mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Mistress of the Vatican
cheerfully with nuns in the parlor. She brought bedding, linens, firewood,
food, and cash for structural repairs. There but for the grace of
God go I.
While most women spent an unconscionable amount of time gossiping
with one another, Olimpia generally disliked the company of her
own gender. “She spoke little when in the ordinary company of women,”
Leti noted. “But she spared no words when dealing with men.” 2 Olimpia
often said that chattering with women was a waste of time. Silly,
empty-headed creatures, most of them, twittering about babies, balls, and
bows. And yet, Olimpia must have made the requisite social calls on
Rome’s powerful noblewomen if only to ensure their assistance in the
future, once she had figured out how she could use it.
But getting an entrée into society wouldn’t be easy. Roman nobles
inflated their importance based on their lineage. They pointed with
pride to the popes and cardinals rotting in the family vault, to their ancestors’
valiant feats of arms five hundred years earlier in the Crusades,
to their mildewed palaces glimmering faintly with traces of bygone glories
among the leaks and mold. The further these glories receded into
the past, the less affably a noble family would welcome a wealthy nouveau
riche newcomer. Many members of that closed and hostile society
must have treated Olimpia with ice-cold hostility.
Olimpia would have known immediately the esteem in which her
hostess held her by how far out of her audience chamber the noblewoman
came to meet her. Roman etiquette was cruelly precise. The host
or hostess showed the greatest respect by waiting outside for the guest’s
carriage to arrive, an honor usually reserved for royalty or the relatives of
popes. A fairly well respected visitor was greeted at the bottom of the
stairs. A visitor of so-so importance would find the hostess at the top of
the stairs, mumbling apologies for not being able to come down.
Those who were genuinely disliked would be ushered all the way
into the hostess’s audience chamber by the butler to find the hostess sitting
grimly in her chair. The same etiquette was used upon the visitor’s
departure. When the visitor rose to leave, and the hostess merely stood
and didn’t set foot outside the room, the visitor knew she was despised,
or at least looked down upon as greatly inferior.
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