Mace

Mace, a thick, heavy club or staff, about 5 feet long, surmounted by a metal head, frequently spiked, which was used by knights and warlike churchmen in the middle ages. The ornamental maces of parliament, the universities, and city corporations, borne as an ensign of authority, may be traced to the 12th and 13th centuries, when princes armed their guards with spikeless maces as the handiest against the sudden attacks of the Assassins (q.v.). The need passed away, but the maces remained as symbols of rank. The House of Commons has possessed three maces. The first disappeared after the execution of Charles I. The second was the 'bauble' that Cromwell had removed: it has been claimed that a mace preserved in the museum at Kingston, Jamaica, is the same. The sergeant-at-arms at the close of the session hands over the mace to an official of the crown, getting a receipt for it; it is kept under lock and key till the House meets again. In the congress of the United States the sergeant-at-arms has a silver mace. The Lord Mayor's mace, of silver gilt, and weighing nearly a quarter of a hundred-weight, dates from 1735.