Pope Pius XI him at the time of his death were spoken with clarity and firmness: "My soul parts from you all in peace." Some believe he was murdered, based on the fact that his primary physician was Dr. Francesco Petacci, father of Claretta Petacci, Mussolini's mistress. Cardinal Eugene Tisserant wrote in his diary that the pope had been murdered, which was a statement that Carlo Confalonieri later strongly denied. The Pope's last audible words were reported to have been: "peace, peace" as he died. Those at his bedside at 4:00am realized that the pontiff's end was near, at which stage the sacrist
Roman dictator expected to resign, and when the dictator laid down his "imperium", so would the magister equitum. In theory, the magister equitum was commander of the cavalry, but he was not limited to that role. The dictator and magister equitum did not always take the field together; in some instances the magister equitum was assigned the defense of the city while the dictator took an army into the field, while on other occasions the dictator remained at Rome to see to some important duty, and entrusted the magister equitum with an army in the field. The magister equitum was necessarily subordinate