mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Mistress of the Vatican
just the right time. It is possible that Pamphilio thought the most majestic
course of action was to sit with noble dignity in his drawing room as
the rain from his leaking roof dripped solemnly down on his head. Or
perhaps he was simply too lazy to try very hard. One thing is clear: a
Sforza Maidalchini he was not.
The one step he could take without terribly much effort was to marry
money. And Pamphilio Pamphili was not alone in this predicament.
Far older, more important families suffered along with him. The names
that for a thousand years had made Rome ring to the clash of arms—
the powerful Orsinis, Colonnas, Frangipanis, and Savellis—were dying
out in mildewed palaces. Many decayed noblemen tried to boost the
family fortunes by marrying into the nouveau arrivé papal families,
trading their ancient lineage and impressive names for new Vatican
money. The greatest prize of all was to marry a reigning pope’s niece,
who brought with her the staggering dowry of 100,000 scudi.
Pamphilio was not on the exalted level of a Colonna, of course, and
had no hope of marrying into a papal family. But on a lesser level, he
was ready to do the same thing. “Of course one must sometimes manure
one’s estates,” sniffed one seventeenth-century noblewoman in reference
to such marriages. 1 The manure for the Pamphili estate was to
be Olimpia.
Their first meeting was likely arranged by Olimpia’s uncle Paolo
Gualtieri and his wife. Perhaps Pamphilio, in his slightly moth-eaten
carriage, made the pleasant journey to Viterbo, not only to meet the
young woman but to eye carefully her two palazzos on the Via Annio.
Or maybe Olimpia, in a luxurious gilded and painted carriage with
plump tasseled cushions and footmen standing on the back, made the
exciting journey to Rome.
It is likely, under the circumstances, that Pamphilio would have readily
married an obese elderly woman disfigured by smallpox to obtain
her money, and that Olimpia would have wed a decrepit dribbling idiot
to obtain his nobility and his house in Rome. Love was not a prerequisite
for marriage, but it was always a bonus when the bride and groom
did not disgust each other.
Such was the case of Pamphilio and Olimpia. Pamphilio must have
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