mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Mistress of the Vatican
Gabrielli. The electors were dropping like flies, and those cardinals who
remained healthy were gripped by malaria hysteria.
While Olimpia was Gianbattista’s most ardent supporter outside the
conclave, his greatest champion inside was fifty-seven-year-old Giovanni
Giacomo Panciroli. The son of a humble tailor, the intelligent Panciroli
had worked his way up in the church and attached himself to Gianbattista’s
coattails. He had assisted him in the Roman Rota and in his missions
to Naples and Spain. He had become a cardinal in 1643 in Urban’s
last creation and was named nuncio to Madrid. Hearing of the pope’s
fatal illness, he rushed back to Rome, arriving in conclave three days after
it began. Pro-Spanish and pro-Pamphili, Panciroli would do everything
possible to get his friend elected pope.
According to Teodoro Amayden, Cardinal Panciroli saw Cardinal
Antonio’s wavering. One day he approached him with flattering words.
“See, Antonio, how fortune has carried you to high places,” Panciroli
said. “But this is nothing compared to what you can do today. . . . On
you alone the Sacred College depends. You alone can create the pontiff.”
18
The idea appealed to Cardinal Antonio. For one moment, he would
be more powerful than the pope himself; he would be the pope maker,
the very instrument of God, crowning Saint Peter’s successor. He suddenly
decided that it would be better not to wait for Mazarin’s decision.
It was, after all, easier to apologize later than to ask permission and
then act expressly against orders. If the decision was positive, all would
be well. If it were negative, he had arranged to switch sides to Spain,
and the Spanish ambassador promised to provide him with revenue
equal to that which had been lost from France.
On the morning of September 14, Cardinal Antonio met with the
cardinals of the Spanish faction and agreed to switch his block of votes
to support their candidate, Gianbattista Pamphili. That evening, some
fifty cardinals crammed into Gianbattista’s cell to congratulate him,
though many were forced to yell their good wishes from the corridor.
As soon as they departed, their conclavistas squeezed inside to render
their respects. “There was such a multitude of people in that cell,” wrote
an anonymous conclavista, “that they stole all his silverware.” 19
[ 133 ]