mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Eleanor Herman
quite acceptable. But the seventeenth century was not exactly a time of
restraint.
“Christ gave the keyes of his church to Saint Peter . . . and not to his
nephews,” Leti reminded his readers, but they wouldn’t have known it
by looking at the Barberini family. 3 Urban VIII would become the
most nepotistic pope ever, routinely imposing new taxes on a beleaguered
population suffering at different times from plague, flood, and
famine. The pope taxed the staples of life—bread, flour, salt, and
fruit—so heavily that in some years people starved on the street while
his relatives received streams of gold from Vatican coffers.
Urban’s deceased brother Carlo had sired three sons, and all were
amply rewarded under their uncle’s pontificate. Taddeo, who possessed
very little when Urban ascended the throne in 1623, owned landed
property worth four million scudi in 1632, a figure that did not include
piles of cash and his art collection of Raphaels, Titians, Michelangelos,
and Leonardo da Vincis. In 1630 he acquired the principality of Palestrina,
becoming Prince Taddeo.
In 1627 Urban arranged Taddeo’s marriage to the scion of one of
Rome’s most noble families. Anna Colonna had desperately wanted to
become a nun and had successfully held out against marriage until the
advanced age of twenty-six. But she suddenly found herself forced by
the loss of her family’s fortunes to marry the pope’s nouveau arrivé
nephew, whom she couldn’t stand. Perhaps Anna Colonna was consoled
by her husband’s immeasurable wealth. The family jewels rivaled
those of the royal dynasties of Europe. And no one ate from anything
that was not of pure gold, silver, or rock crystal, studded with gems.
Anna Colonna must have enjoyed living in the most glorious palace
in Rome. Prince Taddeo hired the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo,
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, to design the Barberini family residence on the
northwestern slope of Quirinal Hill. This monumental structure had
an audience chamber with forty-foot ceilings painted with Greek gods.
The niches all the way up the triumphal staircase held ancient Roman
statues. Behind the palace were extensive gardens of rare flowers and
lemon trees, adorned with ancient statues and fountains. The Barberini
Palace was also known as the Palace of the Four Fountains.
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