The fire-hardened wooden club known as a Baculus appears not so much as a weapon,
but rather as a symbol of office. This may have been brought about by the soldiers
practice of marking the club in order to keep a record of their military conquests.
It has long been thought that Ecclesiastics used the mace because they were
not permitted to use weapons that shed blood. The shedding of blood was strictly
forbidden by the scriptures. The mace is one of the most ancient of Weapons
and can be traced back as far as the stone age. Used by the Egyptians, Assyrians
and throughout the East the mace remained a popular weapon until the sixteenth
century.
The construction of the mace is that of a number of iron flanges set around
a tubular core which was then attached to a wooden haft. Two types of maces
are depicted, the flanged mace and a knobbed mace.
Club : Simple wooden weapon designed to inflict concussion.
Cudgel : Forerunner of the trundgeon the cudgel was often spiked with nails.
Baculum : Latin for staff, the baculum was often used to symbolize authority.
Horseman's Mace : A short hafted weapon with a large flanged or spiked head.
Footman's Mace : Half way between a Horseman's mace and a morning star mace.
Morning star mace : A large, spike studded ball on a chain with a haft four
to five feet long.
Holy Water Sprinkler : This mace takes its name from a device used for sprinkling
water on the crowd as used in the Roman Catholic Church.
Henry VII's Walking Stick : A later version of the Holy Water Sprinkler but
with pistol barrels in the head.
flail : Developed from the grain thresher this device could be described as
a multiple headed ball and chain.
Maul : A very heavy hammer-like mace.
Ball and Chain : A wooden handled mace with metal ball attached on a short chain.
:
Crowbill : A single spike pick designed to pierce chain mail and plate armour
War Hammer : A combination of the pick and the mace