Pope Clement VI

Della indulgenza diede il papa per la detta pistolenza. In questi tempi della mortale pestilenzia, papa Clemente sesto fece grande indulgenza generale della pena di tutti i peccati a coloro che pentuti e confessi la domandavano a’ loro confessori, e morivano: e in quella certa mortalità catuno cristiano credendosi morire si disponea bene, e con molta contrizione e pazienzia rendevano l’anima a Dio.

In these times of the deadly pestilence, Pope Clement VI granted a great general indulgence, a release from the punishment for all sins, to those who repented, confessed, asked their confessors for it, and died. And in that certain mortality every Christian, believing he would die, prepared himself well, and they gave back their souls to God with deep sorrow for their sins and with patience.

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.

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.

Durante tamen epidemia dicta, Dominus tantam gratiam ex sua pietate conferre dignatus est, ut decedentes, quamquam subito, quasi omnes laeti mortem exspectabant. Nec erat aliquis quin confessus et cum viatico sacratissimo moreretur; et, quod plus ad bonum decedentium fuit, dominus papa Clemens VI, in quamplurimis civitatibus et castris, absolutionem a poena et culpa decedentibus per suos confessores dedit misericorditer et concessit; unde libentius moriebantur, haereditates multas et bona temporalia ecclesiis et religiosis dimittentes, quia proprios haeredes ante se mori videbant.

Yet while this epidemic lasted, the Lord in his mercy granted such grace that the dying, though they died suddenly, almost all awaited death with joy. No one died without confession and the most holy viaticum. And what did the dying still more good, the lord Pope Clement VI, in a great many cities and castles, mercifully granted them absolution from penalty and guilt through their confessors. So they died more willingly. They left many inheritances and worldly goods to churches and religious orders, because they had seen their own heirs die before them.