Crossword-Solution: SEMP 4 letters, 2 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 8

Father Sempé was a sly, spare little man, to all appearance most disinterested and humble, but in reality consumed by all the thirst of ambition.

And thus it was that during Abbé Peyramale’s illness Father Sempé succeeded in effecting a separation between the parish of Lourdes and the domain of the Grotto, which last he was commissioned to manage at the head of a few Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, over whom the Bishop placed him as Father Superior.

And it seemed, too, as though Father Sempé, with his customary humility, had bowed to the inevitable and accepted this vexatious competition, which would compel him to relinquish a share of the plunder; for he now pretended to devote himself entirely to the management of the Grotto, and even allowed a collection-box for contributions to the building of the new parish church to be placed inside the Basilica.

Father Sempé, however, had once more prevailed on the Bishop to grant his favour exclusively to the Grotto.

Strange stories circulated: it was said that Father Sempé had sought to secure admission to the parsonage under some pious pretext, but in reality to see if his much-dreaded adversary were really mortally stricken; and it was added, that it had been necessary to drive him from the sick-room, where his presence was an outrageous scandal.