0:00

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production

0:03

of iHeartRadio and Grim and

0:05

Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion

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advised, Hey, this

0:10

is Danish wartz. Just a bit of housekeeping

0:12

before we begin. If you want to support

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the show, we have merch and

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we have a Patreon. Both of those are linked

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in the episode description. The merch is amazing.

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I use my mugs pretty much every morning

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and over on the Patreon there is exclusive

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merch like stickers. There are episode

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scripts, and there's also a weekly recap

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bonus podcast that I do with

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a friend of mine recapping the television

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series Rain about Mary, Queen of Scott's.

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So if that sounds interesting, head

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there and thank you for listening. Having

0:48

a daughter was expensive business

0:51

in early modern Europe. From

0:53

the moment of a girl's birth. One

0:55

cost in particular would have loomed

0:58

over her family's head her

1:00

dowry. The dowry

1:03

was the payment traditionally made upon

1:05

marriage from the bride's family to

1:07

the grooms, meant as part

1:09

of the formal transfer of the bride

1:12

to her new family and as

1:14

a starting fund for the couple's

1:16

new life. In the modern

1:18

day, it's an outdated, misogynistic

1:21

practice, but in the early modern

1:23

period it was an essential component

1:26

of the right of passage of marriage.

1:29

If families could not afford it outright,

1:31

many young women worked on their own

1:34

to save up for a dowry. Marriage

1:37

often meant, among many other things,

1:39

security, and that was worth every

1:42

penny. Of course,

1:44

as this podcast can attest,

1:47

marriage was rarely as simple as

1:49

saving up a few ducats and then finding

1:52

some nice enough boy to drag to

1:54

the church. The dowry market,

1:57

like any economic market, fluctuated

2:00

over time when there were more

2:02

young women than men in a given area.

2:05

For example, a larger dowry

2:07

might be necessary to catch a suitor's attention

2:10

in a sea of options. During

2:12

those times of inflation, one

2:14

can imagine the astronomical

2:17

sums required to secure

2:19

any match, let alone an

2:22

advantageous one.

2:24

But difficult as arranging a

2:26

marriage might be, it was dangerous,

2:29

not to mention expensive, to let

2:31

a young, unmarried daughter linger

2:34

in her father's house. In a

2:36

society that prized the chastity

2:38

of women above pretty much everything

2:41

else, an unmarried adult

2:43

daughter was a sharefire recipe

2:45

for an illegitimate grandchild,

2:48

or even just the rumor of one, and

2:51

all of the scandal and shame that

2:53

would come with it. When the

2:55

population of unmarried women was

2:57

high, things became even more

2:59

challenging. Women without families

3:02

to support them often put pressure

3:04

on their cities systems of charity,

3:07

or they were drawn to the relative freedom

3:09

and potential income they could

3:11

gain from sex work, which threatened

3:14

both public resources and, in early

3:16

modern eyes, public morality.

3:19

For many Catholic families, the

3:22

only affordable option in an

3:24

inflated dowry market to still

3:26

protect the chastity of their daughters

3:29

was the convent. It was certainly

3:32

not entirely free to promise

3:34

your daughter to Jesus Christ. Many

3:36

convents charged small dowries

3:39

to help cover their new wards as upkeep,

3:42

but it was often substantially cheaper

3:44

than marrying your daughter to an earthly

3:47

husband. Even some of the more

3:49

wealthy and influential families

3:52

sent their daughters to convents, be

3:54

it as a temporary means of

3:56

protecting their chastity like Mary,

3:58

Queen of Scot's, or as a

4:00

more permanent solution when marriage

4:03

was unaffordable or otherwise

4:05

unattainable. Scores

4:07

of women and girls ended up

4:09

in convents that way, sent away

4:12

from their families, sometimes from

4:14

a very young age to a new

4:16

life that, depending on the convent,

4:19

could either mean relative freedom and

4:21

comfort, or harsh enclosure

4:24

and a penitent lifestyle.

4:27

In any case, it was a much more

4:29

restricted life than likely

4:32

any of the young girls had imagined

4:34

for themselves. Perhaps

4:36

unsurprisingly than many

4:39

of the women and girls sent to the

4:41

convents by their families out of financial

4:44

expediency did not share

4:46

the religious devotion we

4:48

might expect from nuns today.

4:51

Although those who were sent to convents

4:54

as children would not be nuns

4:56

and therefore not technically bound

4:58

to the church, once they reached

5:00

marriageable age, many found

5:02

they had few other options than

5:05

to take their vows. Some

5:07

surely found that convent life

5:09

suited them, but many resented

5:12

their families for placing them

5:14

there against their will. Some

5:16

wished for marriage, others

5:19

simply to be let out of the walls

5:21

of enclosure. Entering a

5:23

convent was a choice made for

5:26

them by their families, by

5:28

the economic conditions of the time,

5:31

and by the world in which they lived

5:34

that prized female chastity

5:36

above all else. Records

5:38

from the period see some of

5:41

these women reclaiming their freedom

5:43

in ways both big and small

5:46

in the convent that allowed it. Some

5:49

sisters took up trades, becoming

5:51

skilled artisans and earning money

5:53

for the convent, and, if they were lucky,

5:56

contact with the outside world. A

5:58

few were drawn to more scholarly

6:01

or artistic pursuits, occasionally

6:03

earning fame from within the convent

6:05

for their contributions, and

6:08

of course, some even went so far

6:10

as to appeal to the Pope, begging

6:13

to have their vows to Jesus annulled.

6:16

But others found more transgressive

6:20

ways to escape the confines

6:22

of the cloister. One

6:24

in particular, a woman first

6:27

named Marianna de Lavia Imrino

6:30

and then Sister Virginia Maria,

6:33

later known simply as the

6:35

Nun of Manza, found

6:37

her freedom in the arms of a lover,

6:40

or so she thought. This

6:43

is a story that travels through plague

6:46

into a convent, passed love,

6:48

and brutal murder into

6:50

one of the creepiest scandals

6:53

we've ever covered on this podcast.

6:56

I'm Danish Schwartz and this is

6:58

Noble Blood.

7:05

Mariana de Lvia Imrino was

7:07

just a few months past her thirteenth birthday

7:10

when her father decided to place her in

7:12

the convent of Santa Margarita

7:15

a big change, to be sure, but

7:17

that was far from the first time in

7:19

young Marianna's life that her world

7:22

had been turned upside down. She

7:24

was born in Milan, now in Italy

7:26

but then a Spanish duchy, in

7:29

fifteen seventy five, the

7:31

first and only child of Martin

7:33

de Lvia and his wife, Virginia

7:36

Maria Marino. Virginia

7:38

Maria was the daughter and heir of one

7:40

of the wealthiest men in Milan. She

7:43

had also been married once before, and she

7:45

was the widow of Ercolepio, Count

7:48

of Sassuolo, with whom she had had

7:50

a son, Marco and four daughters.

7:53

Martin de Levia, for his part, also

7:55

boasted an illustrious lineage.

7:58

He was the great grand son of

8:00

the great Antonio Delivia, who

8:03

had led the army of the Spanish

8:05

Empire under King Charles

8:07

the fifth. As a reward for his

8:09

valor, Charles had granted Antonio

8:12

the duchy of Milan upon

8:14

the death of Duke Francesco

8:16

the second Sforza. Delivia

8:19

was rewarded also with the fiefdom

8:21

of Monza, a small city

8:23

about nine miles northeast

8:25

of Milan that, despite its

8:27

small size, offered considerable

8:30

revenue. By the time

8:32

Mariana was born, her father,

8:35

Martin, had had a significant

8:37

military career of his own, and

8:40

he had inherited his great grandfather's

8:42

county of Monza as a fiefdom,

8:45

although he alternated sovereignty

8:47

with his brother. With all of

8:49

Mariana's family's wealth and influence,

8:53

the little girl seemed slated for

8:55

a charmed life. Then

8:57

all at once, disaster strung.

9:00

When Mariana was barely a year

9:02

old, in fifteen seventy six,

9:05

the plague came to Milan. As

9:08

plagues do, it tore through

9:10

the city, causing not only mass

9:12

death, but also economic devastation

9:15

as workers and consumers alike

9:18

died or left, crops

9:20

went unattended, and trade all

9:22

but disappeared. Virginia

9:24

Maria, Marianna's mother, died

9:27

that year. We don't know if plague

9:29

was the cause, although it seems a likely

9:32

possibility. What we do know

9:34

is that her death and the events

9:36

that followed would irrevocably

9:39

change the course of her youngest

9:41

daughter's life. In

9:45

the midst of her sickness, Virginia Maria

9:48

had made her last will and testament.

9:50

She chose to name as her heirs

9:53

the infant Mariana and her

9:55

son from her first marriage, Marco,

9:58

with the vast majority of her state

10:01

to be divided equally between the

10:03

two of them. It certainly

10:05

seems an odd choice, given

10:07

that Virginia Maria had four

10:09

other daughters from her earlier first

10:12

marriage. Maybe she assumed

10:14

they would be taken care of. Perhaps

10:16

she thought her daughters might forgive her for

10:19

choosing to ensure the livelihoods

10:21

of her son, who would have to start his

10:23

own household, and her infant

10:25

daughter, who was further away from the

10:27

protection that marriage could offer.

10:30

It was, as you might have guessed, a

10:33

grave miscalculation. Within

10:36

just days of their mother's death, Marco's

10:39

sisters, Marianna's half sisters,

10:41

represented by their uncle, went to

10:44

court to contest the will, arguing

10:46

that they should have also received fair

10:49

shares of the estate. The

10:52

legal battle that ensued defined

10:54

the early years of Marianna's life,

10:56

and she would spend her early years with no

10:58

sense of stability or certainty.

11:01

Mere months after Virginia Maria died,

11:04

Martin de Laviat left his infant

11:06

daughter in the care of an aunt,

11:09

and he went off to Flanders on

11:11

a long military campaign. Despite

11:14

her father's absence, the dispute

11:17

over the will continued, and Marianna

11:19

spent the next three years in limbo

11:22

as the adults in her life argued over

11:24

assets or just abandon her

11:27

altogether as an afterthought. Finally,

11:30

in fifteen eighty, Martin briefly

11:32

returned home to Milan to put an

11:35

end to the inheritance suit. It

11:37

was clear, however, that his goal was

11:40

not to protect the interests

11:42

of his only child. In fact,

11:44

the so called compromise he

11:46

reached with his stepdaughters practically

11:49

amount to theft from Mariana.

11:52

He gave the po children more

11:54

than half of their mother's estate,

11:57

and the remaining portion was set aside

12:00

vaguely for Martin and

12:02

Marianna, meaning in effect

12:05

just for Martin. Since Marianna

12:07

was a toddler. Allowing

12:10

the case to continue to linger would

12:13

certainly not have benefited Mariana,

12:15

but Martin was almost certainly

12:18

more concerned with just closing the case

12:20

so that he could return to his military

12:22

campaigns. Over the years,

12:24

his family's prestige had begun to

12:27

wane, and he wagered

12:29

that he could better restore it by

12:31

serving the Spanish king, who

12:34

was now Philip the second. Mary

12:36

Tudor's husband, as opposed

12:38

to squabbling over his dead wife's

12:40

affairs or well providing

12:42

for the future of his lineage.

12:45

His baby was a girl, after all, not

12:47

an heir that in any way would have mattered

12:49

to him. The inheritance

12:52

debacle feels definitive, and

12:54

it is certainly very telling about

12:56

all parties involved. But this

12:58

was not the moment that Martin Delivia

13:01

consigned his daughter to the cloister. For

13:04

a while, it seemed like he was indeed

13:06

planning to arrange a marriage for Mariana.

13:09

A letter from fifteen eighty six sees

13:12

him discussing her prospects and floating

13:14

a potential dowry of seven

13:17

thousand lira, which was nothing

13:20

to sneeze at, but I should note it

13:22

paled in comparison to the fifty

13:25

thousand that he had been promised

13:27

from his late wife's family when

13:29

they had gotten married. The

13:32

final blow to Mariana's future

13:35

came a few years later, in fifteen

13:38

eighty eight, when her father, Martin

13:40

remarried. His new wife lived

13:43

in Valencia, nearly eight

13:45

hundred miles from Milan and

13:47

from Mariana. By now,

13:50

it had been over a decade since

13:52

the wandering military man had shared

13:54

a roof with his daughter, and the prospect

13:57

of paying a dowry would have loomed

13:59

large as Mariana got older.

14:02

His new marriage, on the other hand, brought

14:04

with it the promise of career

14:06

promotion, more income, more

14:08

influent and of course, male

14:11

heirs. Here, he must have thought,

14:14

was a perfect opportunity to start

14:16

fresh and save a little

14:18

money in the process. Martin

14:21

brought his only child to the Monastery

14:23

of Santa Margharita, a small

14:25

Benedictine convent in his own

14:27

county, Mansa, in late

14:30

fifteen eighty eight. A few

14:32

months later, in early fifteen eighty

14:34

nine, he briefly returned to

14:36

settle the matter of Marianna's inheritance

14:39

once and for all. He promised her

14:41

a six thousand lira deposit

14:44

to be delivered to the convent through

14:46

an intermediary that would accrue

14:48

an annual income of three hundred

14:51

lira. We don't know if

14:53

Martin actually saw his daughter on

14:55

that fifteen eighty nine visit, but

14:57

we do know that Marianna never

15:00

saw her father again after that, and

15:03

that she never received her inheritance,

15:06

although records show she did

15:09

receive some income from the convent's

15:12

revenues. The scholar Luigi

15:14

Serbi estimates that out of

15:16

an approximate forty thousand lira,

15:19

Marianna was owed in total, her

15:21

father stole nearly twenty

15:24

eight thousand. On

15:31

August twenty sixth, fifteen

15:33

ninety one, Gaspare Visconti,

15:36

the Archbishop of Milan, made

15:38

the short journey to Mansa

15:40

to witness the consecration of four

15:43

nuns who had completed their noviciots

15:46

and were preparing to take the

15:48

profession. These girls each

15:50

had spent several years deep in

15:52

prayer, reflection and manual

15:54

labor, and were getting ready to make

15:57

a lifelong commitment to the convent.

16:00

Among these novices was one

16:02

sister, Virginia Maria, a

16:05

young girl of about sixteen

16:07

whose late mother's given name

16:10

had just happened to make for a perfect

16:12

religious name. Despite

16:15

these circumstances of her arrival

16:17

at Santa Margarita, Marianna,

16:20

whose given name we will continue to use

16:22

for clarity's sake, made

16:24

an excellent nun. She took

16:26

her vows in September fifteen ninety

16:29

one and soon garnered a reputation

16:31

in Manza for her admirable

16:34

conduct. The famed priest

16:36

and historian Giuseppe Ripamonti,

16:38

who lived in Manza around this time

16:41

and who would later write a good deal

16:43

about Marianna's life, described

16:45

her character during these early years

16:47

as quote modest, circumspect,

16:50

most affable, suffused, with

16:53

an enviable candor, a friend

16:55

to everyone, as educated in

16:57

literary disciplines, as a well

17:00

mannered, obedient, not at all

17:02

spiteful young girl could be at

17:04

the time an example of perfect

17:07

social behavior. In

17:09

addition to praise, Marianna also

17:11

garnered power from the convent. Although

17:14

she had taken the profession, her

17:16

wayward father soon delegated

17:18

his duties to her as sovereign

17:21

of Mansa. She took over in

17:23

fifteen ninety six at twenty years

17:25

old. Records show her issuing

17:28

edicts, ordering arrests, and

17:30

offering pardons, among other official

17:33

duties. In December fifteen ninety

17:35

six, for example, she prohibited

17:37

fishing in a stretch of river that

17:40

ran next to the Franciscan convent

17:42

of Santa Maria, granting

17:44

the convent's friar's exclusive

17:46

use of the area. By all accounts,

17:49

she was as beloved as a feudal

17:52

lady as she was a well behaved

17:54

nun. She was also

17:56

working her way up within the convent,

17:59

earning the roles of sacristan, which

18:01

meant that she was responsible for the convent

18:03

sacristy, where vestiments and

18:06

other sacred objects were kept, and

18:08

she also got the job as supervisor

18:11

of the secular girls housed in

18:13

the convent. It was through that

18:15

role as supervisor that

18:17

Marianna first met Jean

18:20

Paulo Osio. The

18:23

illustrious Osio family had

18:25

been a staple in Lombardy, the

18:28

region in which both Milan and Manta

18:30

are situated, for centuries,

18:33

but by this time the branch of the

18:35

family living in Mamsa had

18:37

begun to develop a less than

18:39

illustrious reputation. Born

18:42

in fifteen seventy two, John

18:44

Paolo Osio was no exception

18:47

charismatic, libertine, and prone

18:50

to violence. He was every

18:52

bit whatever you're thinking if I say

18:54

sixteenth century rake. Despite

18:57

all that, he had a good relationship

19:00

with the Convent of Santa Margarita,

19:02

frequently hiring servants from

19:04

the convent to run errands

19:06

for his household. This relationship

19:09

was born mostly out of proximity.

19:11

His property abutted the convent

19:14

so closely that someone standing in

19:16

the convent garden could see

19:18

into his home quite easily, and

19:21

vice versa. Although

19:23

she almost certainly would have met her neighbor

19:26

earlier, or at least known of him.

19:28

Marianna's first documented

19:30

encounter with John Powlow was

19:32

in the fall of fifteen ninety seven,

19:35

and it was less of a meet cute

19:37

and more of a bad omen for things

19:40

to come. One day, as

19:42

she was walking through the convent garden,

19:45

she came upon John Polo alone

19:47

with one of her pupils flirting.

19:51

He had, it turned out, been

19:53

taking advantage of the closeness

19:55

of his property to the convent by

19:57

climbing a tree so that he could spy

20:00

on the secular girls, and he was attempting,

20:02

in this case to start an affair

20:05

with one of them. The actual extent

20:07

of his success in the matter isn't

20:10

clear from the record, although

20:12

in this period the circumstances

20:15

there being alone unsupervised

20:18

in a convent were damning

20:20

enough. The girl was quickly

20:23

dealt with. As she was a secular

20:25

who had not yet made any vows. She

20:27

was able to be removed from the convent

20:30

by her horrified mother, and she

20:32

was married off within weeks. For

20:34

her part, Marianna gave John

20:36

Paolo such a scolding that

20:39

he reportedly left the convent

20:41

that day, hanging his head in shame.

20:44

News of Marianna's quote great

20:46

rebuff of John Paolo traveled

20:49

quickly through Monsa, the sixteenth

20:51

century equivalent of the juiciest

20:53

celebrity gossip, and a

20:55

few days later the story developed

20:58

a new and significantly

21:01

darker twist when

21:03

John Paolo murdered Giuseppe

21:06

Moltena, a man who had

21:08

worked in the service of the Delevia

21:10

family as a tax agent.

21:14

Some believed that he had committed

21:16

that murder out of anger at

21:18

Mariana, an act of revenge

21:20

for her rebuke. Others

21:22

whispered that it was actually jealousy,

21:25

that Marianna had been having an affair

21:27

with Molteno and John Poolo had

21:29

wanted her all to himself. These

21:32

are not impossible motives,

21:35

although Mariana would later deny

21:37

any impropriety with the deceased, but

21:39

the actual reason for the killing likely

21:42

had little to do with Marianna

21:44

herself. I mean, it was sort of a tangential

21:47

connection in the first place. It

21:50

seems that John Paolo had been conspiring

21:53

with another of the Deleva financial

21:55

advisers to skim off the

21:57

top of the family's books, hoping

22:00

that it wouldn't be noticed by the absent

22:02

Martin or the enclosed Mariana,

22:06

and he and his inside man

22:08

had plotted the murder together, either

22:10

to prevent being found out or

22:13

to maximize their own profits.

22:15

This theory is supported by the fact

22:17

that only a few weeks after

22:20

the murder, that second financial

22:23

adviser was fired by the de Leva

22:25

family and promptly replaced.

22:28

John Paulo reportedly tried to appeal

22:31

to Marianna, who was not only

22:33

a member of the family that he may

22:35

have been trying to defraud, but who

22:38

also held his fate in her

22:40

hands as the sovereign of Mansa.

22:43

The story goes that shortly after

22:45

the murder, Marianna happened

22:48

to be passing through the room of

22:50

one of her fellow sisters that had a

22:52

view into the Osio garden. John

22:55

Paulo, seeing Marianna in

22:57

the window, caught her attention and

22:59

shouted up, asking to send

23:01

her a letter, presumably to

23:03

explain himself, to proclaim his

23:06

innocence, or maybe to beg for

23:08

her favor. Marianna, scrupulous

23:11

as ever, was enraged. Not

23:13

only had this man once seduced her

23:15

student and then gone on to commit

23:17

a heinous murder, but here he

23:20

was not even in hiding, but

23:22

strolling about his garden and asking

23:24

her to abuse justice. She

23:26

immediately ordered his arrest. John

23:29

Paolo fled Manza and was

23:31

sentenced in absentia to exile.

23:34

John Paolo remained in exile for about

23:37

a year while his friends and family,

23:39

as well as the mother superior

23:41

of the convent and even members of

23:43

Marianna's own family, pressured

23:46

her to give him grace. She

23:48

relented in fifteen ninety eight,

23:51

and Joan Paolo was officially granted

23:53

pardon and allowed to return

23:55

to his residence in Monza. When

23:58

he returned, Marianna's anger head

24:00

seemingly cooled. Perhaps

24:02

she took the concept of giving grace

24:05

to heart. But that

24:07

wasn't all. And here's the

24:09

biggest plot twist so far.

24:12

Apparently, the scrupulous, modest

24:15

nun looked out her window

24:17

one day at her murderous

24:19

playboy neighbor, and all

24:21

of a sudden fell in love.

24:30

Could you ever see anything more

24:33

beautiful? Years later, one

24:35

of Marianna's fellow nuns would

24:38

recount having heard Marianna

24:40

make that remark, presumably

24:42

while resting her cheek on her hand

24:45

and between dramatic lovelorn

24:47

sighs while sitting at her window

24:50

after catching a glimpse of John Pawlow

24:52

in his garden. Somehow,

24:55

and I wish I knew more so I could

24:57

tell you more. The debaucherous

24:59

no no woman had managed to

25:02

charm Marianna. She had

25:04

even been willing to give him another chance,

25:06

after he had started off by throwing a

25:08

letter over the wall separating

25:11

his garden from the convents, a first

25:13

attempt at flirting that must have seemed

25:15

cute until she opened the letter

25:18

to reveal a note so sexually

25:20

explicit that she recoiled

25:22

in disgust. Undeterred,

25:25

John Paolo had been enlisted the

25:27

help of a local priest and friend

25:29

of his, Paolo Aragone. Father

25:32

Paulo reminded John Powlo that

25:34

he was trying to start an affair with

25:37

a nun. He was not perhaps

25:39

ethical enough to advise John Powlo

25:42

to pursue someone else, but

25:44

he was certainly wise enough to advise

25:46

a change in tactic. The

25:48

priest wrote a new letter for

25:51

Joan Paulo to throw over the

25:53

wall. This one contrite and

25:55

chaste and romantic, and that

25:57

letter sealed the deal. Once

26:00

they got over the first few minor

26:03

hurdles. You know the fact that she

26:05

had caught him in the garden with another girl.

26:07

The murder, the exile, and

26:09

then the sexually explicit letter in

26:11

the convent garden. The affair

26:14

must have felt like a chivalric

26:16

romance. There was Marianna

26:19

enclosed in her tower, and here

26:21

was her prince calling up to her

26:23

with promises of not only romance

26:26

but freedom. Furtive glances

26:28

and gifts passed through intermediaries,

26:31

accompanied by secret letters thrown

26:34

over the garden wall. Although

26:37

Marianna was surely smitten by

26:39

John Powlow and by Father

26:41

Paulo's continued ghostwriting,

26:44

at first, Marianna declined to

26:46

take their relationship further. She

26:49

was a nun, after all, and she had made

26:51

vows of chastity as

26:53

an enclosed nun. In particular,

26:56

she maintained that neither of them could

26:58

violate the boundaries of enclosure.

27:01

She couldn't leave and he couldn't

27:03

enter, a stalemate that likely

27:06

fueled Marianna's romantic

27:08

fantasy and made John

27:10

Powlo all the more determined

27:12

to break her resolve, He

27:15

continued to press the issue, and Marianna

27:18

finally gave in in August fifteen

27:20

ninety nine. Coincidentally,

27:23

not long after her father died, she

27:25

agreed to a secret nighttime

27:27

meeting in the Confessor's parlor.

27:30

A local blacksmith forged a copy

27:33

of a key to the parlor which had been

27:35

given to him by Sister Otavia,

27:37

a friend of Mariana's. Sister.

27:39

Otavia then threw the new key

27:42

over the garden wall into the Oussio

27:44

property so that John Powlo could

27:47

enter Unseen. The moment

27:49

Marianna laid eyes on John Poulo

27:52

in the parlor through the grill separating

27:54

them, she was overcome by

27:57

emotion, a desire perhaps

27:59

unlike an anything else she had ever felt

28:01

in her young life, muddled

28:03

by the sinking, guilty feelings

28:06

of realizing she had gone past

28:08

a point of no return. Her

28:10

emotions were so strong, in fact,

28:13

that she immediately took ill.

28:15

She remained indisposed for several

28:18

months and told John Powlo she

28:20

could not see him anymore. He

28:22

meanwhile continued to bombard

28:24

her with gifts and letters.

28:28

By Christmas, Marianna both recovered

28:30

and relented, and the affair

28:33

began in earnest when she allowed

28:35

John Powlo to sneak into her room.

28:38

Soon they were meeting two or three times

28:40

a week for secret, forbidden trysts

28:43

in the convent. As the affair

28:45

progressed, the web of people

28:47

who became complicit in it also

28:50

grew larger and more complicated,

28:52

between the blacksmith making keys,

28:55

father Paolo writing letters,

28:57

and a handful of Marianna's fellow

29:00

nuns helping to sneak John

29:02

Powlo in and out of the convent.

29:05

Soon those fellow nuns would have

29:07

another job, helping Marianna

29:10

conceal a pregnancy. Marianna

29:15

gave birth to a stillborn boy in

29:17

sixteen o two. She was

29:20

devastated not only by

29:22

the loss of her child, but also

29:24

by an overwhelming sense of guilt

29:26

that hit her all at once. By

29:29

now, she and John Poolo had been brazenly

29:31

carrying on their affair for over a year.

29:34

She had violated her vows again

29:36

and again, and now she had

29:38

to rely on her fellow nuns

29:41

to sneak her baby's body out of

29:43

the convent. She had to

29:45

end the affair, despite

29:47

her feelings of guilt, however, and despite

29:50

her resolve to and the affair for good,

29:52

she still felt herself drawn to John

29:54

Paolo. Later, Marianna

29:57

would claim that she had tried to rid

29:59

herself of her feelings using

30:01

the magical practice of

30:03

coorophagia, believing

30:05

that she had been struck with a love sickness

30:08

that was the result of a curse. She

30:11

somehow got her hands on Pardon

30:13

Me Jean Paulo's dried feces

30:16

and consumed it as a medicinal

30:19

in a series of broths and teas

30:22

in a desperate attempt to break

30:24

the spell. When that didn't

30:26

work, she contemplated throwing herself

30:28

into the well on the convent grounds.

30:31

Reportedly, she hesitated upon

30:33

seeing an image of the Virgin nearby,

30:36

and Sister Otavia then

30:38

found her and talked her off the ledge.

30:42

Throughout this time, Jean Paolo never

30:44

ceased his campaign of what we might

30:47

now call love bombing, continuing

30:49

to send letters and gifts with entreaties

30:52

to resume the affair, even

30:54

as Marianna entered a period

30:57

of intense prayer and penance.

31:00

She continued to reject him for months,

31:03

even sending him away at one point on a

31:05

pilgrimage to Rome and Loretto,

31:07

hoping he might come to his senses about

31:10

the affair too. After

31:13

months of endless pushing, Marianna

31:16

gave in again. Whether because

31:18

she genuinely missed John Paulo

31:21

or because he truly just broke

31:23

down her resolve, we'll never know

31:26

who among us hasn't gone back to an

31:28

ex who's bad for us, But

31:30

in any case, the affair started

31:33

back up, and within months Marianna

31:36

was pregnant again. After nine

31:38

months of pretending to have a spleen

31:41

disease to explain the swelling, she

31:43

gave birth to a daughter on August

31:45

eighth, sixteen o four, whom

31:47

she named Alma Francesca Margarita,

31:50

before giving her to her trusted

31:53

fellow nuns to deliver to

31:55

John Poolo under cover of night.

32:03

Somewhat contrary to character, John

32:05

Paulo actually turned out to be quite

32:08

a loving father. He brought little

32:10

Alma to Milan to have her baptized

32:12

openly with a noble godfather,

32:14

befitting her station, and he chose

32:17

to keep her close in Mansa, despite

32:19

the rumors that were beginning to swirl.

32:22

He formally recognized her as his

32:24

daughter in sixteen o six, giving

32:26

her all the inheritance rights and public

32:28

status of a legitimate child.

32:31

He never named Marianna as the

32:33

mother, instead naming a woman

32:36

named Isabella de Metta. By

32:38

that time, however, few believed him,

32:41

especially given the unusual

32:43

frequency of little Alma's visits

32:45

to the Santa Margarita monastery.

32:48

In fact, by this time, the truth was obvious

32:51

to just about everyone in Mansa.

32:53

In addition to Almah's suspiciously

32:56

frequent visits, as many as

32:58

three or four times a week, according to some

33:00

sources, several nuns would

33:02

later testify that many times

33:04

they saw Marianna sneak out

33:06

of the monastery, violating

33:09

her sacred vow of seclusion, over

33:11

to the Osio estate to spend the

33:13

night with her daughter and her lover. It

33:16

was really only Marianna's noble

33:19

status, coupled with John Powlo's

33:21

trademark violent streak, that

33:24

kept people from saying anything at

33:26

the time or from reporting

33:28

them to the ecclesiastical authorities.

33:31

But by the summer of sixteen o six,

33:34

the delicate balance Marianna

33:36

and John Paolo had managed to maintain over

33:38

the years finally began

33:41

to crumble, all thanks to a

33:43

young girl named Katerina

33:45

del Cassini. Katerina

33:47

was a teenager and a secular

33:50

in the convent who had not taken any

33:52

vows as of yet. In

33:54

fact, word around the convent was

33:56

that she wouldn't be allowed to because

33:58

of her rebellious obst and character

34:01

and alleged thefts from the monastery's

34:04

pantry, both behavior unfitting

34:06

of a nun. She, like Mariana

34:09

and many others before her, had

34:11

been placed at Santa Margarita against

34:13

her will. But unlike Mariana,

34:16

Katerina seemed completely uninterested

34:19

in assimilating into convent life

34:21

or even pretending to, often threatening

34:23

to escape and disrespecting just

34:26

about everyone she could. Recently,

34:29

her behavior had begun too great on

34:31

Marianna, who still held authority

34:33

over the seculars and was therefore

34:36

responsible for Katerina. In

34:38

late July sixteen oh six, Marianna

34:41

hit her breaking point when Katerina

34:44

soiled the bed of Sister

34:47

Dania Merita, the organist

34:49

of the monastery whose talents had

34:51

always delighted Mariana. Unfortunately,

34:54

I have no details about what it

34:56

meant that Katerina soiled that poor

34:59

woman's bed, but whatever it was, as

35:01

punishment. Marianna convinced the

35:03

Mother Superior and the monastery's confessor

35:06

to have Katerina imprisoned in

35:08

the woodshed in the convent garden

35:11

while they figured out what to do about

35:13

her out of control behavior. Katerina,

35:16

in true teenage fashion, was

35:18

incensed at what she considered

35:21

unfair treatment by Marianna and

35:23

her allies. She had just been

35:25

disrespectful, and she was locked

35:27

in a woodshed. Meanwhile, after

35:29

everything Marianna herself had been doing

35:31

for years, she not only

35:34

was walking free but continued to

35:36

enjoy high status. Then

35:39

Katerina remembered that in just a

35:41

few days time, the vicar Monseigneur

35:44

Pietro Barka would be coming to

35:46

the convent for the monastery's elections,

35:49

and she saw an opportunity. Katerina

35:52

threatened Mariana, saying that if

35:54

she didn't release her when the Monseigneur

35:56

arrived, she was going to tell him everything

36:00

about the affair, about Little Alma,

36:02

about every sinful detail of

36:04

the ways Marianna had broken her sacred

36:07

vows. Even if he had

36:09

already known about it vaguely, as

36:11

did many people in Monts at the time, he

36:14

wouldn't be able to ignore a report

36:16

made to him directly. The

36:18

punishment for such brazen, repeated

36:21

crimes would be much more severe

36:24

than simply being stuck in a woodshed

36:27

for a few nights. Where the

36:29

affair had at first felt like freedom

36:31

to Mariana, now it was as

36:33

though the walls were closing in on

36:36

her. If Katerina followed

36:38

through on her threat, Mariana

36:40

would lose everything. In a

36:42

panic, she gathered her four closest

36:44

confidants from the convent, sisters

36:47

Otavia, Benedetta, Candida

36:49

Colombo, and Sylvia, and had

36:51

them send a message to Jean Paulo.

36:58

The night before the election, the six of

37:00

them snuck into the woodshed to try

37:03

to talk some sense into Katerina.

37:05

As the nuns would later tell it, they

37:08

tried first to reason with her,

37:10

but the stubborn girl stuck to her

37:12

guns. According to Mariana's

37:14

later testimony, the girl rebuffed

37:17

any attempt at negotiating, even

37:19

crying out, I don't want to hear your chatter

37:22

anymore, but I want to be your ruin and

37:24

that of your lover, and tomorrow morning

37:26

you all will come here to this place where

37:29

I am. The threat of imprisonment

37:32

hung in the dark, dank air of

37:34

the makeshift cell where

37:36

they all stood at that

37:38

It was Jean Paolo who had heard enough.

37:41

He grabbed a wooden board that

37:44

had an iron rod running through

37:46

it, which he had taken from the monastery's

37:48

workshop, and struck with

37:50

one blow to the head, then another, and

37:53

another. Jean Paolo killed

37:56

Katerina as Marianna

37:58

and the other nuns looked on

38:00

in horror. The

38:02

nuns and the nobleman stood

38:05

over the body of the young girl as

38:07

the reality of what they had done settled

38:10

in. Perhaps in between

38:12

suggestions for how to hide the

38:14

body, they attempted to

38:17

justify their crime. Katerina

38:19

was unruly and indignant, and

38:21

she was going to reveal Marianna and John

38:24

Powlo's many, many indiscretions

38:26

to the Monseigneur, destroying

38:28

not only their individual reputations,

38:31

but likely the reputation of the convent

38:34

as well. She would have ruined everything

38:37

well, as it would turn out, she

38:40

still could.

38:46

That's the first part of the salacious

38:48

and tragic story of the Nun

38:51

of Mansa. But stick around after

38:53

a brief sponsor break to hear

38:55

about the novel that would make her

38:57

one of the most famous nuns

39:00

UN's gone bad. In history,

39:10

the story of Marianna de Laivier Marino

39:13

and her affair with John Paolo Ossio

39:15

might have been relegated to the annals

39:17

of Curious local history if

39:20

not for the nineteenth century author

39:22

Alessandro Manzoni, who

39:24

read the proceedings of Mariana's

39:27

later trial and was captivated

39:29

by her complex and at times

39:32

contradictory character. His

39:35

eighteen twenty seven novel,

39:37

translated in English as The Betrothed,

39:40

is often named as the most famous

39:43

and widely read work in the Italian

39:45

language other than Dante's

39:47

Divine Comedy, and the

39:49

one character in the story is

39:51

based on Marianna. The

39:54

Betrothed tells the story of the

39:56

young lovers Renzo and Luccia, who,

39:58

after having their weddings forwarded by

40:00

an evil baron who has his own

40:02

eyes set on Lucia, go on a

40:05

series of adventures and run into

40:07

a series of obstacles as they

40:09

try to outsmart the baron and

40:11

have their love legally recognized.

40:14

Their travels take them to Monza, where

40:16

they come upon a nun named Gertrude,

40:19

who, over the course of several chapters

40:21

and through a series of flashbacks reveals

40:24

the story of her toward affair

40:26

with a nobleman, an evil man

40:28

who had made her an accomplice in his murder

40:31

of another nun, and who would

40:33

later in the novel force Gertrude

40:36

to aid in the kidnapping of the young Lucia,

40:39

and who would later in the novel

40:41

force Gertrude to aid in the kidnapping

40:44

of the young Lucia, who throughout

40:46

the book never seems to be able to catch

40:48

a break. Manzoni's

40:50

novel allowed Marianna's story

40:53

to take on new life, and

40:55

The Nun of Monza became

40:57

a staple of Italian literature into

41:00

the twentieth century. It has been

41:02

adapted to film with varying levels

41:05

of faithfulness to the historical facts

41:07

at least seven times since

41:09

nineteen sixty two, inspiring

41:12

comedies, several historical

41:14

dramas, an erotic drama,

41:17

and most recently, a modern

41:19

thriller complete with a gun toting

41:22

nun detective. Unfortunately,

41:24

if that sounds incredibly interesting to

41:27

you, most of these adaptations are

41:29

in Italian. It's the

41:31

earlier films, however, namely the

41:33

Italian historical dramas that came out

41:35

of the nineteen sixties, where we see

41:38

one of Mariana's more interesting

41:40

modern influences. As

41:42

it turned out, Mariana's story,

41:45

that of a young girl placed in a convent

41:47

against her will who fell prey to temptation,

41:51

offered a perfect opportunity

41:53

to explore the tension between

41:55

sexuality and romance and

41:58

religious enclosure, and

42:00

the violence that might ensue when that

42:02

tension came to boil. That

42:05

plot structure gained popularity,

42:08

especially in Italy through the nineteen

42:10

seventies and became one of the

42:12

standard templates for a popular

42:14

genre of film still popular

42:17

today, especially in American horror

42:19

movies, that has come to be known as

42:22

nonsploitation. Noble

42:29

Blood is a production of iHeartRadio

42:32

and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mank.

42:35

Noble Blood is created and hosted

42:37

by me Dana Schwartz, with additional

42:40

writing and researching by Hannah

42:42

Johnston, Hanna Zwick, Mira

42:44

Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori

42:47

Goodman. The show is edited

42:49

and produced by Noemi Griffin

42:52

and rima il Kaali, with

42:54

supervising producer Josh Thain

42:57

and executive producers Aaron Manke,

42:59

Alec Williams and Matt Frederick.

43:02

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,

43:05

visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple

43:07

Podcasts, or wherever you listen

43:09

to your favorite shows.