Mistress of the Vatican (62 page)

On January 30, the Florentine envoy Riccardi reported, “Signora Donna Olimpia said that she is more mortified by the way Maidalchini is acting, having allied himself with her enemies, than of the death of the pope and of the many pasquinades and writings against her. . . . I hear that in conclave he continues to speak ill of his aunt, as he used to

[ 374 ]

M i s t r e s s o f t h e Vat i c a n

do outside.”
²
Gregorio Leti asserted that Cardinal Maidalchini “declaimed with more noise than all the others against his aunt, although everyone laughed at all his discourses because no one esteemed him much in the conclave.”
³

It was generally believed that the Holy Spirit was listening intently to every word the cardinals said in conclave. But Olimpia had no fear that God was paying any attention at all to her wayward nephew. “The braying of an ass,” she said, shaking her head, “is not heard as far as heaven.”
⁴

As the conclave slowly ground forward in the chilly chambers, the bored cardinals began to wheel and deal—often literally, playing cards for small sums when the boredom became unbearable. At night they met secretly in one another’s cells to encourage votes for a favorite candidate, and they sent and received messages to the outside world concealed in their food platters.

To relieve the unending tedium, the young cardinals played “carni-valesque pranks” on the older ones, according to Cardinal Spada, who spotted them sneaking around at night holding candles.
⁵
The young cardinals discovered that Cardinal Carafa had built a secret door in his cell, which opened up on a passage behind the cell of Cardinal de’ Medici, leader of the Spanish faction. This enabled Carafa’s
conclavistas
to eavesdrop on the plotting and planning of the Spaniards. Cardinal Maidalchini, who was by now twenty-five, wrapped himself in a sheet and tiptoed through the passage. He planned to enter Cardinal Carafa’s cell through the hidden door and shriek like a ghost. But Carafa was a light sleeper and had become aware of strange sounds in the passageway. Though he lay still in bed, he was, in fact, wide awake. When the white form moved past him, he whacked it hard with the cane he kept in his bed. Sobbing in pain, Cardinal Maidalchini staggered out the way he had come.

On February 9, Cardinal Giangiacomo Trivulzio left the conclave feverish with a rash on his face. Three days later Cardinal Vincenzo Maculano became ill but refused to leave the conclave because he wanted to become pope. On February 15, Cardinal Carafa, who had also refused to leave despite a fever, died in his cell.

[ 375 ]

Eleanor Herman

Olimpia was hell-bent on preventing her enemies from becoming pope. There were three in particular who for years had poured forth vitriolic monologues about her greed, lust for power, and sexual immorality: Giovan Battista Pallotta, Federico Sforza, and Vincenzo Macu-lano. She was also terrified of the former datary, Domenico Cecchini; though he seemed to hold no grudge against her for alienating him from the pope, payback time could come the moment he plopped the triple tiara on his head. Whenever these four cardinals were nominated, Cardinal Francesco Barberini shot them down on Olimpia’s behalf.

But it was much easier to prevent the election of an enemy than to secure the election of a friend. Scrutinies were held every day for Cardinal Sacchetti, who, though he was popular with the other cardinals, had been vetoed again by Spain, who still thought him too friendly with Mazarin. Those cardinals with pensions from the king of Spain, and from his ally the duke of Tuscany, were reluctant to vote for him.

Olimpia was receiving conclave news every day from a spy, Francesco Ravizza, the
conclavista
of her cousin Cardinal Gualterio. But on March 3, Ravizza was taken to jail in the Castel Sant’Angelo. Gigli wrote, “It was discovered that in a certain place he sent letters which were carried to Donna Olimpia and which told her all the negotiations of the conclave about the creation of a new pope.”
⁶

One of the letters found was from Olimpia with instructions to prevent the election of her old enemy, Cardinal Maculano, at all costs. The discovery of Olimpia’s spy sparked heated debate. Some cardinals declared it was bad enough that a woman had elected one pope; they would do everything in their power to prevent her from electing a second.

On March 4 news leaked out of the conclave that Cardinal Bernar-dino Spada had become delirious with fever and believed that he had been elected pope. He began making loud plans for his coronation and issuing proclamations. Cardinal Spada was forcibly removed from the conclave and taken to his palace to recuperate. But many believed that he had feigned his illness so that he could meet with the French ambassador and Olimpia for urgent negotiations.

Cardinal Spada knew that France had given instructions to Cardinal

[ 376 ]

M i s t r e s s o f t h e Vat i c a n

d’Este to exclude Fabio Chigi if voting seemed to be going in his favor. During Chigi’s tenure as papal nuncio to Germany, he had often remarked that the French in general, and Cardinal Mazarin in particular, were strangely opposed to making peace. Mazarin, with his long memory and delicate ego, refused to see this man as pope.

Yet more and more cardinals were talking about Chigi. True, he was too young at fifty-six and had been a cardinal for only three years, but his incorruptible standards, his international legal and diplomatic experience, and his irreproachable way of life might make up for those defects. The members of the Flying Squadron, in fact, supposing that Sacchetti might very well fail because of Spanish opposition, were holding Chigi in reserve as their backup candidate.

Given the increasing support for Chigi, it was urgent that Spada meet with the French ambassador and Olimpia to see if Chigi would be acceptable to them. For in this election there were not the usual two great powers with veto privileges—France and Spain. There were now three: France, Spain, and Olimpia. Before Spada returned to the conclave, he was seen entering the Palazzo Pamphili.

Gregorio Leti harrumphed, “Because, to tell the truth, putting aside the interests of Spain and France, everything centered on either the protection or the ruin of Donna Olimpia. To see her ruined, the cardinals who were her enemies would have given their vote not only to an unworthy candidate, but to the devil himself as long as he was her enemy. And, on the other side, those who were looking out for her interests would have had no difficulty in rejecting a saint if he had shown the least aversion to this woman.”
⁷

Certainly Chigi would not have been Olimpia’s preference. Yet if Chigi were elected, would he go out of his way to punish the family of the pope who had plucked him from obscurity and made him a cardinal? Would he hold a grudge against her for all those prickling insults? Olimpia was not sure. But the Flying Squadron and the Barberini cardinals, all loyal supporters of Olimpia, believed that the selfless Chigi would not be one to exact his pound of flesh.

Ironically, even Olimpia’s worst enemies—Cardinals Sforza, Pal-lotta, and Maculano—were supportive of Chigi. With his strict sense of

[ 377 ]

Eleanor Herman

justice, they believed he could not ignore her depradations of the papal treasury and would prosecute her to the fullest extent of the law.

Evidently Olimpia grudgingly gave her approval to vote for Chigi if Sacchetti could not be elected. Now there was only Mazarin to deal with. Cardinal Antonio Barberini wrote a letter urging Mazarin to withdraw his secret exclusion of Chigi. He was the best candidate for the job, Antonio explained, and harbored no resentment toward France. Besides, the conclave had been going on for two months. Rome was in chaos, and Milan had gone to war with Modena. A new pontiff was urgently needed to establish law and order at home and negotiate peace abroad.

Cardinal Sacchetti also sent a letter, generously stepping aside as the French candidate, imploring Mazarin to allow the election of the worthy Chigi for the good of Christendom. If the Most Christian King did not withdraw the exclusion, the cardinals, more of whom were falling sick, might elect Chigi anyway, and for the second time in a row the new pope would bear no love for France, which had tried to prevent his election.

The cardinals’ letters were posted with special messengers who rode like the wind. Finally, the verdict was delivered. Mazarin and the sixteen-year-old Louis XIV would be absolutely delighted if the virtuous Cardinal Chigi became pope.

With France, Spain, and Olimpia accepting the choice, on the evening of April 6 the cardinals went to Chigi’s cell to give him the glorious news that on the following morning he would become pope. When the cardinals knocked on his cell door they found that he was taking a nap. Chigi listened to their news with no change of expression and then asked them to reconsider their choice. He had many obvious imperfections, he said, and quite a few they didn’t even know about. But this self-deprecating statement only increased the cardinals’ eagerness to elect him.

The following day, Cardinal Chigi received a unanimous vote, except for his own, which he gave to Sacchetti. When the last vote was taken out of the chalice and read, Chigi fell to his knees and prayed. With tears streaming down his face, he stood and announced that he

[ 378 ]

M i s t r e s s o f t h e Vat i c a n

would be called Alexander VII to honor the twelfth-century Alexander III, who had come from Chigi’s hometown of Siena.

Four days after the election, on the night of April 11, a great storm hammered Rome. Amidst the rain, hail, thunder, and lightning, a carriage and four headless horses of fire were seen racing through the city. When they arrived at Olimpia’s garden on the Tiber, they sprang into an abyss and disappeared. Word got out that in this carriage was the soul of Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphili.

q

While Rome’s nobility were calling on the new pontiff to congratulate him, Olimpia was afraid to do so. Would he physically eject her from the papal palace? He had always said he didn’t want women running around the Vatican. She sent Camillo to render homage in the name of the Pamphilis and sound out the pope’s response. Alexander accepted Camillo’s wishes with dignity but not great warmth. This worried Olimpia.

Next she sent her majordomo to present her congratulations. Alex-ander merely told him to thank his mistress for her good wishes. And that was it. Not satisfied, Olimpia sent Cardinal Azzolini to let the pope know how delighted she was at his exaltation. Once more, the pope replied with alarming coolness. Shortly thereafter, he granted the vegetable vendors’ request to reopen the Piazza Navona for their Wednesday market. Then he ordered Olimpia to clear out the construction material for the Church of Saint Agnes, which was littering the piazza.

Olimpia was, for once, uncertain what to do. How would she win over this new pope, who held her very life in his hands? Projecting her own tastes onto Alexander, she completely misjudged him. She sent her majordomo to the papal palace with two enormous gold vases and the wish that she could come and kiss his feet. But the Holy Father sent her majordomo back with the vases and a message that she was to keep herself far removed from the Vatican as it was not a place for women.

Pope Alexander immediately embarked on numerous acts of goodwill and charity. He sold his silverware for six thousand scudi and gave the

[ 379 ]

Eleanor Herman

money to the poor. He ordered his butler to replenish the papal cupboards with plates and bowls of earthenware on which was painted the skull and crossbones. He personally paid the debts of up to thirty scudi of every debtor in prison, thereby permitting many of them to go home. He sent cartloads of white bread to the prisoners who remained.

The new pope ordered a lead coffin in which he planned to be buried and placed it in his bedroom. Alexander hoped that by having the image of his death before him, he would always remain a humble servant of God no matter how rich and powerful he was. But there was perhaps a second reason for this macabre décor—to make sure his body would never end up on a plank of wood in a janitor’s closet.

On April 18, 1655, Pope Alexander VII was crowned in Saint Peter’s to the great joy of the Roman people. Though the Pamphilis had emptied the papal treasury completely, in the three months since Innocent’s death taxes and contributions from all over the Catholic world had been rolling in. Alexander, however, tried to cut expenses where he could. For his May 9
possesso
he wanted no pompous cavalcade with trumpeters, drummers, and gaily caparisoned horses. He wanted to go on foot, and humbly.

But, Giacinto Gigli noted, “he was persuaded to consider that the cavalcade gave joy to the people and that the money of the Apostolic Camera went to the Romans to make clothes for the officials and pages, and other pious works, because this money went to poor gentlemen and paid poor artists and so the pope let his decision be changed and allowed the cavalcade at a moderate cost.”
⁸

Olimpia was not in town for the coronation. She had left some time earlier for a visit to San Martino. Perhaps she vacated Rome because she was afraid of attracting any attention to herself. Or maybe she simply couldn’t bear to watch the crowning of a new pope, clear proof that her power was gone forever. It must have been soothing for her to escape the insults, noise, filth, and fear of Rome for her country palace. There the air was sweet and fresh, and in April the hills were alive with the color of emeralds.