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mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

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Eleanor Herman<br />

came to Rome and begged Innocent to excommunicate <strong>the</strong> critters, to<br />

curse <strong>the</strong>m and send <strong>the</strong>m to hell.<br />

The pope graciously complied. In an elaborate ceremony he commanded<br />

all <strong>the</strong> bugs to fall into <strong>the</strong> Tiber River and drown. It is likely<br />

that no one was more surprised than <strong>the</strong> pope when <strong>the</strong> insects actually<br />

obeyed him. “It was a thing marvelous to see,” Giacinto Gigli wrote,<br />

“that <strong>the</strong>se animals ran all at once into <strong>the</strong> Tiber, and <strong>the</strong>y filled it up so<br />

that you couldn’t see <strong>the</strong> water anymore, which was black as ink . . . and<br />

remained so for several days.” 10<br />

The same month, filled with renewed pontifical vigor, Innocent issued<br />

a papal decree against Jansenism, a religious movement in France<br />

named after its founder, Cornelius Jansen, bishop <strong>of</strong> Ypres (1585–1638).<br />

Jansenism claimed to return to <strong>the</strong> pure virtues <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fifth-century<br />

church fa<strong>the</strong>r Saint Augustine and turn away from <strong>the</strong> decadent church<br />

that had developed in <strong>the</strong> following centuries. Though Jansenists maintained<br />

that <strong>the</strong>y were strict Catholics, <strong>the</strong>ir beliefs smacked oddly <strong>of</strong><br />

that most right-wing <strong>of</strong> all heresies, Calvinism. Jesus did not die for all<br />

men, <strong>the</strong> Jansenists declared, as some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m were clearly beyond saving<br />

and were predestined to hell. They decried church art and <strong>the</strong> veneration<br />

<strong>of</strong> saints and relics. They tossed out confession as <strong>the</strong>y believed<br />

that only God could forgive sins, not a priest as God’s representative.<br />

The church should become stricter, <strong>the</strong>y said, as <strong>the</strong> path to heaven was<br />

narrow. The church, and <strong>the</strong> Jesuits, who hated <strong>the</strong> Jansenists believed<br />

that <strong>the</strong> path to God was ra<strong>the</strong>r wide, given his compassionate forgiveness<br />

<strong>of</strong> human sin.<br />

The Jansenist movement swiftly became popular in France. The<br />

French monarchy, which supported <strong>the</strong> Jesuits, perceived Jansenism as a<br />

political threat and begged <strong>the</strong> pope to do something about it. In 1651,<br />

Innocent assembled a special congregation in Rome comprising five<br />

cardinals and fifteen <strong>the</strong>ologians. Based on <strong>the</strong>ir findings, on May 31,<br />

1653, after two years <strong>of</strong> investigation and debate, Innocent issued a bull<br />

declaring Jansenism heretical.<br />

With Olimpia back in town, she was once more <strong>the</strong> scapegoat for<br />

<strong>the</strong> complaints <strong>of</strong> all and sundry. The Jansenists accused her <strong>of</strong> accepting<br />

a huge bribe from her friends <strong>the</strong> Jesuits to persuade <strong>the</strong> pope to<br />

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