mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
she was doing to a twelve-year-old was what Sforza had done to a fifteen-year-old;
her father had tried to drag her into a convent, while she
kicked and screamed that she wanted to marry, and now Olimpia was
dragging her granddaughter into a marriage, while she kicked and
screamed that she wanted to become a nun. Olimpia, as cruel as Agamemnon
himself, was sacrificing her own little Iphigenia on the altar
of family loyalty. The priest duly arrived and spoke solemnly with
Olimpiuccia about the grave sin she was committing by not obeying her
family. The little girl shrugged.
Finally, Olimpia had enough. One evening, after five months of putting
up with her granddaughter’s stubborn refusal to consummate her
illustrious marriage, she dragged her into a carriage and took her to
Palazzo Barberini herself. There she shoved her into the arms of Maffeo.
An avvisi sent to Paris on November 24, 1653, stated, “Olimpiuccia
was carried to the palace of the Four Fountains to the great relief of the
pope.” 1 The ambassador of Mantua wrote, “The grandmother took her
there almost violently one evening.” 2
Shortly thereafter, the marriage was consummated. Olimpia heaved
a loud sigh of relief. On January 6, 1654, Innocent X ordered the Vatican
treasury to wipe out all remaining Barberini debts. The Barberini
cardinals were no longer required to restore the money they had stolen,
and now they were in an excellent position to start stealing afresh. Poor
Lucrezia Barberini, dangling like rancid meat on the marriage market
for a decade, was married to the widowed duke of Modena and became
a duchess.
After ten years shuttered in darkness, the three-thousand-seat Barberini
theater was opened for a musical comedy. Costly gifts flowed in
from all over the world as recognition of the family’s return to power.
And now that their interests were the same, the Barberini cardinals
worked hand in hand with Olimpia in running the Vatican. “Having
not yet forgotten their former custom of amassing money,” Gregorio
Leti wrote, “they tried everything possible to obtain it for themselves
and for Donna Olimpia, to whom they taught new methods of squeezing
money from all sides.” 3
On January 4 Olimpia changed her will, albeit reluctantly. Leti
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