Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
OCR
intruding into the internal affairs of the community. However, When
later in one of his crazy pamphlets, Pierce accused him of seducing
one of the young nuns, Cornelia denied it categorically. Asperti went
back to Italy in the spring, entered the Jesuits and became a highly
respected spiritual director. With the best will in the world, he hag
played a not insignificant role in the disastrous Connelly drama,
The mercurial Mr Jones continued to have new ideas about his
will and testament. At one point, he told Wiseman that he was going
to give All Souls to Shrewsbury. Wiseman was pleased because he
knew Shrewsbury would respect his wishes as to the disposition of
the property. The Society would be permanently established at Ajj
Souls and he would have a refuge away from the noise of London,
He did not share his thoughts with Cornelia.
In February, Cornelia told the nuns how precarious their tenure
at All Souls really was. Actually, the only valid will in existence was
the one making Towneley the legatee, but neither Wiseman nor
Cornelia knew this. On the 14" of February, Cornelia gathered the
community and began a novena urgently begging the Mother of
Sorrows to bring them through the crisis. On the morning of the
21, Mr Jones, who had just returned from London, fell gravely ill,
The doctor and a priest were summoned and several sisters gathered
round his bed to pray. He was, in fact, dying. Before expiring, Mr
Jones reached out to Cornelia and took her hand. He begged pardon
for all his unkindnesses to her. “It’s all yours,” he murmured. ‘The {2
will has not been changed; the original has not been destroyed” |:
Cornelia, profoundly moved, thanked him for his generosity to the
Society. Then the Reverend Mister Jones, reconciled with Comelia
and the Society, breathed his last.
Later in the morning, a lawyer arrived sent for by Mr Jones to
change his will in favor of a Protestant nephew.
The community received the news torn between mourning
and rejoicing. Their relief at not having to move knew no bounds.
Cornelia supposed that the will to which Jones referred was the one
agreed to with Wiseman. Wiseman was convinced Jones’ heir was
Shrewsbury. So sure was he that he sent workmen to All Souls to set
90