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Vatican Bankrolled Protestant Takeover of English Throne
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Pope who 'betrayed' Church moved out of grave to make room for John Paul II
The removal of the remains of a 17th-century Pope to make room for John Paul II -- who will be beatified on May 1 -- has prompted claims of a Vatican plot to punish the former's financial support for the Protestant King William of Orange.
The body of Blessed Pope Innocent XI, whose family is alleged to have helped to bankroll the campaign of the Dutch-born 'King Billy' to take the English throne, has been taken out of the Chapel of St Sebastian, near the entrance to St Peter's basilica in Rome.
Innocent XI's crystal casket was transferred, in a simple ceremony, after St Peter's closed its doors on April 7. Innocent XI, who was Pope from 1676 till his death in 1689, is considered a hero of the Christian struggle against Islam because of his role in defending Europe against the Ottoman Turks during their second siege of Vienna in 1683.
His reputation took a battering, however, when a husband-and-wife team of Italian novelists gained access to archives showing that his rich Odescalchi banking family helped to finance William of Orange. Francesco Sorti and Rita Monaldi wrote a 2002 historical thriller titled Imprimatur based on the documents that they discovered in the Rome state archives.
They maintain that the Odescalchis in effect financed the overthrow of England's last Catholic monarch, James II, by William of Orange in the 'Glorious Revolution' in 1688. A sum of 173,000 scudi -- equal to the Vatican's annual deficit -- was loaned to William in the 1660s through intermediaries in Venice. When Innocent XI became Pope, the couple said, he favoured William against the Catholic 'Sun King' of France, Louis XIV, because he wanted to get his money back. The loans helped William to invade England, forcing James II to flee to France.
[link to www.herald.ie]
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