He took the habit of religion in 1173[clarification needed], during the abbacy of Hugo (1157–1180), through whose improvidence and laxity the abbey had become impoverished and the monks had lost discipline.
He served his novitiate under Samson of Tottington, who was at that time master of the novices but afterwards became sub-sacrist and then, from 1182, abbot of the house.
Jocelyn became the abbot's chaplain within four months of the election, and in his chronicle, he claims he was with Samson night and day for the next six years.
[1] Jocelyn has also been credited with an extant but unprinted tract on the election of Abbot Hugo (Harleian manuscript 1005, fol.
He mentions a (non-extant) work which he wrote, before the Cronica, on the miracles of Saint Robert of Bury, a boy found murdered in 1181 whose death during a period of rising anti-Semitism was blamed on the local Jews.