In the year of the Lord 1453, a strange pestilence fell upon the men of certain towns and the villages adjacent thereto.  This plague befel after the Feast of St. John the Baptist, and was notable by reason of the benumbing of the throat and the pain it caused in the breast and side.  At this time many of our Brothers and the Lay folk of our Household who were labouring hard in the fields—­for it was harvest—­were smitten so grievously by the benumbing of their throats that they could scarce speak or eat.  There was a north wind that was very cold at night, but by day turbulent and dry, and many were chilled thereby and fell sick.  As a remedy against this, some clothed themselves in stouter garments and abstained from cold food and drink, and these grew well by reason of their abstinence and care to keep themselves from too great cold, for God had pity on them; but some that neglected these matters died after three days, or even two, being weakened by the numbness.

When this disease first broke forth, our Brother Gerard ter Mollen, a Convert, fell sick and received the Unction after Compline on the day of the Translation of St. Martin the Bishop:  in the night following, before the hour for Matins, his sickness grew heavy on him and he died.  He was a faithful labourer, ever ready to toil for the common weal, and he was in the sixtieth year of his age, having fulfilled thirty years and three months in the Religious Life:  he was buried in the western path at the head of Gerard, son of Wolter.

In the same year, in the month of July, and on the Feast of the Translation of Benedict the Abbot, died Dirk, son of Arnold, a young man who was a Laic and Fellow Commoner, that came from Bericmede:  he had received the Sacrament of the Holy Unction, and died after High Mass had begun.

In the same month, on the day following the Feast of St. Margaret the Virgin, when Compline was done, and the Ave Maria had been said, died Henry Diest, a Donate of our House:  he was nearly forty-eight years of age and had fulfilled thirty years in this House.

In the same month, on the day following the Feast of Alexius the Confessor, Dirk Struve, a Laic and Fellow Commoner, died after Compline, having received the Holy Rite of Extreme Unction.  He had lived long in the House, and on the day following when the first Mass had been said he was laid in the burying ground of the Lay Brothers.

After him, and on the night before the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, before Matins, died Everard Ens of Campen, a good and faithful Laic and Fellow Commoner, who had lived with us for fifteen years.