The form and style of his writings show the influence of those classical studies which were now reviving throughout Christendom.

Monk as he is, William discards the older ecclesiastical models and the annalistic form.
Events are grouped together with no strict reference to time, while the lively narrative flows rapidly and loosely along with constant breaks of digression over the general history of Europe and the Church.

It is in this change of historic spirit that William takes his place as first of the more statesmanlike and philosophic school of historians who began to arise in direct connexion with the Court, and among whom the author of the chronicle which commonly bears the name of "Benedict of Peterborough" with his continuator Roger of Howden are the most conspicuous.

Both held judicial offices under Henry the Second, and it is to their position at Court that they owe the fulness and accuracy of their information as to affairs at home and abroad, as well as their copious supply of official documents.

What is noteworthy in these writers is the purely political temper with which they regard the conflict of Church and State in their time.