_Becket_ (Vol. ii., pp. 106. 270. 364.).--It so happens that, before
seeing, MR. VENABLES' communication, with his quotations from the
_Monasticon_ (Vol. ii., p. 364), I had taken an opportunity of looking into
a friend's copy of that work, and had there found what seems to be a key to
the origin of the designation "_St. Thomas of Acon_ or _Acres_." It is
stated, in a quotation from Bp. Tanner, that
"The hospital [in Cheapside] consisted of a master and several
brethren, professing the rule of St. Austin, but were of a particular
order, which was about this time instituted in the Holy Land, viz.
_Militiæ Hospitales S. Thomæ Martyris Cantuariensis de Acon_, being a
branch of the Templars."--_Monast._ vi. 646.
and the same title occurs in the charter of Edward III. (_ibid._) Now it
appears to me that the words _de Acon_ here relate, not to the saint, but
to the order which took its name from him; and this view is confirmed by
the passage which Mr. VENABLES quotes from _Matthew of Westminster_, as to
the foundation of a chapel in honour of St. Thomas, at Acre, in Syria, A.
D. 1190. It is easy to suppose that in course of time, especially when the
origin of the designation had been cast into the shade by the cessation of
the Crusades, and the ruin of the great order to which the brethren of St.
Thomas were at first attached, the patron himself may have come to be
styled _de Acon_ or _of Acres_: and this seems to be the case in the Act of
23 Hen. VI. (_Monast._ vi. 247.)
Allow me to ask a question as to another point in the history of Becket.
Among his preferments is said to have been the parish of "St. Mary
_Littory_ or _ad Litters_," which is commonly supposed to mean St.
Mary-le-Strand.[3] My friend Mr. Foss, in his elaborate work on _The Judges
of England_, contradicts this, on the ground that there was then no parish
of that name; and he supposes St. Mary-at-Hill to be intended. Now the
words _ad Litters_ would be alike applicable as a description in either
case but it appears to me that, if the city church were meant, it would be
styled, as it usually is, _ad Montem_, and that _ad Litters_ is Latin for
_le Strand_. Was there not then an ancient church so called, until the
demolitions of Protector Somerset in that quarter? And is not the common
belief as to Becket's parish correct? I ask in great ignorance, but not
without having vainly searched some books from which information might have
been expected.