- The word mace has several meanings, each of them listed separately below.
An advance on the club, a mace is a wooden,
metal-reinforced or metal shaft, 3 or more feet (a meter or more) long, with a head made of iron or steel adding another foot to
18 inches (30 to 45 cm) to the length of the weapon. The head is normally about or slightly thicker than the diameter of the
shaft, shaped with flanges, knobs or spikes to allow greater penetration of armour. It, like the war hammer and various other weapons of the time, came about because of the increased use of more
effective armour on the battlefield.
A variety of mace called the morning star had its
spiked metal ball suspended from a chain attached to the handle, rather than being directly mounted.
Medieval bishops carried maces in battle (Odo of Bayeux appears on the
Bayeux tapestry wielding one) instead of swords, so as to conform to
the canonical rule which forbade priests to shed blood. Maces could kill without drawing
blood.
A ceremonial mace can represent authority and
prestige, as in the House of Commons in a Westminster System parliament. Processions often feature such maces: either on parliamentary or in formal university occasions. The
ecclesiastical equivalent of the mace-bearer, the dodsman, appears in church contexts.
Mace is also a cooking spice obtained from the arillus (a layer
surrounding the seed kernel) of the nutmeg fruit Myristica fragrans Houtt.
Mace is also a brand of tear gas, often used by
police.
Mase was the name of a rap musician
in the 1990s.
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