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Bellarmine Jug

1910 New Catholic Dictionary

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A round-bellied, narrow-necked vessel with a bearded mask, at first collectively called Bartmanner (bearded men) and made at Frechen, near Cologne, in the 15th century. It was changed in mockery into the likeness of Cardinal Bellarmine, and became popular with Protestants under the name bellarmine or grey-beard as a coarse retort to the cardinal's unanswerable arguments against Protestantism in his Controversies. It is now obsolete, but there are numerous specimens extant, above a hundred being in the London Museum.