Apparently snakes and scorpions were threats too. Yes I agree with you on this as we can never judge history in modern times And it gets repeated because it feels right to many people - it makes our ancestors look stupid and so make. The account began by describing the initiation of novices to the coven. Required fields are marked *. This bull, the story goes, declared cats as the instruments of Satan, and set Medieval Europe on a great cat purge, with special attention paid to black cats, who were particularly Luciferian. This timeline stretched from 1346 to 1353, a little more than a century after Gregory. The mass murder of cats was not the only cause of the Black Plague, but it removed a crucial natural predator of the flea-carrying rats that spread the disease. I was among the attendees of this event, and can attest that it was a doozy. Ive written before about whycats are strange including the reasons cats like to walk all over you, knead you and are afraid of cucumbers. If anything, the cathunt is Konrads interpretation of the papal bull. Many believed this was the end of the human race, and who could blame them? Nature tries to maintain a balance .. dogs, cats, chickens, and snakes all relate well to preying upon rats and fleas. some particularly superstitious believers seized on the idea that the black cats were servants of Satan. In Ypres in Belgium, it was the custom to hurl cats from the belfry of local churches and then set them on fire during the festival of cats or Kattenstoet. He has a brother named Adenulphus who later on in life served as the rector of Anagni, while Ugolino himself was educated in Paris and per known tradition, Bologna. The most likely targets were often older cat-owning peasant women (The Crazy Cat Ladies of their time) who were labeled witches and often burned alive at the stake. The truth is that cats could not have prevented the black death. If cats were evil, it made sense that they were responsible for all the death and . Potential infected flea hosts include: rodents, humans, dogs, and cats. The PBS documentary pointed out that cats dont have the musculature in their faces to reproduce human-like facial expressions the way dogs do, which is probably the main reason people think they are aloof and why they think dogs are so much more companionable (cause we love things that are more like us). This isa cautionary tale to all you cat haters out there. Pope Innocent VIII came to power in the late 1400s, during the throes of witch crusades in Western Europe. 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. Pope Benedict died Dec. 31, 2022, at the age of 95 in his residence at the . Im coming out pretty strong against this cat-plague connection, but the truth is I cant say for sure. 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. Black Death. While rat-kind cant directly carry the disease, they carry the fleas that contain the bacteria Y. Pestis. Wikimedia Commons. To understand why suspicions of cats persist, you need to go back to the 13th Century, whenPope Gregory IXhad a definite opinion of cats and it wasnt a positive one. The popes were all hypocrytical, bastards. For example, 79 medieval cats were mysteriously slain in Cambridge, England, by the townsfolk in the 13th century. I dont know what to make of the authors contention that we like to hate on the middle ages. Is the Vox in Rama authentic? Interesting article. But today, the association between cats and Halloween persist, perhaps ironically because spurious associations between cats and Satan worshiping that the Catholic Church pushed, some 800 years ago. 23 April 2018, Vox in Rama, Pope Gregory IX, uoregon.edu, Conrad of Marburg, Kevin Knight, Catholic Encyclopaedia, 2017, Was there a great Cat Massacre in the Middle Ages? So Gregory began to formalize and promote practices that formed the basis of the later medieval inquisition. While ancient Egyptians would have rathersurrenderto invading army than harm a hand on a cat, the belief by others that cats cannot be trained to be loyal and obedient like a dog, was a source ofanxietyover cats during medieval times. However, historian Donald Engel believes that the Vox acted as a death warrant for the cat. Both believed that cats were satanic and Marburg came up with evidence as to why cats are satanic. My mum always said the best way to get rid of a flea infestation was to let a cat walk through your house. But, despite all the people who make their livings as cat psychologists, cats will just be cats. ANIMALS ARE BECOMING EXTINCT BECAUSE OF THE GREAT AMOUNT OF NEEDLESS BABIES BEING BORN. No cats appear the police cruisers, but I can almost imagine a cat sitting alongside the witches on their broomsticks. https://owlcation.com/humanities/Cats-and-the-Black-Plague, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/ravens-memory-unfair-trade/, http://historycollection.co/thou-shalt-not-suffer-a-cat-to-live-why-pope-gregory-ixs-vox-in-rama-implicated-cats-in-devil-worship/, https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Vox-in-Rama-authentic-What-effects-did-it-have, https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/CXXII/498/1075/457108/The-Black-Death-in-Egypt-and-England-A-Comparative?redirectedFrom=fulltext, https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death, http://www.kattenstoet.be/en/page/497-511/the-cat-throwing.html, https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/eight-witchcraft-myths/, https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/plague/factsheet.asp, Abee, Holle. Theres a little bit about a cat in the third paragraph but what Gregory is really talking about here is a ritual carried out by a Satanic sect, as reported by an overzealous inquisitor named Conrad von Marburg. The plague spread so easily that everyone back in the medieval age believes that the plague transfer via smell and air. People like to dump on the Middle Ages for being Europes cultural and technological nadir, especially compared to the surrounding Classical and Renaissance periods. Tying the cat to satanic worship was a natural progression- and one that would have dire consequences. 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. Why did Pope Gregory IX issue Vox in Rama in the first place? Indeed the belief that the torture or killing of cats could break spells continued across northern Europe. But in the final analysis cats just arent dogs. According toSmithsonian Magazine, the Nazca geoglyphs may have been used for astrological, calendrical purposes as well as religious rituals to encourage rainfall and fertility. Lets see if the math adds up. To learn more about me and my digital travels, visit myTwitterpage. 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? (Accessed June 1, 2018). They definitely dont stop fleas. So as you say, cats couldnt have contained bubonic plague. Wildcat7 Youd rather see an animal domesticated for thousands of years in the wild doing what they are meant to do than indoors as pets? The cat throwing. And though its unlikely that historys most pro-natural environment pope will encourage cat bonfires, he does suggest we take a step away from the dog ice cream and cat outfits in the pet aisle. For Conrad in his quest for heretics around Mainz and Hildesheim claimed to have uncovered a Luciferian cult. Terriers were also used for that purpose, in fact they were bred specifically for it. Keep in mind that Chairman Meow iz not targeting religion, ceiling cat forbid ,but shedding light on human nature to digest and follow institutional dogma. I adore cats, they are so zen. Gregory IX. Encyclopedia of World Biography, Encyclopedia.com. But this means that a papal bull that didnt tell people to wipe out cats and was only sent to Mainz somehow influenced the majority of people throughout Europe to kill off all their cats, and to stick to it over the course of the next 115 years. Theres one thing you havent considered. Literally no cats. Pope Gregory IX How did this come about? Many of these rodents had fleas that carried diseases including the Black Plague. Which means that killing off the rats main predators was probably not the best idea. Over many centuries, Egyptians found that a cat was the one creature that could make the world safe, according to Purina. ), Then, in 1484, another pope, Innocent VIII, issued apapal bullthat condemned to death all cats and their human companions. Although he did not approve the use of torture in the interrogation of suspects, Gregory did pass the law that sent unrepentant heretics to the fire and in some cases repentant heretics to prison for life. By 1198 under the reign of his cousin, Pope Innocent III, Ugolino was named the cardinal deacon of St. Eustachius and quickly rose as one of the most prominent cardinals. First, consider the dates: Pope Gregory IXs papal bull was issued between 1232 and 1234. But feline-human relations deteriorated sometime in the early 1230s (CE) when Pope Gregory IX issued a papal bull called Vox in Rama. After years of consultation and research, Pope Gregory XIII signed a papal bull in February 1582 promulgating the reformed calendar that came to be known as the Gregorian calendar. CATS ARE BETTER THAN PEOPLE. Cats, dogs, horses, humans. But some of their adversaries do. This bull, the story goes, declared cats as the instruments of Satan, and set Medieval Europe on a great cat purge, with special attention paid to black cats, who were particularly Luciferian. I laughed to I almost passed out One thing though some of the Pussy Persecution may have derived from the Witch connection. It kept happening, lets say once per generation, until the 1700s. Wages rose fast in the absence of labor. In the decree, he declared that Satan is half cat and claimed that there were . This cruel practice continued until 1817 although the Kattenstoet continues to this day- involving stuffed cats instead. 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. In those days, papal inquisitors extracted confessions from prisoners that they worshiped the devil and his black cat by torturing them vigorously. Good luck keeping them down for half a millennium.6, Maybe the biggest hole in the cat theory comes from the history of the plague. Based on the Vox in Rama translation there is no exact phrase that urges Konrad or other inquisitors to go on a cathunt all across Europe. So theres a lot of weak info out there about the backwards things that Medieval people were wont to do. For example, ever heard of Oxford University? Heretical beliefs were on the rise at the time, . Its believed by some that the plague spread, at least in part,via rats. This dudes job was to rid Germany of heretics, so he had plenty of reason to stoke the Popes fears of heretical activity (gotta keep that job). 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. Since the reign of Gregory, folks at the time had taken a disliking for cats, especially the black ones. But the cars we have for pets are not naturally in the wild for thousands of years. 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. The Popes were all lecherous greedy thieves seeking nothing but power for themselves & their families. You wouldnt hate that, would you? Henry was acquitted when he appealed to the bishop of Mainz and later that year Marburg himself was mysteriously murdered- probably at Henrys behest. Cats are awesome rodent hunters. Although witch trials did occur on a local scale, they were mainly for the practice of pre-Christian beliefs and tried in secular rather than ecclesiastical courts. Gregory was a reluctant pontiff- and not just because of his age. They spread via trade boats. Hera are six really weird pets that you could actually own. If they were dumb, then that means were comparatively smart. Thanks for publishing! STOP W/ THE BABIES ALREADY. However, amongst the warped fantasies were some bare facts from past beliefs which lent themselves to the dark image of witchcraft the church was attempting to conjure. But how did cats become to be seen as evil? There are holes in your arguments as well. Home; About; Contacts; Location; FAQ The story youre most likely to find in popular history articles goes something like this: Cats were brought to Europe from Egypt by the Romans and enjoyed a decent reputation for a long timeprobably because they were such a boon to agricultural societies. 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. Plague in Cats. The mass murder of cats was not the only cause of the Black Plague, but it removed a crucial natural predator of the flea-carrying rats that spread the disease. The Nazcacat geoglyphwas only discovered last October. What effects did it have? Like, if I were to think of evil depictions on display in a museum, this would be one of them. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'historyofyesterday_com-box-3','ezslot_6',113,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-historyofyesterday_com-box-3-0');uper-spies James Bond and Austin Powers dont have cats. By Gregorys decree, there was a target on the head of every black cat. AKSHAY. As hysteria increased, the rat population boomed and the Black Plague began to spread out of control. Further, the plague wasnt a one-off event in Europe. Granted, Im sure it was easier to get into back then, but thats right in the Medieval period. 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. Here are our sources? It wouldnt be the first time Catholicism has decided an animal once worshipped by pagans needed to be rebranded as Satanic (see: goats). Just want to add that I like pretty much all animals, even dogs, but I am a cat person. In a papal bull of 1233 he denounced the black cat as diabolical. 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. For example, 79 medieval cats were mysteriously slain in Cambridge, England, by the townsfolk in the 13th century. For example One should not direct them the affection due only to persons.. (Accessed June 1, 2018). In the 13th century, an inquisitor described, in a report to the pope, a Satanic cult in Germany that used cats as part of a ritual, and the pope's response quoted some of his information (which has been described as medieval propaganda by some). The Bull arose in response to rumors of satanic cults in Germany by the areas grand inquisitor, Conrad of Marburg. This demonization led to the widespread, violent persecution of black cats in particular. They both carry fleas, only the mice never jump in my lap and bunt their head-glands all over my jeans. It also provided a remarkably full account of their Satanic rite. Good luck keeping cat population low for 500 years. Thank you for your cooperation.You can sign-up to the Membership any time to remove the adds and enjoy the content with no interruptions, 2 popes and a plague are to blame for burning felines at the stake. Its a little school in England that was established in the year 1096. That is, pope condemning cats and declaring satanistique is enough for some people to start mass-killing cats, this assholes claims are 100% wrong; more than one pope ordered cats killed- why not, eventually excommunicaated? The flea that bit humans was specific to the black rat anyway. Its disgusting the way people treat and exploit these great animals. For he had inherited the problem of heresies which were blossoming across thirteenth century Christian Europe and challenging the 'universal' church. The truth is a little messy. Share this article your friends will love it too! Neither does rogue operative, Jason Bourne. Classical Cats: The Rise and fall of the Sacred Cat, Donald W Engels, Psychology Press. Gregory's missionary zeal among the Franks and the Anglo-Saxons in England was the first step in a process that would culminate with Charlemagne's coronation in Rome on Christmas Day in AD 800.. At the same time Benedictine monks led by Augustine were sent to Kent to convert the pagan King Ethelbert and his people, other missionaries from . (2016, May 4). In 2021, I dont think that most Catholics or people of other religious believe that cats are evil. I do support single mothers though, especially those willing to give me 2 for 1 lapdance specials, but I digress. Then, there is the fact that cats just arent good ratters-, which is why dogs; especially terriers are employed to catch rodents. The Vox (or Voice in Rama, after the city of Ramah in ancient Judah) beseeched the archbishops Mainz and Hildesheim to lend their full support to Conrad in his efforts to root out the cult and its adherents. The cat thing is a footnote in his story. Then each [returns] to his place and, speaking certain responses, they incline their heads toward to cat. CATS ARE BETTER THAN PEOPLE & ALWAYS WILL BE BETTER THAN HUMANS. On January 23, 1229, he sent messages to Riga, Lubeck, Sweden, to Gotland with an appeal to begin . For the worship of the cat had its basis in the pagan past. Pope Gregory IX was a pretty good pope by medieval standards. Between 1347 and 1352, some 100 million people died of the Plague, representing almost half of Europes population. Retrieved from https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=141316, ONeill, Tim. These new, heretical beliefs varied. 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. The author provides citations for his claims. no; mice? 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