mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
accused the superstitious Catholics of being stuck firmly in the muck of
the Dark Ages. How, they asked between chuckles, could an entire
sixteen-hundred-year-old theology be threatened by a telescope and a
book?
The prestige of the Catholic Church dropped precipitously in learned
and scientific circles, even among devout Catholics. Those in the Vatican
knew that the quickest way to send Pope Urban into a foaming-atthe-mouth
rage was to whisper the name Galileo. Fortunately for his
reputation, Cardinal Pamphili would not be appointed to the Holy Office
of the Inquisition until later in the decade, or else his name would
have joined the list of numskull cardinals who had signed Galileo’s condemnation.
In 1634 Olimpia bought the two neighboring Teofili houses, one of
which Gianbattista had been renting, and incorporated them into her
own, thereby tripling the size of her residence and creating a true
palazzo. As an important cardinal with papal aspirations, Gianbattista
needed an impressive palace to hold audiences and entertain, and the
narrow, jumbled Pamphili house had become an embarrassment. The
architect Francesco Peperelli was hired to create a harmonious layout
and an imposing façade.
For the better part of two years, from 1636 to 1638, the house bristled
with scaffolding inside and out. Roofers crawled over the eaves, while
carpenters, plasterers, and painters swarmed through the rooms, saws
and paint buckets in hand. The sound of hammers rang throughout the
corridors, and plaster dust coated the furniture. Olimpia kept a firm eye
on the renovations, frequently meeting with artisans and inspecting
their work.
Peperelli made a servant’s entrance out of the narrow alleyway that
had separated the two houses and extended the rooms above. In the
new part of the palazzo, he created a large ceremonial entrance, which
led to a wide courtyard, with room for horses and carriages, and a
monumental staircase that swept up to the cardinal’s waiting room.
The waiting room was where ambassadors, noblemen, and cardinals
sat, chatting with the maestro di casa, eating snacks and drinking wine
until Cardinal Pamphili could see them. This room was constructed
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