mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Mistress of the Vatican
one prison himself carrying a ring of large keys to unlock the cell doors.
A huge crowd had gathered on the square in front of the prison to watch
Gigli, followed by soldiers, drummers, and prisoners, march pompously
outside.
After their release, many of the more violent prisoners immediately
formed gangs, which roamed the streets, broke into houses, plundered,
raped, and murdered. The princely households barricaded themselves inside
and hired armed guards to stand watch with loaded pistols and drawn
swords. Servants patrolled the roof, ready to throw rocks at any would-be
attackers below.
Merchants hid their merchandise, schools ceased instruction, and
courts were suspended. The entire city pulsated with suspense, hoping
that a new pontiff, and the order he would bring with him, would come
soon. The liveliest places in Rome were the gambling parlors where
people wagered on which cardinal would become pope, the odds changing
daily as news leaked out of the conclave.
According to tradition, a conclave was to be held in the Vatican commencing
on the tenth day after the pope’s death. But the low-lying Vatican
was ghastly in August and September, roasting hot, shirt-soakingly
humid, and without a breath of fresh air. Worse, it was subject to malaria,
as the area had been a swamp for thousands of years. When the
Roman emperor Vitellius stationed his army on Vatican Hill in a.d. 69,
most of his men died of malaria. Sixteen centuries later, the mosquitoes
seemed to retain an ancient memory, buzzing happily about their ancestral
abode and diving down with bloodlust at the sight of red robes.
The threat of infection was compounded by the utter ignorance
about malaria’s cause, which was thought to be mal aria—bad air. In his
Book on Particular Matters, the thirteenth-century scholar Michael Scot
described malaria as “a corruption of the air that is not evident everywhere,
but which moves about hidden from region to region, then settles
down and maintains itself.” 2 In Olimpia’s time, Scot’s definition
was still believed; it was not until 1880 that the parasite Plasmodium was
found to be transmitted by mosquitoes.
Given the heat and risk of illness, many cardinals petitioned to move
the conclave to the other Roman papal palace, the Quirinal, situated on
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