is Photius protested, both during the lifetime
of that Pope and also in the time of John VIII, when it was condemned by
the council held at Constantinople in 879, which is called by the Greeks
the Eighth General Council. It is clear from what we have already seen
that Photius was prepared to seize on _any_ point of disagreement in
order to throw it in the teeth of his opponents, but in this matter the
Eastern Church had a real grievance to complain of. The Nicene Creed was
to them what it was not to the Western Church, their only creed, and the
authority of the councils, by which its form and wording were
determined, stood far higher in their estimation. To add to the one and
to disregard the other were, at least in their judgment, the violation
of a sacred compact.

The other question, which, if not actually one of doctrine, had come to
be regarded as such, was that of the _azyma_, that is, the use of
unfermented bread in the celebration of the eucharist. As far as one can
judge from the doubtful evidence on the subject, it seems probable that
ordinary, that is, leavened bread, was generally used in the church for
this purpose until the seventh or eighth century, when unleavened bread
began to be employed in the West, on the ground that it was used in the
original institution of the sacrament, which took place during the Feast
of the Passover. In the Eastern Church this change was never admitted.
It seems strange that so insignificant a matter of observance should
have been erected into a question of the first importance between the
two communions, but the reason of this is not far to seek. The fact is
that, whereas the weighty matters of dispute--the doctrine of the
Procession of the Holy Spirit, and the papal claims to supremacy--
required some knowledge and reflection in order rightly to understand
their bearings, the use of leavened or unleavened bread was a matter
within the range of all, and those who were on the lookout for a ground
of antagonism found it here ready to hand.

In the story of the conversion of the Russian Vladimir we are told that
the Greek missionary who expounded to him the religious views of the
Eastern Church, when combating the claims of the emissaries of the Roman
communion, remarked: "They celebrate the mass with unleavened bread;
therefore they have not the true religion." Still, even Photius, when
raking together the most minute points of difference between him and his
adversaries, did