Obs. exc. Hist. A large glazed drinking-jug with capacious belly and narrow neck, originally designed, by the Protestant party in the Netherlands, as a burlesque likeness of their great opponent, Cardinal Bellarmine. (See Chambers, Bk. of Days, I. 371.).
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), VI. 201. With Jugs, Mugs, and Pitchers, and Bellarmines of State.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), V. Amphithetum, a great cup or jug … a rummer, a bellarmine.
1861. Our Eng. Home, 170. The capacious bellarmine was filled to the brim with foaming ale.
