Meaning of holy-water sprinkle | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Synonym of aspergillum (“an implement, in the form of a brush or of a rod with a perforated container, for sprinkling holy water”).
2. A 16th-century weapon consisting of a heavy ball set with spikes attached rigidly to a staff, used mainly in England; a morning star.
   broadly, historical

Examples

“All ſubſtantiues endyng in on, hauyng i cõmyng next before on, be of tbe femyne gendre: Excepte Millyón a myllion⸝ eſcorpión a ſcorpyon a ſarpent⸝ ueſpilión a holy water ſpricle^([sic])⸝ eſtovrgión a ſturgion fiſhe⸝ psalterión a psaltrion […]”

“[…] I stode at the dore: Then sayd the Byshop go to your sermon. Then Doctour Chadseye put the stole a boute his necke, and caried the holy water sprinkle vnto the bishop, who blessed hym, and gaue hym holy water, and so he went to hys sermon.”

“She alvvay ſmyld, and in her hand did hold / An holy vvater Sprinckle, dipt in deovve, / VVith vvhich ſhe ſprinckled fauours manifold, / On vvhom ſhe liſt, and did great liking ſheovve, […]”

“[T]he other Cardinalles vvith theyr holi-vvater ſprinkles, quencht his foggy fume and euaporating.”

“VVhy, but holy-vvater is a ſpeciall ranſome to free ſoules out of Purgatorie; and digged out of the fountaine of Scripture. Aſperges me, Domine, Hyſopo: Thou ſhalt ſprinkle me, oh Lord, vvith Hyſope: (for ſo their tranſlation hath it:) the ſenſe of vvhich place, is, ſaith the Romiſh; that the Prieſt muſt daſh the graue vvith a holy-vvater-ſprinkle: for you muſt ſuppoſe, that Dauid vvas dead and buried vvhen he ſpake theſe vvords, and his ſoule in Purgatorie.”

“After that, they went in Procession; two Banners being carried before them, in one of which was the Picture of Virtue, and that of Fortune in the other. The last went before, carried by a Semiquavering-Fryar, at whose Heels was another with the Shadow or Image of Virtue in one Hand, and an Holy-water-sprinkle in the other; I mean of that Holy Mercurial-water, which Ovid describes in his de fastis. And as the preceding Semiquaver rang a Hand-bell, this shak'd the Sprinkle with his Fist.”

“A religious and martial chief, he [John Gaspard Ampringen] wielded in turn the sabre and the holy water sprinkle, and in every respect suited an ambitious order and a disloyal prince, who spared blood as little as they did holy water.”

“The weapons, called by Germans "Morgen-stern," and in old English Inventories "holy-water sprinkles," from a certain resemblance to the aspergillum used in churches, are comparatively rare in the armories of this country. […] In the Tower survey of 1547 they are often mentioned; e.g.—'Great holly water sprincles, 118; Holly water sprincles with gonnes in th'ende, 7; Little holly water sprincles, 392; Holly water sprincle with three gonnes in the topp, 1.' The last-named is, without doubt, the club with iron spikes and short fire barrels still exhibited in the tower, with more or less of sensational additamenta relating to Henry VIII.”

“To sprinkle the holy water was the cant-phrase for fetching blood, which will account for the appellation, as there is no resemblance between the weapon so called and the aspergillum. Fig. 1.—A holy-water-sprinkle of the fifteenth century. It is a wooden mallet, bound with iron and furnished with iron spikes. […] Fig. 3.—A petty-holy-water-sprinkle to hand at the saddle bow. The whole, except the handle, is of iron.”

“The horse-chestnuts showed the little green knobs which would soon enlarge and hang all prickly, like the spiked balls of a holy-water sprinkle, such as was once used in the wars.”

CEFR level