Anno xxiii. regni Regis Edwardi III. obiit Johannes de Stratford Archiepiscopus Cant. apud Maghfeld, dux Regis & ejus Consiliarius principalis in vitâ suâ; & ideo post mortem ipsius pro mercede suâ omnia ejus bona confiscantur, possessiones & praedia destruuntur. Toto hoc tempore Episcopus Roffensis moram fecit apud Hallynges & Trottisclive, sollicitus de mirabilibus mundi; & Ordines celebravit in utroque loco certis interstitiis temporum. Eodem anno pestis antea inaudita in Angliâ desaeviebat. Episcopus Roffensis de modicâ familiâ suâ iv. Sacerdotes, v. Scutiferos, x. homines de ministerio, vii. Clericos juvenes, & vi. pagetos perdidit; & sic non remansit in aliquo officio qui sibi serviret. Apud Mallinges fecit duas Abbatissas; & mox obierunt. Nec remanserunt ibidem nisi iv. Professae & quatuor non professae Moniales; de quibus Episcopus uni spiritualia alteri temporalia custodienda commisit, quia non inveniebatur sufficiens persona ad officium Abbatissae. In hac pestilentiâ plures Capellani & stipendiarii Curati noluerunt sine excessivo salario deservire. Hos Episcopus Roffensis dato ad Archidiaconum Roff. mandato anno MCCCXLIX. die xxvii. Junii, sub poenâ suspensionis & interdicti jussit eisdem stipendiis deservire. Plures etiam Clerici beneficiati, numero Parochianorum per pestem adeò diminuto, ut de reliquis oblationibus vivere non possent, beneficia sua deserverunt. Hos Episcopus mandavit Parochias suas repetere; & Rectoribus seu Vicariis Beneficiorum exilium, quorum proventus annui ad verum valorem x. marcarum se non extendunt, licentiam dedit annuatim unum Annuale vel alium Missarum numerum, pro quibus aequalia debeantur stipendia, à suis Parochianis vel alienis undequaque recipere, hujusmodi exilitate proventuum durante. Post mortem Archiepiscopi Papa ad preces Domini Regis M. Johanni de Offord ejus Cancellario Archiepiscopatum dedit, viro debili & paralitico; qui pecuniam magnam undique mutuans ad magnam summam, inutiliter Papam eam exeniavit & presentavit, & totam perdidit; quia non multùm pòst vixit, sed die Ascensionis Domini obiit, & in Ecclesiâ Cant. est occultè sepultus, electus non consecratus; & sic multos creditores depauperando destruxit. Per idem tempus Capitulum Cant. M. Thomam Bradewardyn de Condennâ Roffensis Dioceseos oriundum, quem mox post mortem Archiepiscopi elegerant, secundò nunc elegerunt; & priusquam electio ad Papam pervenit, Papa M. Thomae more solito dedit Archiepiscopatum Cant. malens grates habere ipsemet quàm eligentes. Sed post collationem suam Dominus Rex pro Electo scripsit, qui aliàs eum impedivit. Igitur M. Thoma de Curiâ Romanâ revertente consecrato, versùs Londoniam festinavit, & in Hospitio Episcopi Roffensis apud La Place per quatuor dies infirmus pausans obiit. Anno xxiv. regni Regis Edwardi III. per totum illum annum Episcopus Roffensis senex & decrepitus apud Trottisclyve morabatur, languens & dolens de subitâ mutatione saeculi; quia in omnibus Maneriis Episcopatûs aedificia & clausurae corruebant, & vix Maneria illo anno de centum libris respondebant. Praeterea in Monasterio Roffensi tanta fuit victualium inopia, quòd Monachi ad triturandum panem suum sunt coacti. Prior tamen omnibus bonis abundabat. Episcopus Roffensis Abbatias & Monasteria de Liesnes & Mallyng visitans, invenit ea ita destructa per malam diutinam custodiam; quòd durante isto saeculo usque ad diem judicii creditur ea non posse reparari.

In the twenty-third year of the reign of King Edward III, John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, died at Maghfeld. In his lifetime he had been the king's guide and his chief counselor. And so, after his death, this was his reward: all his goods were seized, and his property and estates were laid waste. All this time the Bishop of Rochester stayed at Hallynges and Trottisclive, anxious about the strange things happening in the world. In both places he held ordinations [of clergy] at the appointed seasons. That same year a plague never heard of before raged through England. From his small household the Bishop of Rochester lost four priests, five squires, ten servants, seven young clerks, and six pages. So there was no one left in any post to serve him. At Mallinges he installed two abbesses, and both soon died. Only four professed nuns and four who had not yet taken their vows were left there. The bishop put one of them in charge of spiritual matters and another in charge of property, because no one fit to be abbess could be found. During this pestilence many chaplains and hired parish priests refused to serve unless they were paid far too much. On June 27, 1349, the Bishop of Rochester sent an order to the Archdeacon of Rochester. It commanded these priests to serve for the same pay as before, on pain of suspension and interdict. Many clergy who held parishes also abandoned them. The plague had cut the number of parishioners so far that the priests could not live on the offerings of those who were left. The bishop ordered them back to their parishes. Some parishes were so poor that their yearly income was truly worth less than ten marks. To their rectors and vicars he gave permission to take on one annual each year, or some other set of Masses paid at the same rate. They could accept these from their own parishioners or from anyone else, for as long as their income stayed so small. After the archbishop's death, the pope, at the king's request, gave the archbishopric to Master John de Offord, the king's chancellor, a weak and paralyzed man. He borrowed large sums of money from everyone and spent it uselessly on gifts and payments to the pope, and lost it all. For he did not live long afterward. He died on Ascension Day and was buried secretly in Canterbury Cathedral, elected but never consecrated. And so he ruined many creditors and left them poor. Around the same time the monks of Canterbury Cathedral elected Master Thomas Bradewardyn of Condenna, a native of the diocese of Rochester, for the second time. They had first elected him soon after the archbishop's death. Before the election even reached the pope, the pope gave Master Thomas the archbishopric himself, as usual. He preferred to have the thanks rather than let the electors have it. After the pope's grant, the king, who had blocked him before, wrote in support of the man elected. So Master Thomas came back from the papal court, already consecrated, and hurried toward London. At La Place, the Bishop of Rochester's house, he lay ill for four days and died. In the twenty-fourth year of King Edward III's reign, the Bishop of Rochester, old and frail, stayed at Trottisclyve all year. He was weak and grieving over how suddenly the world had changed. On every manor of the bishopric the buildings and fences were falling down, and that year the manors barely brought in a hundred pounds. Besides this, food was so short in the monastery at Rochester that the monks were forced to thresh the grain for their own bread. The prior, however, had plenty of everything. The Bishop of Rochester visited the abbeys of Liesnes and Mallyng. He found them so ruined by years of bad management that people believed they could not be restored in this world, not before Judgment Day.

The whole of this time … the Bishop of Rochester remained at Halling and Trotterscliff, and he conferred orders in both places at certain intervals. A plague such as never before had been heard of … ravaged England in this year. The Bishop of Rochester out of his small household lost four priests, five gentlemen, ten serving men, seven young clerks, and six pages, so that not a soul remained who might serve him in any office. At Malling (a Benedictine nunnery) he blessed two abbesses, and both quickly died, and there were left there only four professed nuns and four novices. To one of these the Bishop committed the charge of the temporals, to another that of the spirituals, because no proper person for abbess could be found. In this pestilence many chaplains and paid clerics refused to serve, except at excessive salaries. The Bishop of Rochester, by a mandate addressed to the archdeacon of Rochester, on the 27th of June, 1349, orders all these, on pain of suspension, to serve such cures; Throughout the whole of that winter and spring the Bishop of Rochester, an old and decrepid man, remained at Trotterscliff, saddened and grieving over the sudden change of the age. And in every manor of the Bishopric buildings and walls fell to ruins, and that year there was hardly a manor which returned a hundred pounds. In the monastery of Rochester, also, there was such a scarcity of provisions that the community were troubled with great want of food; so much so that the monks were obliged to grind their own bread.