William was born into a noble family about 1105. His uncle was abbot Hugh IV of St Germain des Pres in Paris, and the boy was sent to the abbey to be educated. Here the young William noted the life of the monks, how they sang and prayed and sat reading in the cloister, but he remained undecided about a monastic vocation. He made no objections when his family obtained for him a prebend in the collegiate church of Sts Peter and Paul and St Genevieve, though he soon found that the worldliness of his fellow canons contrasted unfavourably with the regular life. The canons returned his dislike. An unsuccessful attempt was made to trick him into entering a monastery. In the end, however, William remained a secular canon until he was forty-three, by Mediaeval standards an advanced age.