mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Mistress of the Vatican
In early June 1651, Olimpia’s correspondents would have told her
that the Four Rivers Fountain in the Piazza Navona was finally completed
after four years of design and construction. Spewing sour grapes,
Francesco Borromini looked at his enemy’s masterpiece and declared it
would never shoot out water. Gian Lorenzo Bernini heard his rival’s
prediction and decided to play a little trick.
On June 8, when the pope visited the fountain in a great cavalcade,
he walked around it for half an hour, admiring it from all angles. Innocent
then asked Bernini where the water was, and the sculptor hung
his head and shamefacedly admitted that it wasn’t yet ready to flow.
The pope was a bit disappointed and said that without water Bernini’s
masterpiece was not a fountain, it was a statue. As the pope was leaving
the Piazza Navona, Bernini opened the faucets and the sound of rushing
water filled the square. The pope raced back and marveled at the
water dancing over the sculpted figures.
Proved wrong about the water, Borromini next spread word that the
obelisk was in danger of toppling and crushing those beneath it. Bernini
had done a terrible engineering job with Saint Peter’s bell towers,
he bellowed, and now he had done a terrible job with the Four Rivers
obelisk. One day in a heavy wind, as passersby eyed the obelisk with
concern, Bernini’s carriage stopped. The sculptor got out and squinted
at the obelisk, scratching his head. A crowd gathered around him, all
nervously staring at the obelisk.
Then Bernini suddenly seemed to get an idea. He went into his carriage
and pulled out some string. Then he climbed up onto the fountain
and wrapped it around the obelisk, attaching the ends to iron torch
hooks on the houses on either side of the piazza. With a satisfied nod,
he got into his carriage and rode off, as all the spectators had a hearty
laugh. It was a brilliant move; Borromini’s nasty rumors had been
laughed to death.
The new fountain was the talk of Europe. All the kings requested
drawings of it, and the fountains of Versailles would be based on it. But
Olimpia, whose idea it had been, had not been invited to its inauguration.
Though Olimpia was being pointedly ignored by many former
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