CHAPTER VII

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.

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.

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.