mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Mistress of the Vatican
As Easter dawned on April 17, the Spanish confraternity of the Holy
Resurrection marched into the Piazza Navona holding aloft the Holy
Sacrament. The architect Carlo Rainaldi had transformed the piazza
into a peristyle of columns, creating 116 arches, surrounded by vines
that flickered with the light of 1,600 candles. At each end of the piazza
was a magnificent arch and cupola that seemed to be of heavy colored
marble but was really made of flimsy painted wood. Inside one was the
risen Christ, and inside the other was his Virgin Mother.
Bernini’s fountain of the Four Rivers was still being constructed behind
scaffolding. For Holy Week the artist surrounded the fountain
with a crenellated wooden enclosure resembling a medieval castle, hung
with beautiful religious paintings. On each corner he built a castle
tower, on top of which musicians played. Lit by colored lights, the obelisk
rose above the construction and at times shot off fireworks.
The jubilee year was a time of frequent miracles. Miracles occurred
throughout Italy even in non-jubilee years, of course, but the hysteria of
the Holy Year seemed to cause swarms of them. Prayers were answered.
Crutches were left at altars. The moribund rose from their deathbeds
and danced in the streets. Looking at these miracles from a modern
perspective, we are unsure whether they were caused by mind over matter,
natural healing, trickery, or divine intervention.
Innocent and Olimpia were kept closely informed of any miracles
that took place in the Papal States. It was important, from both a church
and governmental point of view, to determine the source of the miracles.
Some of them were found to be real, caused by God and his saints to
boost faith in the true church. Others were no less real but caused by
Satan and his demons to fool the devout, and these had to be driven out
by exorcists. The clearest sign of demonic possession was a gyrating
pelvis. Anyone caught doing a seventeenth-century version of Elvis
Presley—no matter how many cripples he healed—would have been
drenched with holy water immediately and would, most likely, have
responded with hisses and howls. Alas, most miracles were faked,
caused by men and women hoping to defraud the pious.
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