mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
gave a bigger one. If Olimpia appeared in public shining in diamonds,
Clemenzia appeared wearing brighter ones.
Clemenzia was no worthy rival, and it was an easy matter for Olimpia
to carefully aim a poison blow dart, puff up her cheeks, blow hard,
and send it flying. It found its mark. Olimpia pointed out to Innocent
that Clemenzia was prancing around Rome in new carriages, ablaze in
jewels. She insinuated that his datary was, perhaps, not so incorrupt.
Money that came into the datary to send to Jesuit missions abroad or
build hospitals for the poor was obviously funding Clemenzia’s extravagant
lifestyle. Innocent had been certain of Cecchini’s honesty, but as
time passed, and Olimpia whispered, and Clemenzia pranced, he became
unsure.
Cecchini’s subdatary, the number two man in the office, was not
as incorruptible as his boss. Francesco Canonici, called Mascambruno,
had been born a country bumpkin in 1610. As a young man
he found a job as a scribe in the Roman law office of Camillo Mascambruno.
The wealthy church lawyer became quite fond of his
scribe, some said too fond, as a homosexual relationship was suspected.
He adopted the younger man, giving him his name, and left
him his entire estate.
Francesco Mascambruno first came to the attention of the Pamphili
family in 1644 when Olimpia’s son-in-law Andrea Giustiniani hired
him to transfer properties into his name from his uncle’s estate. The
ambitious Mascambruno fastened himself to the new papal family like
a leech, becoming especially close to Olimpia, rendering every possible
service with great efficiency. At Olimpia’s instigation, the pope appointed
Mascambruno the subdatary.
Mascambruno was an unusual Vatican bureaucrat. In contrast to the
bright silks, frothy lace, and gleaming gold embroidery of his colleagues,
he wore dark colors and plain fabrics. He seemed to be a frugal
soul, a hardworking functionary with an obsequious manner. His winning
formula was to slink silently into the background and pounce forward
when needed, the indispensable man. He had a flat, broad face
and strange eyes, his colleagues later recalled. Frightened eyes, as if always
waiting for doom to strike. The French ambassador, Saint-Nicolas,
[ 250 ]