Rochester

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.

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.

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.

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.

Praeterea in Monasterio Roffensi tanta fuit victualium inopia, quòd Monachi ad triturandum panem suum sunt coacti. Prior tamen omnibus bonis abundabat.

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.