RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Aviz Azymites
AWAKENING, THE GREAT. See Revivals of • Religion.
AXEL. See Absalon.
AYER, JOSEPH CULLEN, JR.: Protestant Episcopalian; b. at Newtonville, Mass., Jan. 7, 1866. He was educated at Harvard University and the universities of Berlin, Halle, and Leipsic (Ph.D., 1893), and at the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Mass., from which he was graduated in 1887. He was honorary fellow at Johns Hopkins in 1899-1900, and in the following year was appointed lecturer on canon law in the Cambridge Theological School. In 1905 he was chosen professor of ecclesiastical history in the Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. His theological position is that of a conservative Broad-churchman or a liberal High-churchman. In addition to numerous briefer studies on canon law, music, and painting, in various reviews, and, besides contributions to the second, third, and fourth volumes of The World's Orators (New York, 1900), he has written Die Ethik Joseph Butlers (Leipsic, 1893) and The Rise and Development of Christian Architecture (Milwaukee, 1902).
AYLMER, el-mer (ELMER), JOHN: Bishop of London; b. at Aylmer Hall, parish of Tivetshall St. Mary (15 m. s. of Norwich), Norfolk, England, 1521; d. in London June 3, 1594. He studied at Cambridge (B.A., 1541) and was tutor to Lady Jane Grey; was made Archdeacon of Stow in 1553. During the reign of Mary he retired to Strasburg and Zurich, and wrote there a reply to John Knox's Monstrous Regiment of Women (Geneva, 1558), under the title An Harborowe [Harbor] for Faithful and True Subjects against the late blown blast concerning the government of women (Strasburg, 1559). He returned to England shortly after the accession of Elizabeth (1558) and was made archdeacon of Lincoln in 1562, bishop of London in 1577! He was a somewhat narrow-minded man, of arbitrary and arrogant temper, and as bishop displayed a harshness toward Puritans and Roman Catholics which brought upon him much unpopularity and exposed him to the biting satire of the Marprelate tracts (q.v.); yet he was a man of learning and a patron of scholars. Besides the volume already mentioned he left sermons and devotional works.
Bibliography: The best book is by J. Strype, Historical Collections of the Life and Acts of John Aylmer, Oxford, 1821; S. R. Maitland, Essays on the Reformation in England, London, 1849; J. Hunt, Religious Thought in England, i, 73-76, London, 1870; DNB, ii, 281-283.
AZARIAH, az"a-rai'a: King of Judah. See Uzziah. For the apocryphal " Prayer of Azariah," see Apocrypha, A, IV, 3.
AZAZEL a-ze'zel or a-za'zel (Heb. 'aza'zel): The word translated " scapegoat " in the A. v., found only in Lev. xvi, in the legislation concerning the Day of Atonement, where the nigh priest is directed to take two goats as sin-offering for the people, to choose by lot one of them " for Yahweh " and the other " for Azazel " (ver. 8), and to send the latter forth into the wilderness (ver. 10, 21-22; see Atonement, Day op). The meaning of the word has occa-
sioned much discussion. Starting from the fact that " for Yahweh " and " for Azazel " stand in opposition (ver. 8), many think that it is the name of a being opposed to Yahweh,— a desert-monster, a demon, or directly Satan. Such as attempt an etymological interpretation then explain it as characterizing the demon or Satan as removed or apostatized from God, or a being repelled by men (averruncus), or one which does things apart and in secret (from azal, " to go away "). Others conceive of Azazel, not as a proper name, but as an appellative noun and modified reduplicated form of a root 'azal, " to remove, retire," signifying longe remotus or porro abiens. The sense of verses 8, 10, and 26, then, is that the goat is designated by the lot as an azazel, i.e., something which is to go far away, and is sent into the wilderness as such; and the idea is expressed symbolically that with the sending away of the goat, sin has also been removed from the people for whom atonement has been made, and they regard themselves as freed and released from their sins. The contrast between " for Yahweh" and "for Azazel," however, in ver. 8 favors the interpretation of Azazel as a proper noun, and a reference to Satan suggests itself. It has been urged that nowhere else in the Pentateuch is Satan mentioned, and that afterward, when the idea of Satan comes out more fully in the consciousness of the Old Testatment congregation, the name Azazel is not found. But it may be that Azazel — whatever its meaning may be — was the name of an old heathen idol or of one belonging to Semitic mythology and thought of as the evil principle, which older Judaism made the head of the demons as later Judaism used the name of the Philistine Baal Zebub. A definite explanation, satisfactory to all, can hardly be looked for. The name of Azazel, like Belial and Beelzebub, is transferred from the Old Testament language into the Book of Enoch as designation of a power of evil. W VoLCKf.
Bibliography: H. Schultz, Old Testament Theology, i, 403- 406, Edinburgh, 1892; Diestel, Set-Typhon, Asasel, und Satan, in ZHT, 1860, pp. 159 sqq.; G. H. A. von Ewald, Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, ii, 191-192, Leipsic, 1874; Oort, in ThT, x (1876), 150-155; S. R. Driver, in Expositor, 1885, pp. 214-217; Nowack, Archaologie, ii, 186-187; Benzinger, Archaologie, p. 478; DB, i, 207-208; EB, i, 394-398; consult also the commentaries on Leviticus. For ethnic analogies cf. J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough, ii, 18-19, London, 1900.
AZYMITES, a-zim'aits (Gk. azymilai, from a-privative and zyme, " leaven ") : An epithet given by the Greek Church to the Latin Church from the eleventh century, because the latter uses unleavened bread in the Lord's Supper. Michael Caerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople (q.v.), in 1053 attacked the practise of the Western Church, declaring their Eucharist worthless because unleavened bread was lifeless and powerless. A hot contest ensued in which the Latins maintained that either leavened or unleavened bread could be used ; they retaliated upon their opponents with the epithets fermentarii or fermentacei (from Lat. fermentum, "leaven") and prozymitai (from Gk. pro, "for," and zyme). TheCouncilof Florence (1439) decreed that each Church must follow its own custom, and for the Latin Church to change would be grievous sin. See Lord's Supper.
Baader Baal