have been the universal rule since the earliest times, but some early Oriental sects used azyms. The Latin Church does not hold that the use of leavened bread invalidates consecration. The controversy between the Eastern and Western churches as to azyms turns mainly on the question whether the Last Supper was within the period of unleavened bread, and whether therefore the holy communion was instituted with azyms or not. We have shunned the obscurity of the papists in their azymes, tunick, . The Translators of the Bible to the Reader. Rome prescribes nothing to other nations on the point, merely laying down that the ble ed Sacrament may more conveniently be consecrated J. M. Neale , Eastern Church, i. 1055. azymica imenduved pertaining to unleavened bread; unleavened; azymous.