152:). The king’s commissioners arrived at the gates of the abbey in March 1538 and, after negotiations, the great monastery surrendered on 2 April 1538, the deed being signed by Thomas and 20 of the monks. It is probable that by now Stevens had had a change of mentality, after all his attachment to Beaulieu was not that of a lifetime, and his appointment there, despite the tensions, had been something of a windfall. Now he was destined to receive a handsome pension of 100 marks a year for a largely ceremonial role in an event he could do nothing to prevent. It made him a wealthy man, and made him disinclined to any great fellow-feeling for his fellow monks. In a letter to Thomas Wriothesley written shortly after the abbey was extinguished, he fell to describing his monks at Beaulieu as "lewd monks, which now, I thank God, I am rid of". On the other hand, he displayed more apparent sympathy for the people who had taken
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on the run from the government for unspecified offences that might be construed as treason, took sanctuary at the abbey. Cromwell sent agents to arrest him, but the abbot was absent when they arrived and in the meanwhile the fugitive escaped. The abbot conducted an investigation into the affair and Manzi was soon recaptured, but suspicion remained that he had been somehow involved in the escape in the spirit of the old laws of sanctuary (thus potentially incurring serious criminal charges) and
Stevens was obliged to throw himself on the mercy of Cromwell and Wriothesley.
201:. Mary was clearly young because he created a trust supervised by a friend, Christofer Wallison, to manage the property and help her make a suitable marriage. Mary was present at the creation of the will and agreed not to marry anyone without the consent of Christofer. At his death Thomas was a rich man, which can be seen from the large sums he was able to leave as gifts to friends and his servants, many of whom are named in the will. It was a long way from the poor Cistercian monk of
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debts. The amount of £100 was considerable for this period. He also maintained high standards of religious life at the abbey, and he and his seven monks were the object of good reports to the king from the local gentry and were much respected in the neighbourhood. That the Abbot was also trusted by the government, is shown by his being given custody of two
132:. This was unusual, and is symptomatic of the general breakdown, since the post was elective. Thomas and six of his monks (the other desired to resign and become a secular priest) crossed Southampton Water to join Beaulieu in 1536. At Beaulieu Stevens continued the policy he had presumably already begun of currying favour with the government, especially
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Stevens' will, which he wrote on 9 August 1550, perhaps already in bad health, and its codicil, written three days later, reveals more details about Thomas' subsequent life. At that date he had a daughter, Mary
Stevens, to whom he left all his property, specifically noting his plate and an estate he
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Since by early 1538 it was clear that
Beaulieu was doomed, the abbot began to make provision for his future. One of his last acts as abbot before he was finally forced to surrender was to grant the mill and parsonage of Beaulieu to a friend and give his sister a manor house belonging to the abbey, a
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However, there came a setback. Stevens had barely been abbot of
Beaulieu for a year when a crisis occurred which enabled to the government to put pressure on him to surrender his monastery, were this needed, and perhaps to menace a worse fate. In September 1537 James Manzi (or Mangii), a Florentine
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remained solvent (a difficult task given the small endowment and the heavy cost of providing hospitality to travellers by land and sea and the king’s sailors) and he was able to build up a farm surplus worth more than £100, a sum not far off the annual net income of the abbey, and to pay down the
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at the abbey and who lived in the abbey grounds. He pleaded with the government for their lives, with the result that they were given either pardons or protection and the right to remain living in the former abbey precinct.
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conduct not uncommon practice among heads of institutions suppression by Henry's government, as insurance against not getting a decent pension (compare the similar transactions at neighbouring
140:, another minister who had his eyes on taking over the abbey for himself, with the fine horses from the abbey stables. Now the currying aimed ostensibly at saving Beaulieu.
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Little is known of
Stevens' early life, but at some time in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century he became a monk at the small and poor Cistercian monastery of
113:, which closed all monasteries with incomes of less than £200 per year. Abbot Stevens and his seven monks were forced to surrender their house to the King in 1536.
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Notwithstanding the Abbot's apparent complacency, those policies were soon to have a dramatic effect on his own life. In 1535 Netley's income was assessed in the
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while retaining his rectory. Since he could only be in one place at a time, somewhere he was an absentee incumbent. The appointment under the
Protestantizing
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Yet this was not the end of Thomas' career as an abbot. In fact, shortly before the closure of Netley, Henry appointed him abbot of Netley's mother house,
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suggests that
Stevens was now of flexible theological views. At some point he married, too, and had children, who are mentioned in his will.
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105:'s general survey of church finances, at £160 gross, £100 net, which meant the following year that it came under the terms of the first
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Stevens was evidently a skilled administrator and agriculturalist. Under his stewardship his often financially troubled abbey of
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The seal of the abbots of Netley. Thomas
Stevens would have used this to authenticate official documents as abbot.
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Thomas continued his career in the church after the fall of
Beaulieu and already in 1539 was made
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and rose through the ranks so that by 1529 he was elected abbot of Netley, succeeding John Corne.
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The abbot's two-storey vaulted house (right) at Netley Abbey was Steven' lodging in 1529-1536.
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Beaulieu, King John's Abbey A history of
Beaulieu Abbey Hampshire 1204-1538
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He must have died shortly after making his will, which was probated by the
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Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857: Volume VI: Salisbury Diocese
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The Abbots and Priors of Late Medieval and Reformation England
510:, University of London, Institute of Historical Research,
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People associated with the Dissolution of the Monasteries
44:; (b. probably. c. 1490) (died 1550) was an English and
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461:, The Victoria County History, pp. 146–149,
439:, The Victoria County History, pp. 140–146,
459:A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume II
437:A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume II
433:"Houses of Cistercian monks: Abbey of Beaulieu"
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455:"Houses of Cistercian monks: Abbey of Netley"
453:Page, William; Doubleday, H. Arthur (1973b),
431:Page, William; Doubleday, H. Arthur (1973a),
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173:in Hampshire. In May 1548 he was also made
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16:English Cistercian monk and clergyman
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128:, a wealthy royal foundation across
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598:People from New Forest District
212:in London on 9 September 1550.
528:, Cambridge University Press,
484:Hockey, Dom Frederick (1976),
111:Dissolution of the Monasteries
109:, Henry's initial move in the
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524:Knowles, Dom. David (1959),
568:16th-century English clergy
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328:Page & Doubleday 1973a
267:Page & Doubleday 1973b
479:, Oxford University Press
488:, Pioneer Publications,
210:Archbishop of Canterbury
197:had recently bought at
475:Heale, Martin (2016),
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502:Horn, Joyce (1973),
99:Valor Ecclesiasticus
593:16th-century abbots
583:English Cistercians
573:English Reformation
417:, pp. 229–230.
402:, pp. 367–368.
390:, pp. 356–358.
330:, pp. 140–146.
305:, pp. 159–161.
269:, pp. 146–149.
232:Salisbury Cathedral
179:Salisbury Cathedral
563:People from Netley
526:Bare Ruined Choirs
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130:Southampton Water
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558:1550 deaths
415:Hockey 1976
303:Hockey 1976
291:Hockey 1976
72:holy orders
547:Categories
400:Heale 2016
388:Heale 2016
364:Heale 2016
352:Heale 2016
340:Heale 2016
238:References
161:Later life
103:Henry VIII
89:Franciscan
46:Cistercian
376:Horn 1973
191:Edward VI
175:Treasurer
171:Bentworth
154:sanctuary
68:Hampshire
53:clergyman
216:See also
183:prebend
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203:Netley
167:rector
92:friars
84:Netley
199:Alton
187:Calne
78:Abbot
51:and
34:Abbot
530:ISBN
512:ISBN
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49:monk
185:of
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