mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Mistress of the Vatican
another. They also pelted passersby with oranges and painted eggs filled
with scented powder, jam, perfume, or water. One popular prank was to
pour honey out of an upper window onto the heads of pedestrians below.
On Ash Wednesday the boisterous extravagance of Carnival disappeared,
replaced by the funereal atmosphere of Lent, which commemorated
Jesus’ forty days in the desert. During this time, Romans wore
black, ate no meat, attended no festivities, and meditated on the sacrifice
of Jesus on the cross. One Turkish ambassador visiting Rome was
absolutely perplexed by the riotous Carnival followed by the sudden solemnity
of Ash Wednesday. He wrote the sultan in Constantinople that
Carnival was a ten-day mania that afflicted the Christians annually and
was only cured by the application of ashes to the face.
Communion, which had been taken frequently in the early centuries
of Christianity, had almost stopped completely by the sixteenth century.
Catholic theologians argued loudly that the consecrated bread really
was the body of Christ; this terrified people who thought it a desecration
to have something so holy slide down their gullets, rumble into
their stomachs, and come shooting out the other end.
Given the widespread fear of the Eucharist, the Council of Trent
mandated that Catholics must confess and receive communion at least
once a year. According to custom, most Catholics, having abstained
from sex for three days, did this on the Thursday before Easter. The
faithful received only bread as their communion, as the wine was reserved
for priests. Laypeople with their clumsy hands could drop the
chalice, thereby literally spilling the blood of Christ all over again.
In 1614 Olimpia would have noticed a novelty in her Easter confession,
a grille between her and the priest. Pope Paul V had issued an
edict mandating that all confessionals be outfitted with grilles because
of the many complaints he had received from women who, when they
confessed their sexual sins in graphic detail, suddenly found themselves
pawed and groped by hormonally overwrought priests who could no
longer contain themselves.
Olimpia would have seen many festivities taking place right in front
of her house. The Piazza Navona was the heart of Rome’s powerful
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