Mistress of the Vatican

the true story of Olimpia Maidalchini : the secret female pope

by Eleanor Herman

2008 452 pages eng

"We have just elected a female pope." —Cardinal Alessandro Bichi, 1644 Today's Roman Catholic Church firmly states that women must be excluded from church leadership positions, but they neglect to mention that for over a decade in the seventeenth century a woman unofficially, but openly, ran the Vat…