The problem about studying learning and books at St Edmunds for the period from 1215 to 1257 is the scarcity of datable evidence. The general impression is that in an undistinguished way an élite among the monks continued the tradition of learning established in the twelfth century and fostered under Abbot Samson. Three, if not five, of the Masters active in the convent at the time of Hugh's election were still alive during his abbacy, and Abbot Edmund of Walpole was himself a Master of canon law. There were no doubt other magistral monks in the period from 1215 to 1257, but it should always be born in mind that not all learned monks were necessarily graduates of a university: they could equally have been the products of St Edmunds’ monastic school.

The intellectual level reached by a few of the monks can be gauged by reference to their literary productions. The most ambitious of these are: the Chronicle; the Gesta Sacristarum (Acts of the Sacrists); the Customary; and the tract on the dedication of altars, chapels and churches at St Edmunds. The first two are records, with no literary pretensions but with the virtue of clarity. The Chronicle is a typical monastic chronicle. It forms part of the chronicle of John Taxster who took the habit at St Edmunds in 1244 but wrote his chronicle in the 1260s. He used pre-existing annals, chronicles and documentary records for the earlier period. The annals in the chronicle for 1215–17 are moderately detailed but from 1218 to 1237 they are very scrappy. They comprise brief notices of the succession of popes and bishops – notably those of Ely, Norwich and Lincoln – the obits of a few magnates and so on, besides the succession of the abbots and priors of St Edmunds. From 1237 the annals become more fluent and interesting and are especially useful for the history of the abbey. For example, there is an emotive account under 1238 of the visit to St Edmunds of the papal legate Otto in connection with the attempt by Dominican and Franciscan friars to settle inside St Edmunds’ banleuca.