Mistress of the Vatican (57 page)

Innocent was furious over the secret ladder. For one thing, a cardinal should not be sneaking out of the papal palace to visit pretty ladies at night or, heaven forbid, bringing them into the papal palace. For another, it was a dangerous breach of security, as spies and assassins could

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have climbed
up
the ladder. And third, the cardinal could have used the ladder to sneak out and visit the Spanish ambassador and other enemies of the pope.

Cardinal Astalli maintained great dignity in the face of his very public disgrace. He did not send the pope letters imploring his mercy. He did not beg the other cardinals to intercede for him. He knew he was facing financial ruin, sitting in his drafty medieval castle with no means of maintaining it. His cash was gone, his bonds had been seized, and his furniture had been sold at auction. He had almost nothing to live on. But he knew the pope could not last much longer, and then he, a cardinal still, would do his utmost to elect as his successor an enemy of the house of Pamphili. In this ambition, Cardinal Astalli had a soul mate.

By the time of Astalli’s downfall, Cardinal Maidalchini was no longer a clueless boy. He had had seven years of education and training by some of the brightest men in the church. His association with French diplomats had given his manners a bit of Gallic polish. And though his intelligence would always glimmer feebly in the galaxy of brilliant minds adorning the papal court, he was certainly smart enough to know that Aunt Olimpia had used him vilely to serve her own purposes. The pope, too, had treated him poorly.

To thumb his nose at his aunt and the pope, Cardinal Maidalchini transferred some of his lucrative church pensions to the disgraced Cardinal Astalli so that he could live comfortably in exile. Anyone who was an enemy of Aunt Olimpia was Francesco Maidalchini’s best friend.

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It must have been with great relief that Romans celebrated the Carnival of 1654. For ten days they could forget papal intrigues, disgrace, and the pope’s advancing age and be swept up in parades, feasts, and comedies. Camillo enjoyed this Carnival season greatly. His rival, Cardinal Ast-alli, was gone, his money and property were restored to the Pamphili family, and in the Palazzo Aldobrandini on the Corso, Camillo performed comedies with his servants almost every evening.

Camillo “takes the lead of the young lover,” Giacinto Gigli wrote with disdain.
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This was seen as ridiculous in a thirty-one-year-old. It is

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likely that Camillo’s wife and mother finally agreed on one thing—that Camillo was adept at making a fool of himself.

On the first day of Lent, the pope went in regal cavalcade to the Church of Saint Sabina, then headed to the Tor de’ Specchi Convent to visit Sister Agatha. But according to Gigli, when he realized he was going to pass by Cardinal Astalli’s palace, he ordered his litter-bearers to go another way, “and he did this to avoid passing by the Astalli house.”
²³

As the pope’s strength continued to decline, Olimpia carefully examined the Sacred College to determine which members were her friends and which her enemies. She would need a strong faction within the conclave to ensure the election of a pontiff who would not harm her once he climbed upon the throne. Her most frightening opponent was Cardinal Pallotta, whom she had insulted in the street back in 1648, prompting him to call her a whore.

Cardinal Federico Sforza—whom she had exiled for suggesting that Cardinal Maidalchini should not open the holy door—was no friend of hers, either, and was always “saying very nasty things against her reputation.”
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The former datary, Cardinal Cecchini, knew that Olimpia was behind his disgrace. He would ally himself with the elderly Cardinal Vincenzo Maculano, a dear friend of the princess of Rossano’s who hated Olimpia’s meddling in Vatican affairs with particular venom. For reasons that were personal rather than political, Cardinals Astalli and Maidalchini would do their utmost to elect a voracious enemy of Olim-pia’s. Others who detested her as an interfering woman were Cardinals Fabrizio Savelli, Giovanni Lomellini, Lorenzo Imperiale, and Giberto Borromeo. That made ten died-in-the-wool enemies.

But if Olimpia had enemies in the Sacred College, she had powerful friends as well. There were three Barberini cardinals, who would do nothing to damage the house of Pamphili, to which they were now inextricably allied. The Barberinis could pull together a faction of cardinals created by Urban VIII and more recent creations who were on their side.

Also among her friends was Cardinal Francesco Cherubini, who had worked closely with Innocent for more than forty years, first as an auditor

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of the Rota, then in Naples, Spain, and Rome. Another supporter was Cardinal Benedetto Odescalchi, who, though a worthy churchman, had in 1645 reportedly obtained his cardinal’s hat at the age of thirty-four when his rich brother, ambitious for family honor, bribed Olimpia with a silver dinner service. If that was indeed the case, it would prove an excellent bargain—in return for saucers and soup bowls Odescalchi would become Pope Innocent XI in 1676.

On her list of friends and enemies, Olimpia was uncertain where to place Cardinal Chigi. Clearly he disliked her involvement in Vatican affairs. But he had always been courteous to her, unlike many of the other cardinals. Given his horror of any taint of scandal to the church, would he be inclined to rake her over the coals if he became pope? Would a man of great rectitude drag down the family of the pope to whom he owed everything? She was not sure.

No matter where Chigi stood, it was clear that Olimpia needed more supporters to balance her enemies. Though the Sacred College had a limit of seventy members, at the moment it consisted of only sixty-three cardinals. Olimpia handed the pope a list of seven prelates for the next creation of cardinals.

The handsome Decio Azzolini would be amply rewarded for his invaluable espionage in the Astalli case. Well aware of which side his bread was buttered on, he vowed to work closely with Olimpia in conclave. Though the reason for his creation was, perhaps, not the most ethical, he brought multifaceted talents to the Sacred College. At thirty he was highly intelligent, hardworking, and cunning. He had received his doctorates in philosophy, theology, and law. He could maneuver behind the scenes, where most Vatican politics were crafted. But he was not without flaws. “His defects that over-rule him . . . ,” Gregorio Leti scoffed, are “amours to all kinds of Ladies, both Virgins and Wives, he passing most of his time in caressing them, not regarding whether the Republique receives any advantage, or no.”
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Olimpia promoted a relative on her mother’s side, forty-year-old Carlo Gualterio of Orvieto, a consistorial lawyer. Leti had a poor opinion of Gualterio’s abilities, as did the pope. “Innocent was really in his own mind averse from introducing persons of so small virtue as this and

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Maldachino into the Sacred College, amongst so many Eminent persons, and so many great Princes,” he explained. “If the qualities of a Maldachino and Gualterio were compar’d, Gualterio’s though they are good for little or nothing, are yet less ridiculous than the former.”
²⁶
Leti noted that the pope did not keep Gualterio in the papal offices but immediately gave him a bishopric “only to send him packing from Rome, it going against the hair to see in the Consistories and publique meetings such a creature sitting amongst so many Cardinals of renoun.”
²⁷

Ottavio Acquaviva, the governor of Viterbo during Innocent’s magical visit the previous October, was given a hat as the pope had promised. For years Acquaviva had been an able governor of several papal territories, and he was a close friend of Olimpia’s. Other members of this creation were not known to be blind supporters of Olimpia’s, but considering Olimpia chose them, we can assume they were friendly enough and certainly were no enemies.

The oddest thing about the creation was the fact that the pope kept it secret from his secretary of state. Innocent knew that Chigi would adamantly oppose the creation of Olimpia’s two favorites—Azzolini and Gualterio—though he thought highly of the others. It was a huge insult to Chigi that he was not informed until the list was officially released. He knew that Olimpia was behind the insult.

Another insult was in store. Olimpia begged the pope to replace Cardinal Chigi as secretary of state with that bright, handsome, young Cardinal Azzolini. But here she was stymied. Cardinal Pallavicino noted, “Those who were intimately informed were aware that the pope did not want to lose Cardinal Chigi; with his sterling reputation he could not be removed without great vituperation, and without great justification.”
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To appease Olimpia, the pope agreed to speak to Cardinal Chigi only in the presence of Cardinal Azzolini, who would report back to her every word. Cardinal Azzolini began to act as if he were co–secretary of state, walking into the pope’s offices throughout the day without inviting Cardinal Chigi as protocol required. Chigi sat alertly in his office, watching the comings and goings, and knew these daily slights were all due to Olimpia.

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Cardinals who were also bishops were scheduled to spend a certain amount of time in their seats, administering the bishopric. Important cardinals—and certainly the secretary of state—were expected to ask for a postponement of their bishops’ visits, which was automatically granted. Seeing his scheduled visit coming up, Chigi did not ask for a postponement. Perhaps he looked forward to leaving Vatican intrigues and Olimpia’s malice for the relative calm of Nardo, a backwater in southern Italy. He sent a note to Innocent listing the men he had appointed to take care of his business during his absence. To Chigi’s disappointment, the pope sent back a note postponing his bishop’s visit.

It certainly was to Olimpia’s disappointment that Chigi was not sent packing to Nardo to deal with priests’ squabbles, villagers’ complaints, and a leaking church roof. But by mid-1654, looking at the Sacred College, Olimpia could be pleased that she had diluted the power of her enemies and stacked it with as many supporters as she dared. When Innocent died, she would be ready.

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22

Death of the Dove

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The last of all the Romans, fare thee well. It is impossible that ever Rome should breed thy fellow.

—William Shakespeare,
Julius Caesar

hough she was once again amassing huge amounts of cash, this did not give Olimpia the feeling of safety. An unfriendly pope could seize her bank accounts and bonds, as Innocent had done to the Barberinis and to Cardinal Astalli. And while one could hide gold in walls and under the floors, this, too, could be discovered. It would be more difficult for the next pope to confiscate property, especially if it was located outside Rome. The nobles bristled with anger whenever the government tried to take an estate from a nobleman, real-izing theirs could be next.

On April 26, 1654, Olimpia purchased at auction vast tracts of land, including several castles in Umbria, for 265,000 scudi. It was a relatively safe investment; if events forced her to remove herself even farther from Rome than San Martino, she could retire as a feudal princess to her lovely turreted castle of Alviano.

Soon after Olimpia bought her castles, a messenger galloped into the papal palace bearing glorious news for the pope. Twenty-seven-year-old Queen Christina of Sweden, who had been talking secretly to Jesuit

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priests since 1651, was prepared to convert from Lutheranism to Ca-tholicism. She would abdicate on June 6 in favor of her cousin, Charles X Gustav, and retire quietly until such time as her pensions and annuities were firmly fixed by the Swedish government. If she became a Catholic before receiving her financial settlement, it was feared that the horrified Lutheran government would make sure she never got a dime.

Her conversion was top secret, known only to the pope, Cardinal Chigi as secretary of state, and a handful of top Jesuits. Innocent must have waited with bated breath to see if the queen would, in fact, abdicate; she had discussed doing so before and had put it off. By July he would have received word that the abdication had taken place. The restless queen left her native land and traveled first to Hamburg, then to Brussels and Antwerp to await her financial settlement. Once the documents were signed, Christina would publicly convert and move to Rome.

In the seventeenth century, Sweden was a major European power. The conversion of its Lutheran monarch would be an absolute triumph for the Catholic Church and almost make up for the humiliating Treaty of Westphalia. Moreover, Christina’s father, Gustav II Adolphus, had been one of the most dangerous heretics since Martin Luther; the warrior king had soundly trounced Catholic forces again and again during the Thirty Years’ War, paying with his life in the 1632 Battle of Lützen. When Innocent could finally release the news, it would be the crowning glory of his papacy and make up for all the awful scandals.