ST. THOMAS OF ACON
A Foundation of very human interest was the Hospital of St. Thomas
of Acon or St. Thomas of Acres. It is well known that Thomas Becket
belonged to a wealthy city family, his father having been a citizen
of Norman extraction. Gilbert Becket died leaving behind him a
considerable property in houses and lands. Whether the Archbishop took
possession of this property as his father’s son, or whether he gave it
to his sister, I do not know. Certain it is that, after his death, his
sister Agnes, married to Thomas FitzTheobald de Heiley, gave the whole
of the family estates to endow a Hospital dedicated to her brother,
Saint and Martyr. Nothing should be kept back, all must be given; one
sees the intensity of affection, sorrow, pride, with which the new
saint was regarded by his family. There are no churchwomen so zealous
as the daughters of the Bishop; there could be no worshippers at the
altar of St. Thomas à Becket more devout than his own sister.
[Illustration: SEAL OF THE HOSPITAL OF ST. THOMAS OF ACON
From John Watney’s _Some Account of the Hospital of St. Thomas of
Acon_.]
The full title of the House was “To the Honour of Almighty God and the
Blessed Virgin and the most Glorious Martyr St. Thomas, for a Master
and Brethren Militiæ Hospitalis S. Thomæ Martyris Cantuariensis de
Acon.”
Newcourt gives two explanations for this dedication and the name of
Acon:—
“Radulphus de Diceto, Dean of London, who in his History, intituled,
Imagines Historiarum, living Ann. Dom. 1190, ann. 2 Ric. I., when
the City of Acres or Acon in the Holy-land (call’d also Ptolemais)
was besieg’d by the Christians, writes as follows; About these Days,
when the City of Acon was first besieg’d, one William, an English-Man
by Nation, being Chaplain to Radulphus de Diceto, Dean of London,
when he went to Jerusalem, bound himself by a Vow, that if he should
prosperously enter Acon, he would build a Chapel to S. Thomas the
Martyr, at his own Charge, according to his Ability, and would
procure there, to the Honour of the said Martyr, a Churchyard to be
consecrated, which was done. Then many flocking from all parts to
serve in this Chappel, William himself as a Token of his Christianity,
took on him the Name of Prior, who, whilst he serv’d Bodily as a
Souldier of Christ, had an especial Care of the Poor, and he freely
bestow’d all his Diligence and Labour, in Burying of the Bodies of
such as died, as well naturally, as of others who were slain with the
Sword, representing himself in Mans sight, the next Successor of that
great Tobias.
My other testimony (saith he) is out of the Theatre of Honour, Lib.
9, cap. ii., where, repeating the Military Orders of the Holy Land,
he saith thus, The Order of S. Thomas was instituted by the King
of England, Richard, surnamed Cœur de Lyon, after the surprizal of
Acres, and being of the English Nation, they held the Rule of S.
Augustine, wore a white Habit, and a full red Cross, charged in the
middle with a white Scallop, they took for their Patron (as I have
heard) the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Metropolitan of England,
Thomas Becket, who suffer’d Martyrdom (as his Favourers say) under
the King of England, Hen. II. of that Name. Peter de Rupibus, Bishop
of Winchester, who had been five years in the Holy Land, removed the
Church there of S. Thomas the Martyr, from an unfit place to a more
convenient, and caused the Patriarch of Jerusalem to take Order,
that the Brethren of this Church who were before, Lay-men, might be
under the Order of the Temples, wearing a Cross on their Breast. He
bequeathed also to this House of St. Thomas of Acon 500 Marks. So much
M. Paris in vita Hen. III. p. 472, sub Anno 1238.
Hereby it is clear, that the Dedication of this Hospital or Chapel to
S. Thomas of Acres or Acon, must have relation to the like Dedication
of the Chapel and Holy Order in the City of Acre, in the Holy Land, to
the same Archbishop: All these three Dedications being near about one
and the same time within few years after the Archbishop’s Death. And
it is probable that in Imitation of those Dedications at Acres, this
in London might do the like.” (Newcourt’s _Repertorium_, vol. i. pp.
552-553.)
It was in the year 1171 that Becket’s sister founded the Hospital. It
extended at first from Ironmonger Lane to the Old Jewry; later on, the
Society bought gardens on the other side of Old Jewry and obtained
permission to erect a gallery of communication across the street, so
as to get access to their garden. It was from the gallery that Henry
the Eighth beheld the Marching Watch (see _London in the Time of the
Tudors_, p. 262). The buildings included a Chancel and Chapel of SS.
Stephen and Nicholas. Over the gateway (which is now the entrance of
Mercers’ Hall) was a statue of the Saint. This figure which was “newly
sette up of late”—(Mar. 14, 1554)—“over ye dore of Sent Thomas of
Acon was shamefully mangled: ye hedde and ye right arm being cleane
stryken of, ye which Image once before this time had the hedde lykewyse
stryken off and was afterwards newly set up and newe eftsoones broken.”
Protestant zeal once more attacked this unlucky image. It was in the
reign of Elizabeth that some fiery enthusiast destroyed it, and in its
place substituted a paper of rebuke on the worship of Saints.
[Illustration: BECKET RECEIVING A LETTER FROM HENRY II. CONSTITUTING
HIM CHANCELLOR.
CONSECRATION OF BECKET TO SEE OF CANTERBURY.
BECKET APPROACHING THE KING WITH DISAPPROBATION.]
It was quite right and natural that, before the Protestant fury against
saint worship, or the intercession of Saints, the people of London
should entertain a profound belief in the protection extended to them
by their own Saint—one whose name and fame were spread over the whole
of Christendom—for instance, refer to the family history of Arnold
FitzThedmar (p. 67). Thomas Becket was without any doubt a citizen, and
the son of a citizen—even, at the outset, intended for the mercantile
life. The Saint, quite early in his beatitude, listened benignantly to
the prayers of William, afterwards the Leader with the long Beard, and
guided him and his friends safe to port and to victory. Such a story
spread, naturally, in all directions. It was the greatest honour for
the City to possess such a Saint; every day the pride in St. Thomas
grew and was increased by reports and rumours of miracles wrought in
answer to the prayers of pilgrims.
There was another reason why St. Thomas became the tutelary Saint of
London. The Mediæval enthusiasm over their Saints was liable to wane
and fade away, and even to vanish. The old Saxon Saints—where were
they? The shrine of St. Erkenwald still blazed with golden vessels
and tapers of wax, but miracles were rare: there were still churches
dedicated to St. Ethelburga, St. Osyth, St. Swithin, not to speak of
the Danes, St. Olaf and St. Magnus, but no one looked any longer for
miracles. As the faded images in a fifteenth-century rood screen now
appear to the modern ecclesiologist, so the figures of their Saxon
saints in the thirteenth century had become mere _umbræ_, shadows of
the past. The shrine of Edward the Confessor was still splendid, but
the King’s miracles were no longer, so to speak, quoted by the pilgrims
and the miracle-mongers. The city wanted a new Saint. Heaven gave them
one—all their own—in Thomas of Chepe.
Therefore, on the day when the Lord Mayor was sworn at the Exchequer,
he repaired to the chapel of St. Thomas Acon with the Aldermen; after
prayer and praise at his altar, they formed a procession and thence
marched to St. Paul’s, where they went to the Pardon Churchyard in
the precinct of St. Paul’s, where were buried Gilbert Becket and his
wife; and thence they marched back to St. Thomas Acon, where every one
offered a penny.
Let us consider how such a Foundation as this, not one of the richest,
yet always a prosperous House, was enriched and maintained. In the
first place, the original endowment was ample, if not plentiful, for
the expenses of a modest number of Brethren. But the bequests of
grateful or penitent or pious citizens speedily began to pour in.
During the three hundred and fifty years of its existence, there never
quite ceased, though the violence diminished, a continual stream of
gifts. Thus, during the period from 1262 to 1535 (Sharpe’s _Wills_),
about forty perpetual chantries were founded. These bequests show the
affection of the citizens for their Saint. But there were greater and
more important gifts. Henry the Third, Edward the First, Geoffrey
FitzPeter, the Earl of Essex, Edward the Third, Henry the Sixth,
were all benefactors to this Hospital. The Mayor and Commonalty were
visitors of the House; the Mercers’ Company, on a vacancy in the
Mastership, had the right to nominate two or three of the Convent, from
whom the brethren were to choose their master.
Between the Hospital and the street, Sir John Allen, Mercer and Mayor
in 1525, built a very beautiful Chapel, and on his death in 1544 was
buried in it. Over the Chapel was a Hall—Newcourt says the Mercers’
Hall. The Chapel was clearly along the line of the street—if the north
side of Chepe was yet in alignment—because, some years after the
Dissolution, the body and tomb of Sir John Allen were removed to the
Church itself, and the Chapel was divided into shops, and so let out
for rent; after the Fire, which consumed the whole, the shops were
rebuilt on the same site.
Among the names of those who were buried in this church, we find those
of the Butlers—Earls of Ormond; Cavendish, of the fourteenth century;
Frowyk; Leigh; and many others. The church is said to have been a
“large and noble structure, consisting of a choir and the body of a
church with side aisles.” (Newcourt.)
The House was surrendered in 1539, the last master being one Lawrence
Gospeller, who received a pension of £66: 13: 4. The annual income was
estimated at £277: 3: 4. Through the offices of Sir Richard Gresham,
the Mercers purchased the site and opened the church again in 1541 as
the Mercers’ Chapel. Here was kept a Free Grammar School, removed after
the Fire to the site of St. Mary Colechurch.