mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Mistress of the Vatican
town and burying them eight feet under; it was easier to bury them
closer to town. Sometimes as a joke they would dump the bodies into
shallow graves next to the homes of people they didn’t like. Additionally,
grave diggers were supposed to burn the contagious clothing and
bedding of the deceased, but they often sold them, along with the bubonic
fleas they harbored.
The valuable lazaretto doctors were supposed to limit their contact
with plague victims, standing in plague suits several feet away to oversee
their less esteemed assistants—the barbers—administer medicine
and provide the patients with cleanliness, nourishment, and comfort.
But some doctors, bored stiff, removed their sweaty plague suits and
engaged the patients in card games, sitting by their bedsides for hours at
a time. Others brought prostitutes in for sex and sent them back out to
carry on their trade and, quite possibly, spread the disease. Some physicians,
displeased with the wine delivered to the lazarettos, made runs
out to liquor stores.
And so plague spread throughout much of Italy returning with virulence
in the spring. Naples lost 50 percent of its population, some 150,000
out of 300,000. Genoa lost 60 percent, or 120,000 out of 200,000. Rome
lost comparatively few, an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 dead out of a
population of 120,000, a death rate of only 12 to 16 percent. And then,
as mysteriously as the plague started, it began to abate.
On August 15, 1657, Costanza wrote her mother with two pieces of
good news. “Finally, by the grace of God, the princess of Rossano has returned
to the house of her husband and I hope that all the gossiping will
be over. I did not want to neglect to inform Your Excellency of this,
knowing how it will please you to hear it. . . . It was she who went to find
him and they talked so that these arguments will not occur again.” Even
more important than the tempestuous marriage of Camillo and the princess
was the news that the plague was ending in Rome. “Soon they will
open the lazarettos here and put the holy water back in the churches.” 14
But the plague, releasing its grasp on Rome, marched on to Viterbo.
In her letter of September 2, Olimpiuccia begged her grandmother to
leave the city. San Martino, she added, was too close. She should visit a
healthier place farther away. But Olimpia did not listen. She rattled the
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