The Commemorative Order of St. Thomas of Acon
History
That we have a revival of this very English Order of Chivalry is due to the
untiring efforts of our first Grand Master, Sir John of Dorking (the late John
Walker who was Secretary General of the S.R.I.A. for many years). John spent
more than twenty years searching the archives of the Guildhall Library for
information about the Order of St. Thomas of Acon,
intending initially to write its history. Happily, he discovered the report of
the Installation of the Master in 1510, an account so unusual and so typically
English, that he felt compelled to revive the Order, albeit Masonically,
rather than attempt to compete with the many histories of these Islands - some,
alas, more lurid than accurate- which vie for public attention.
In former times, few could read or write so that memories were better
developed than ours. Pythagoras forbade all writing, considering it "the
destroyer of all memory"; fortunately most people were more tolerant. It
was not necessary to record what was to be spoken, nor to give more than
headings of the order of events; such clues as have survived require imaginative
interpretation. Good stories, on the other hand,(such
as those of Becket, father and son), were written down for use as homilies by
priests.
The Third Crusade begin in 1189 A.D., and on the
8th. June 1191 King Richard I (Richard Coeur de Lion) arrived with
his forces, before the seaport of Acre,
and captured the city in 5 weeks. Amongst the English force was one, William,
the Chaplain to the Dean of St. Pauls, who when he
saw the corpses of the Christians about the walls of Acre,
had compassion on them. With the aid of a few helpers he buried a large number
of the dead, and tended the wounded. Seeing that his actions were being
appreciated, William formed an Order for the express purpose of burying
Christian Knights who fell in battle in the Holy Land.
To this first purpose he added a second, the raising of monies to redeem
ransomed captives captured by the Saracens. The Order being formed at Acre
its name was incorporated in the title (the Anglicised
version of Acre being Acon).
The Order was so successful that William was able to build a church and
churchyard which he dedicated to St. Thomas
`a Becket, thus the Order became entitled the Commemorative Order of St.
Thomas of Acon.
Through disease and death of the other knights fighting in the Holy Land, this
Order of English monks was pressed into service as replacements, and became an
Order of military monks, (it was also at this time circa 1279 that the Prior
lost his pre-eminent position, this being accorded to the Master), fighting
alongside the Knights of the Temple, the Knights of the Hospital of St. John
the Almsgiver, the Knights of the Hospital of Lazarus and the Teutonic Knights
of the Hospital of St. Mary. King Richard I rewarded their valour
by according them the status of an Order of Chivalry. Of all the five noble
Orders of knights in the Holy Land at this
time, only this Order had a purely English foundation - a fact of which we
should be justly proud.
In England
the Order acquired the property of the Becket family in Cheapside where they built a Chapel
and a headquarters. Following the battle of Acre,
the Order of St. Thomas
of Acon merged temporarily with the Order of the Temple.
When the knights were subsequently driven out of Cyprus,
the Chapel of the Order of St. Thomas
was the only church on the island permitted to ring its bells. Remains of this
church can still be visited.
Old records are sparse, the last admission into the Order being recorded
on the 2nd. February 1367, but that the order continued is not in
doubt as the records of the Installation of a Master in 1510 mentioned above
demonstrate and it was listed as one of the Orders dissolved by Henry VIII.
At the dissolution of the monastries in 1538,
he offered the Chapel of the Order for sale, and, in memory of St. Thomas
(Thomas `a Becket being canonised barely two years
after his death during the Lentern period in 1173) ,
and in view of the association of his father, Gilbert, with their trade, the
Worshipful Company of Mercers purchased it. The Chapel in Cheapside was destroyed in the Great
Fire of London and
the present Mercers Hall and Chapel were built on the site. This is a matter of
historical record, lengthy articles have been published in the "Historical
Review" ,which is available in most public libraries and in several books.
All that remains today to remind us of that building is the recumbent statue of
Christ which lies at the entrance of the new Mercers' Chapel.
Additionally, the Church of St. Thomas, in the City of London, was built
in honour of St. Thomas `a Becket, and the Mayor, on
the day of his Installation, always attended Mass in that church, before
proceeding to St. Pauls.
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