Cardinal Lamberto left Rome with a large sum of money and several documents. Fearing that their corruption will be exposed, Keinszig, Lucchesi, and Gilday plot to murder the Pope. Gilday poisons the pontiff's tea, killing him in his sleep. The character of Lamberto and the film's depiction of the events which led to his murder are based upon one of the conspiracy theories surrounding the sudden death of the real-life Pope John Paul I, Albino Luciani. Like the Lamberto character, Luciani was discovered dead in his bed in 1978, 33 days after his election to the papacy. Various theories, such as the
Pope Sabinian Pope Sabinian Pope Sabinian (, d. 22 February 606) was Pope from 13 September 604 to his death in 606, during the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) domination of the Papacy; he was the fourth former "apocrisiarius" to Constantinople to be elected pope. Sabinian was born at Blera (Bieda) near Viterbo. He had been sent by Pope Gregory I as Apostolic "nuncio", to Constantinople, but he apparently was not entirely satisfactory in that office. He returned to Rome in 597. He was probably consecrated pope on 13 September 604. The erudite Italian Augustinian Onofrio Panvinio (1529–1568), in his "Epitome pontificum Romanorum" (Venice,