Mistress of the Vatican (52 page)

Though Mascambruno’s prison had swiftly disappeared, his legacy of crime and punishment continued. On July 27, 1652, two associates of Mascambruno’s were hanged, their bodies burned and the ashes thrown in the Tiber. Two others fled to Geneva, where they were heartily welcomed by the heretics. Another one, hearing the tromping of the guards on his stairs coming to get him, flung himself out of an upper window, committing suicide.

The depressed pope began to think about building his tomb. When he first became pope, he and Olimpia had discussed plans to turn the tiny Chapel of Saint Agnes into a grand church facing the Piazza Navona, a baroque confection worthy of the bones of the Pamphili

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family and the pope himself. The chapel had originally been built in one of the arches of the Domitian stadium, the site of the supposed saint’s supposed martyrdom.

By the time houses were built in the piazza in the fourteenth century, the Chapel of Saint Agnes was submerged some fifteen feet below ground. A large town house was constructed on top of it, facing the piazza, while a little church and entry to the chapel were built on the Via dell’Anima, behind the piazza. Innocent planned to buy the house, now owned by the Mellini family, tear it down along with the old church behind it, and create his grand new church. Connected to the enlarged Palazzo Pamphili, the church would be an extension of the palace complex and a political statement of the power and grandeur of the Pam-phili family. In the belfry he would place the church bells taken from his victory over Castro.

Innocent commissioned the father-and-son architects Girolamo and Carlo Rainaldi to design the edifice. Camillo, who preened himself over his vast architectural expertise, was given the honor of overseeing the project. In a grand ceremony, attended by numerous cardinals, the pope laid the foundation stone on August 15.

Despite his excitement over the new building projects, the pope’s temper became unusually short. In September he finally fired his old friend Cardinal Cecchini from the post of datary, the exact reason for which has never clearly been determined. Giacinto Gigli wrote, “No one knew if it was because he had been complicit in the errors of Mas-cambruno or for some other reason. . . . Those waiting in the antechamber for an audience with the pope heard a big argument in which the pope was very angry and the cardinal said that he had always been an honest gentleman and the pope said, If that is so we will see soon. And he told him not to appear in consistory or in church or anywhere else.”
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Querulous and suspicious, on October 2 the pope fired both the majordomo and the head butler of Cardinal Astalli-Pamphili. In Novem-ber the grouchy pontiff fired his own majordomo and his wardrobe master. He took an inveterate dislike to his friend and architectural ad-visor Virgilio Spada and to Monsignor Farnese, the governor of Rome.

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The Holy Father was becoming a holy terror, lashing out in uncontrollable anger at his family members, his staff, his old friends, and even the cardinals. He granted very few favors. Those who sought favors knew the only person the pope listened to was Cardinal Chigi, who refused to intercede on behalf of greedy favor seekers. The unofficial business of the court—the bestowing of pensions, titles, honors, and incomes—came to a grinding halt. Many courtiers began to believe that only if Olimpia came back could things return to normal. Only she could truly calm the fretful pontiff. Olimpia alone could make him laugh and shrug off for a few moments the crushing weight of his office. Only she could convince him to listen to the requests of courtiers— for a commission, of course, the accepted price of doing business.

Cardinal Pallavicino huffed, “The most highly regarded prelates and cardinals of the court, who knew of this abomination of the monstrous power of a woman in the Vatican, and knew of her pomp and greed and how she abused it, being intolerant of Innocent’s hardness, desired the sister-in-law back to help them with favors, as an angel of intercession.”
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For the same reason, the Pamphili family, too—with the exception of the princess of Rossano—wanted Olimpia back. Without her mediation, they had received very few favors from the pope, who lately had been chasing them out of his audience chamber with angry words whenever they requested anything. Only Olimpia could convince the pope to fulfill his duties to his family. Eyeing Cardinal Astalli-Pamphili warily, the family knew that only Olimpia could deal effectively with this arrogant intruder siphoning off the Pamphili patrimony.

And so Camillo, Prince Ludovisi, Prince Giustiniani, and several cardinals, when listening to the pope’s venting about unruly servants or difficult politics, nodded with compassionate understanding. Things had never been the same for the poor pope since Olimpia left, they said. Only Olimpia could muzzle her clamorous family members. Only Olimpia could run his large household with strict efficiency so that he did not have to upset himself over bad help. Only Olimpia could supervise the datary and the other departments, keeping an unblinking eye on all financial transactions, and making sure that corruption did not go beyond the bounds of good taste. Perhaps the pope should consider

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bringing Olimpia back? Why should he torment himself, at his age, with such irritating details, when his brilliant sister-in-law could do all that for him?

The pope had to agree. He desperately wanted Olimpia back. He had valiantly taken a stand against her to maintain the honor of the Catholic Church, but without her the honor of the church had fallen to new lows. He missed his old comfortable pair of loafers. He missed chuckling and gossiping with her, unveiling his deepest fears, something he couldn’t do with anyone else. Nothing had been right since she left.

But Innocent found himself in a quandary. Back in 1650 when he banished Olimpia from his presence, he had launched into angry monologues against her in front of ambassadors and cardinals. He had criti-cized her thieving from the papal treasury, her bossiness in running the Vatican, and her selfish cruelty against her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. The pope had sworn that for six years he had known nothing about her corruption, and now that he knew, he was exiling her from the Vatican. Those who listened to his tirades had applauded his firmness. If he brought her back despite her crimes, they would laugh at his weakness.

The pope knew that he would look ridiculous if he suddenly issued a pardon to Olimpia. He would need to canvas the Sacred College, as advisors to the church, to see whether they would support her return. That way he wouldn’t be making the decision alone. He began timidly asking his cardinals individually what they thought of allowing Olim-pia back. Even those who did not particularly like Olimpia believed that she would provide a soothing influence on the pope, rendering him much easier to work with.

Some cardinals thought that the pope’s open contempt for his sister-in-law had been unseemly; he should bring her back to a position of modified favor, giving her the role of friend and first lady of Rome but not of running the government. These cardinals told the pope that Olimpia had learned her lesson; she would henceforth restrain her greed and ambition and restrict herself to a more womanly role—the pope’s hostess and companion.

Cardinal Pallavicino scoffed at this opinion. “And this is wondrous

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in sage men, all assuming that she could return to a state in between, in which she would have helped with the petitions of others but would not have regained her former power or sold the palace positions as best she could.”
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While most cardinals told the pope that pardoning Olimpia was an excellent idea, the one assent he truly wanted was that of Cardinal Chigi, the man he respected most. If the incorruptible Chigi supported Olimpia’s return for the good of the pope and the church, few would question it. Cardinal Pallavicino reported, “One day, finding himself alone with Cardinal Chigi, he asked his opinion if it were opportune to rehabilitate her for the peace and quiet of the family, and to relieve him of these tedious matters.”
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Cardinal Chigi found himself in a bind. “He knew that the pope having Olimpia by his side the second time around would be much more dishonorable than the first, when one could presume he was ignorant of the indecent occurrences.”
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But Chigi also knew that even if he were adamantly opposed to Olimpia’s pardon, the pope would call her back anyway. Restored to power, Olimpia, realizing Chigi was an enemy, would sideline or fire him, and he would not be in a position to mitigate the scandal she would cause for the church. And yet the honest cardinal could not lie to the pope.

Sighing, Chigi said he feared that Olimpia’s return would result in an immediate public brawl with the princess of Rossano, who would not be likely to graciously yield her position as first lady of Rome to her mother-in-law. He would not wish to see His Holiness brought low by further family squabbles.

The pope, who had wanted an enthusiastic affirmation of his proposal, was dissatisfied with this cool response. He hesitated. And his family remained on tenterhooks. Realizing that Cardinal Chigi was responsible for the pope’s hesitation, Prince Ludovisi called on him one day to convince him that Olimpia’s return was for the good of the Catholic Church and the Papal States.

“Cardinal Chigi,” his biographer wrote, “knew well that the evil of her return was inevitable, but did not want to be seen as a participant in it.” When Prince Ludovisi pressed Chigi for his opinion, he replied

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“that this business had nothing to do with him, that he had never been opposed to her return with a single word, and that the pope and his sister-in-law should try with all sincerity to live tranquilly.”
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And that was all they were going to get out of Cardinal Chigi.

It was enough for the pope to move forward. Seventeenth-century protocol required that Olimpia be rehabilitated in a ceremonial way, having made peace with her former enemies before she was pardoned by the pope. Her first step was to win over Sister Agatha, who had never forgiven her for stealing Saint Francesca’s shoulder bone. Olimpia explained her pilfering of the holy relic as an excess of religious zeal. She, too, loved and venerated the saint and wanted the relic to restore the luster to a neglected church in San Martino. What she had done might have been wrong, indeed, but her motives had been pure—it was all for the glory of God.

This was an explanation likely to win the nun’s approval. Olimpia asked her forgiveness for the theft, which the pious, peacemaking nun readily granted. Olimpia confessed the pain and humiliation of her exile—we can imagine Sister Agatha in tears at this point—and her wish to be reinstated in the bosom of her family. And the kindhearted nun promised to help.

On March 11, 1653, Romans were flabbergasted by the sight of Olim-pia making a courtesy call on the princess of Rossano at her palace on the Corso. Camillo was absent from Rome, but there, in front of the palazzo, the heavily pregnant princess, eighty-three-year-old Sister Ag-atha, and four-year-old Gianbattista Pamphili were lined up to welcome Olimpia as if she were a queen. It must have been difficult for Olimpia to extend her hand to her daughter-in-law, and even more difficult for the princess to take that hand.

Cardinal Astalli-Pamphili then visited Olimpia at the Piazza Navona palace for a public, if superficial, reconciliation. But the most important ceremony occurred when Sister Agatha led Olimpia by the arm into the Quirinal Palace for a private meeting with the pope. She remained there until after midnight, the
avvisi
stated, which indicates that the journalists had stationed themselves outside the palace to see what time she reentered her carriage.

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One of Olimpia’s first acts delighted her family. She convinced the pope to give Prince Ludovisi 100,000 scudi from the papal treasury, the dowry he should have received back in 1644 for marrying Costanza Pamphili. For decades the going rate for a papal niece had been 100,000 scudi, and he had only received 20,000. Now the fat prince could no longer berate his wife for her lack of dowry or tromp around Rome complaining of his bad bargain, which must have gladdened Costanza more than the cash itself. He used this money to buy a palace and began to incorporate the houses next door into it.

Once more, Olimpia’s carriage rumbled up to the Quirinal, where she emerged carrying a stack of petitions for the pope to sign. Once again the Piazza Navona was crammed with the carriages of cardinals and ambassadors whom she received like an empress, surrounded by a bevy of noblewomen waiting on her. The ambassador of the Venetian republic traveled to the Piazza Navona in great pomp to beg Olimpia’s assistance in convincing the pope to help Venice fight the Turks.

She received everyone graciously except Monsignor Melzi, the nuncio to Vienna who had helped topple her in 1650 by telling Innocent of the emperor’s comment, that the shame of Christendom was a pope who “has placed his government in the hands of a woman about whom all the heretics are laughing.”
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As a peace offering, Nuncio Melzi sent Olimpia two beautiful scent bottles filled with rare perfume. To no avail. He was her enemy and would never be forgiven. But she kept the perfume.