Edward III

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.