mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
immediately. Nursing his wounded pride, Mazarin considered the best
way to humiliate the stubborn pope.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Antonio Barberini found himself in a terrible
situation. Having lost his French income, he called on his old enemies
the Spaniards, who, in order to obtain his support in conclave for Cardinal
Pamphili, had promised they would restore any loss of French funds.
Now Spain apologetically backtracked, saying they could not offend
their ally, the duke of Tuscany, who hated Antonio Barberini. Besides,
they really couldn’t afford it. And so he was left with no money and no
honors. In the streets of Rome, people hissed and hooted and threw
dung at his carriage. Many cardinals avoided him, and Cardinal de’
Medici pretended not to see him at all, looking straight through him so
he would not have to render his respects according to protocol.
Worse was to come. While Innocent was initially kind to the Barberinis,
letting them know how much he appreciated their votes in
conclave, he found himself increasingly besieged on all sides to investigate
them for corruption. The Vatican treasury was nineteen million
scudi in the red, and the useless Castro war alone had cost twelve million.
There were, all in all, tens of millions of scudi missing. And much
of it could be found in Barberini palaces and art collections.
Olimpia, too, was pressuring the pope to punish the Barberinis, who
were furious at her. She had betrayed them, they complained, promising
to marry her son to their niece, when all along she must have known
Camillo was planning on becoming cardinal nephew. Fantastically rich,
still powerful in their connections, the Barberinis could wreak the most
excruciating revenge on Olimpia as soon as Innocent breathed his last.
Better to have them poor, powerless, and exiled. The warm feeling of
safety that Olimpia had enjoyed when Innocent was elected hadn’t
lasted very long. The highest position in the land was not so much a
sanctuary as a target. Now Olimpia had more enemies, who could do
her more harm, than ever before.
Innocent was tortured by indecision. He was keenly aware that without
the Barberini votes he would never have been elected pope, and he
was always ready to show gratitude to those—like Olimpia—who had
helped him. On the other hand, with his strict sense of justice and
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