mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Mistress of the Vatican
slapping down her cards with a cry of victory and raking in their cash.
Gianbattista’s cautious nature was adamantly opposed to gambling,
but he enjoyed the parties nonetheless, talking with important guests
and listening to the musicians.
Olimpia did not attend the balls or feasts of other noble families very
often. Her contemporaries said this was due not to grief over her husband’s
death but to her avarice—she would then be required to reciprocate
by giving expensive festivities of her own. Considering that she did
give expensive festivities of her own from time to time—elaborate theatrical
performances in her palazzo—it is more likely that she found
the events of others boring. She far preferred small dinner parties at
which she could talk to powerful men about politics and finance and
win them over to support Cardinal Pamphili in the next conclave.
Olimpia had one sore spot in conversation. She became noticeably
disturbed when those around her praised the generosity of other women.
“Women,” she would counter, “were to amass riches, not to dissipate
them.” 13 Most men would have disagreed with her.
In the late 1630s Olimpia found a clever way to avoid dissipating her
riches when she wanted frescoes painted in her expanded palazzo.
Hearing that the talented artist Andrea Camassei, who had worked for
Urban VIII, had been thrown into debtors’ prison, Olimpia generously
offered to pull a few strings with her Vatican friends and spring him if
he promised to paint her rooms for free. The artist was in no position to
argue and worked the next year at the Piazza Navona house without
being paid a single scudo.
In the 1630s and early 1640s, Olimpia had one goal—to line up sufficient
cardinals to elect Gianbattista pope. He was, more than ever,
papabile, having reached the age of sixty in 1634. His reputation as an
able if stern churchman had been enhanced by increasing honors and
positions of responsibility.
In 1637, Urban VIII suffered a serious illness from which it was
thought he would not recover. He did recover, but his health was never
the same, and ailments kept him in bed for weeks at a time. Papal
power slipped into the hands of his cardinal nephews, and for several
years a conclave was expected at a moment’s notice.
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