People in medieval Ypres, Belgium, had a festival called Kattenstoet where theyd throw cats from the belfry tower to symbolize the killing of evil spirits. Many superstitions, including fear of black cats, continue to this day. Missionary Activity under Pope Gregory the Great. Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Vox-in-Rama-authentic-What-effects-did-it-have, PetMD. Apparently torture produced some pretty convincing confessions from people who worshipped the devil and his black cat. Cats and the Black Plague. Another belief is that the plague wasairborne. Share this article your friends will love it too! So a thing about the inquisition was that they would torture people to get confessions and such because that's a good way to make people say what you want to hear. A witch and her cat. As a noble hailing from the prestigious noble family of Conti di Segni, Ugolino is still related to other popes such as Innocent III, Alexander IV, and Innocent XIII. In any case, the various popes saw nothing wrong with burning heretics alive, so they already had a savage reputation. The final point though is that contemporary accounts and the examination of modern doctors and historians of the evidence from them has shown bacteria that caused the Black Death can take the form of a lung infection called pneumonic plague, which was spread easily between humans. Wolves/dogs integrated themselves into society. As I learned at the Profs and Pints event, cats persist as a marker of femininity in the media and our language of pop culture. ANIMALS ARE BECOMING EXTINCT BECAUSE OF THE GREAT AMOUNT OF NEEDLESS BABIES BEING BORN. He was born Ugolino di Conti but took the name Gregory when he becamethe pope. During these witch trials, a woman even testified in court that cats spoke to her, and threatened to hurt her if she didnt abuse children in the town. People living during this time lived in constant fear of death. We have detected that you are using extensions to block ads. Without them, pests would run wild, and not just rats. The novice kisses him and feels cold, [like] ice, and after the kiss the memory of the [C]atholic faith totally disappears from his heart. While the fact is pretty obscure on whether the papal bull is directly influenced by Konrad, he is known as a zeal that is set on to burn every last heretic. For some reason, we find the idea that our ancestors were dumb rather appealing. Gregory IX. Encyclopedia of World Biography, Encyclopedia.com. But how did cats become to be seen as evil? Often fueled by a fear, individuals are often capable of doing illogical or terrible things as groups when given permission by authority figures. On January 23, 1229, he sent messages to Riga, Lubeck, Sweden, to Gotland with an appeal to begin . They definitely dont stop fleas. These new, heretical beliefs varied. This demonization led to the widespread, violent persecution of black cats in particular. Pope Gregory IX How did this come about? I do support single mothers though, especially those willing to give me 2 for 1 lapdance specials, but I digress. Retrieved from https://owlcation.com/humanities/Cats-and-the-Black-Plague, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Like a lot of other myths about history from the Middle Ages, the idea that Europeans wiped out cats and then paid for it with the Black Death makes more sense the less you think about it. His condemnation of cats may not be responsible for the spread of black death, but its definitely connected to the decline in cat populations at the time, andthe proliferation of rat populations. Cats are awesome rodent hunters. Used as widespread clickbait, a frequently repeated story claims that in the 13th century Pope Gregory IX, who led the Catholic Church from 1227 to 1241 and has been remembered for initiating the Papal Inquisition against heretics, suffered from a serious case of cat contempt. Also, in 1182, to aid the churchs vendetta against the Cathars, the French theologian Alain de Lille falsely claimed that the sect took its name from the cat instead of the real source, the Greek katharoi or pious ones. We know they had terrier like dogs in Medieval Europe and that they were used as ratters. Gregory lived from 1145 to 1241, AD. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death, Georgievska, Marija. For example, ever heard of Oxford University? That evil came to be neatly personified in the form of black cats that were beaten to death to purge the new season of evil spirits. why did pope gregory think that cats were evil? A bit hard to read when YOU ARE SCREAMING AT ME though! (2010, February 4). Retrieved from https://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/infectious-parasitic/c_ct_plague%20, Quora. Writing is my first love. A quick Internet search brings up a series of articles, including one on the 13 reasons why cats are just plain evil. The Obscene Kiss, Wood engraving from the 1608 edition of the Compendium Maleficarum. In the ensuing years huge numbers of cats (especially black cats) and even their owners were killed across Europe in fear that they were evil witches and linked to Satan. I suppose its possible that Vox in Rama simply set the stage for a cat-killing trend that would, generations later, result in the Black Death. In the meantime, accusations of witchcraft began to spread amongst the ordinary people, as a way of settling grudges or seizing property and cats began to be used as proof of satanic association. CATS ARE BETTER THAN PEOPLE & ALWAYS WILL BE BETTER THAN HUMANS. Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/CXXII/498/1075/457108/The-Black-Death-in-Egypt-and-England-A-Comparative?redirectedFrom=fulltext, Kattenstoet. Pope Gregory IV (Latin: Gregorius IV; died 25 January 844) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from October 827 to his death. Of course, the Bubonic Plague also motivated the kitty killings, as many believed that cat germs contributed to the plagues spread. And the Black Death didnt just travel to Europeit did its thing in Egypt, too, where it may have done more damage than it did in England.7. Others are less sure. Classical Cats: The Rise and fall of the Sacred Cat, Donald W Engels, Psychology Press. As we are. Once the lights came back on, from a dark corner, the figure of a man emerges. This man was Lucifer, who the whole company firmly believed to have been wronged by God. (Accessed June 1, 2018). Weve discovered that the two diseases were one and the same, spread by contact, not the air. Retrieved from https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/02/06/in-the-middle-ages-devil-fearing-christians-killed-cats-which-carried-the-unintended-consequence-of-increasing-the-rat-population-and-the-spread-of-the-black-death/, Horrox, Rosemary. This sudden lack of cats led to an increase in rat infestation which in turn increased the spread of disease, the most devastating being the Bubonic Plague. If anything, the cathunt is Konrads interpretation of the papal bull. Gregorys response was to issue the Vox in Rama. People can make all manner of animals do what we likewe can teach oxen to plow, dogs to fetch game, elephants to paint, and ravens to hold grudges.2 But you cant make a cat do anything. Did Pope Gregorys comfort with the law cause him tooverstephis station as the pope? Cats just arent dogs, and I respect and love them specifically for that reason. Cats dont generally take on rats. If the Nazca thought enough of cats to etch a 37-meter geoglyph of one into the mountain that persists 2,000 years later, they must have thought highly of them. . We know there was a massive reduction in cat populations at the time because of this, so its plausible to make the connection. Actually, the murder of cats in Europe continued for hundreds of years, and another Plague swept through Europe again in the 17th Century. Conrads methods for identifying heretics were questionable to some. The Waldenses, who were founded in 1170 by Peter Waldo claimed that individuals could commune with God directly, negating the need for priests. The bull called upon the bishops of Mainz and Hildesheim to lend Conrad their full support in rooting out these witches. This description created an image that was to be used for all future depictions of witches sabbats- and one that established the cat as a creature of the devil. The mass killing of those docile beautiful creatures is despicable. Further, the plague wasnt a one-off event in Europe. Hera are six really weird pets that you could actually own. In my home, I use cat statuettes as bookends, and have various other representations of these felines throughout my home. Statues of black cats dont come to life, and you sure as sh*t cant get a cat to walk backwards and let you kiss its butthole.5. Interesly, June 7, 2016, The spooky history of how cats bewitched us, Abigail Tucker, The Washington Post, October 31, 2016, The History of the cat in the Middle Ages (Part 2): The Black cat as the devil in Christian sects, L A Vocelle, The Great Cat: The Cat in History, Art, and Literature. Guess what? Just want to add that I like pretty much all animals, even dogs, but I am a cat person. (Accessed June 1, 2018). Id rather see them in the wild doing what cats are meant to do than as someones indoor pet. So why not witches? My mum always said the best way to get rid of a flea infestation was to let a cat walk through your house. 1958 China Chairman Mao and the great leap forward he had designs on wiping out the four evils While there is no evidence that cats in medieval England were persecuted, their mousing skills were likened to the devils ability to catch souls, with the fifteenth-century merchant William Caxton remarking how the devil playeth ofte with the synnar, lyke as the catte doth with the mous. Some historians believe that the persecutions across Europe so depleted cat numbers that mouse- and rat-catching by cats diminished- one of the reasons why the Bubonic Plague took such a deadly hold in Europe during the fourteenth century. Retrieved from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/ravens-memory-unfair-trade/. (As a side note, the festival continues in modern Belgium but nowKattenstoethonors felines with a parade that features cute effigies of cats, but I digress. They not only killed rodents, hence less infected animals but they themselves are more likely to get bit for you, with their sweet tasting blood. (Ive decided not the repost the link here). Which brings us back to Pope Innocent VIIIs 1484 declaration that the cat was the devils favourite animal and idol of all witches., The cat was the devils favourite animal and idol of all witches. Pope Innocent VIII. you suck; F-; see edict ex cathadre by a subsequent POPE reversing greggy 9s cat condemnation- also, Y-Perstis fleas only and I mean ONLY like rats; why? All this was about to change. As people began to get sick and the Black Plague began spreading, more and more cats were killed. Afterwards, they sit down to a meal and when they have arisen from it, the certain statue, which is usual in a set of this kind, a black cat descends backwards, with its tail erect. Pope Innocent VIII came to power in the late 1400s, during the throes of witch crusades in Western Europe. Was considering writing a song about the folly of feline flaying, now Im not so sure. (2017, February 6). When an animal is removed from the ecosystem (especially out of fear) it usually causes a chain reaction. OVERPOPULATION OF HUMANS IS THE RUINATION OF THE PLANET. The population of Europe drops from 80 million to around 30 million by the time the black death subsides, some cities even saw a decrease of more than 70% of their population, few, such as a village called Quob, lost their entire population. He also became the first Pope to appoint inquisitors to actively root out such heretics. as a dvm (research quickly with phd, now DO, but still love animals) I agree about cat fanatics but this loser has all wrong about the need for cats to kill the Y Pestis flea vector rats; also, that species of flea does not infest on cats or dogs- their anticoagulant is perfect match for RATTUS NORweigica, and humans; not even mice suit them; his map of plague is laughingly inaccurate. The cat throwing. That is the well-accepted history, but is it really true? Public Domain. The proverbial compendium of collective human knowledge at that point was certainly shorter and harder to access than it is now, but people back then still used their brains. In the 13th Century a wave of anti-cat sentiment swept through Europe, with religious leaders labeling cats as evil and diabolical, including Pope Gregory IX who did so in 1232 AD. In an era when unknown phenomena seemed like they could only be explained by powerful deities, it seemed only natural to the Egyptians to worship kitty cats. His pontificate was notable for the papacy's attempts to intervene in the quarrels between Emperor Louis the Pious and his sons. Forgive us! says the master, and the one next to him repeats this, a third responding, We know, master! A fourth says And we must obey. 4, So whats up with this? The Bubonic plague was carried not by rats themselves but their fleas; fleas which could just as easily transfer to dogs- and cats. This is mainly because the black plague ravaged Asia before it goes on its way to Europe. Black Death. I came just to quickly peruse the article in attempts to finally finding out whether or not there was validity to the Pope being the plausible cause of the Black Plague in hopes that he did indeed cause it, since today is Sunday and when I refuse to go to Church with my grandmother I could hit her with this, and it could be a legitimate reason for me not attending Church because the Pope caused millions of people to die from the Black Death/Plague, and I am in no support of mass killing. Denmark's Fastelavn held at the start of lent was based on the premise that for spring to begin, evil had to be banished. For years there was a debate if the Black Death and the Bubonic Plague were the same, adding speculation to the rat spreading theory. Either way, his account cant be true. Zealousness is a common occurrence in medieval times, the same thing goes for Gregory IX. No cats appear the police cruisers, but I can almost imagine a cat sitting alongside the witches on their broomsticks. Not only were they a source of companionship they were also a status symbol and source of worship. Purina. Cats were later blamed for the Black Death (1346-1352), though rats were actually the culprit. On October 11, 1231, he appointed Conrad as the first grand inquisitor of Germany. Wikimedia Commons. Honestly, I feel like even thinking that the cathunt resulted or directly influence the black plague is a bit of a stretch. But, despite all the people who make their livings as cat psychologists, cats will just be cats. The Vox in Rama encouraged Conrad of Marburg to overreach himself and that same year he accused Henry II, Count of Sayn of taking part in satanic orgies. It also saw the breakup of the Carolingian Empire in 843. One should not direct them the affection due only to persons.. Consider a quote from Rastafari leader Haile Selassie; Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. Iz just as true during Dark Ages as iz now. The Black Plague did happen.