He made friends with Richard Poore, later Bishop of Chichester, Salisbury and Durham, while a student.
After finishing his studies, Thomas taught at Oxford University before becoming a monk around 1199 at Evesham.
Thomas' main purpose in writing the Chronicon was to show that Evesham was exempt from the supervision of the Bishops of Worcester.
[6] Thomas was one of the leading defenders of the rights of the abbey,[2] in what was to turn into a long drawn out legal case before the king and then the papacy.
Although it was suspended with the exile of Mauger during the Interdict on England in King John's reign, it was later revived, and finally decided in 1248.