mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
Olimpia’s house became a second Vatican court. The Piazza Navona
was crowded with the carriages of powerful churchmen and ambassadors
who came to call on her. Cardinal Pallavicino wrote, “She fed her ambition
by having her antechamber full of prelates and principal ministers,
who in their ceremony and etiquette recognized her almost as their boss,
and it came to pass that even cardinals, in addition to their frequent visits,
ran to ask for her intercession in their most serious business.” 8
In a document from 1651, Abbot Gianbattista Rinalducci wrote that
Olimpia “had all the vices of a woman, and none of the virtues. She was
avaricious, insatiable, haughty, scornful, implacable, arrogant, impetuous,
sensual, and drunk with the financial prosperity of the papacy,
which she alone absorbed.” 9
The French ambassador, Bali de Valençais, had a better opinion
of Olimpia. In his instructions to his successor in Rome, he compared
Olimpia to the mythical Pope Joan. “One cannot deny that Donna Olimpia
is a great lady,” he wrote. “Great, because she knows how to advance
herself, to absent and present herself in the favor of the pope with such
prudence that the court of Rome, which is used to marvels, is amazed.
Being a woman, she appears to want to accumulate with too much industry,
enjoys vendettas and, finally, makes a great show of her predominance.
But I must repeat that she is a great lady, and if one pretends
that a woman attained the papacy in former times, she would have had
to have been as wise, shrewd and prudent as she. . . . Your Eminence
must procure her affection, and this should not be so difficult seeing
how she is the genius most adapted to want good for France rather than
to please Spain.” 10
The Venetian ambassador, Nicolò Sagredo, wrote that Olimpia’s
“judgment is truly of a marvelous quality. She knows how to satisfy all
her desires with the authority of a minister.” 11
Even Leti, who heartily hated Olimpia, gave her grudging kudos.
“Truly this woman deserved all sorts of praise for her mind and judgment,
even if some criticized her and called her avaricious and impious,”
he declared. “It is certain that no one but Donna Olimpia could have governed
even six months in those bad circumstances let alone six years.” 12
In addition to her political work, Olimpia had the more traditional re-
[ 170 ]