mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
bitterness and a pain in his heart so great that reaching the door he
could go no further but entered into the room of his servant and threw
himself facedown on the bed where he stayed a long while and then he
was carried into his room and put in his own bed.” 5 He would not rise
from it.
At 7 p.m. on September 3, Cardinal Giangiacomo Panciroli died at
the age of sixty-four, disillusioned by his change of fortune. In his last
days he had repeatedly called for the pope, but Innocent did not come.
Cardinal Astalli-Pamphili, perhaps afraid of what Panciroli would say
about him, told the pope that the disease was contagious. Innocent was,
however, greatly saddened by his death, and “went into deep mourning
for several days without being able to console himself.” 6
Olimpia did not mourn. She viewed Cardinal Panciroli as the author
of her downfall. It was he who had convinced Innocent to create a new
cardinal nephew and cut his ties with her. It was he who was responsible
for the ruinous collapse of everything she had built. And it was he, four
years earlier, who had engineered Camillo’s marriage to the despicable
princess of Rossano. Hearing the news that Cardinal Panciroli was no
more, she replied with bitter satisfaction, “He is dead, but I am alive.” 7
The timing of Cardinal Panciroli’s death was unfortunate. For months
the French ambassador had been planning a grand celebration to mark
the thirteenth birthday and official coming of age of King Louis XIV on
September 5. When the fireworks blasted off, lighting up the night sky
in jubilation, many Romans thought the French were celebrating Cardinal
Panciroli’s demise two days earlier, as he had always been partial
to Spain.
Now that Panciroli was dead, there was only Cardinal Astalli-Pamphili
to help Innocent with the workload. Those who liked the fake
nephew politely remarked that he was still young and inexperienced in
the ways of diplomacy. Those who disliked him called him a blithering
dunderhead. Cardinal Pallavicino wrote that “the pope, full of years,
was leaning on an inexperienced and unknown crutch.” 8 Though Cardinal
Astalli-Pamphili wanted to have all the powers of a secretary of
state, Innocent knew that would be disastrous. He must replace Cardinal
Panciroli.
[ 298 ]