mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
was carefully studied by the envoys of Catholic nations. Unfortunately,
Protestant nations—England, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland,
and parts of Germany—had no ambassadors in Rome to titillate us
with scandalous observations.
The most reliable source for Olimpia’s story is Giacinto Gigli
(1594–1671), who kept a diary from the age of fourteen until blindness
in old age forced him to give it up. In recording the weather, politics,
harvests, processions, murders, fires, and saintly miracles, he is a font of
firsthand information for anyone wanting to understand life in seventeenth-century
Rome. Gigli, who served on Rome’s city council several
times, and whose brother-in-law worked in the most important Vatican
office, was well positioned to learn about the politics and scandal of the
pope and his sister-in-law.
Another excellent source is Sforza Pallavicino (1607–1667), who became
cardinal in 1658. A friend of Innocent’s secretary of state, Cardinal
Fabio Chigi, Pallavicino in 1665 wrote Chigi’s biography, chock-full
of Olimpia stories, which he either witnessed firsthand or heard about
from Chigi, who had witnessed them.
The early seventeenth century saw the advent of the first newspapers.
Avvisi—which meant “notices”—were handwritten news sheets of
two to eight pages, consisting of small paragraphs in chronological order
with no headlines. An avvisi writer sold subscriptions to foreign
courts, banking houses, and wealthy individuals. From 1640 to 1650 the
Vatican lawyer Teodoro Amayden (1586–1656) penned weekly avvisi to
the court of Spain and Spanish embassies throughout Europe. A neighbor
of Olimpia’s who knew her and the pope well, Amayden included
in his newsletters numerous stories about the pope’s controversial sisterin-law.
Gregorio Leti (1630–1701), who wrote the first biography of Olimpia
just a few years after her death, lived in Rome during her reign and
enjoyed high-level Vatican connections. Normally, a contemporary biography
like Leti’s would be the best possible source, but unfortunately,
Leti was biased against the Catholic Church in general and against
Olimpia in particular. A convert to that rabidly anti-Catholic branch of
Protestantism, Calvinism, Leti is accused by some Catholic scholars of
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