It also saw the breakup of the Carolingian Empire in 843. 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. Elsewhere in Europe, the legacy of cat killings passed into folk practices. ABORTION SHOULD BE THE ANSWER IN ALL COUNTRIES, ALONG SIDE LAWS THAT WOULD PREVENT THE POPULATION GROWTH FROM EXPANDING . One of these was the sparrow! Both rats and pigeons would make a great next plague material though, The bull does not, however, dictate that Catholics across Europe kill all cats to stop Satan Islam doesnt tell Muslims to kill pigs but they still chase and try to kill one by kicking and hitting if they see it on the street because they believe it is evil and forbidden. How then could he have impacted the good people of the 1300s? Pope Gregory IX did issue a papal bull, . Because the powers that be dictated that the cat composed one of the main identifiers of a witch, the Church officially excommunicated the entire species. Cat burning became a favorite medieval pastime in France, where cats were suspended over fires in cages or doused and set alight- even chased on fire through the streets by cat chasers. One example is the idea that Catholic fear drove people, including Pope Gregory, to wipe out cats, which resulted in a population explosion among plague-infected rodents, thus leading to the Black Death. Pope Gregory IX, who held the papacy from 1227 to 1241, most definitely fell in the second camp largely because he believed that the fluffy hairball-hackers embodied Lucifer himself. Your email address will not be published. A quick Internet search brings up a series of articles, including one on the 13 reasons why cats are just plain evil. All this was about to change. While there appears to be no evidence that Pope Gregory IX ever told people to kill cats, there have been smaller historical examples of Medieval folks killing cats for weird reasons. 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. This isa cautionary tale to all you cat haters out there. No one can say for sure how many cats were killed because of the association made between them and witchcraft by the Vox in Rama. Retrieved from https://owlcation.com/humanities/Cats-and-the-Black-Plague, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Even today, the Vatican still throws shade at cats. Now this seems like a story of immense fiction but as it happened so recently in this modern time we have documented proof this is true so why is it so hard to believe the Pope and cat story? (Accessed June 1, 2018). 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. Besides, it mutated into septicemic and pneumonic forms, thus spreading even faster. Furthermore, several more black plagues would hit the world in the 18th century or so, and it's unlikely that the cat population still suffers the cathunt after hundred of years. I live in a city, so I have plenty of experience with both cats and mice. Once the initial hysteria died down, cats, like the would-be witches were left alone for a time, giving them time to repopulate- and remained prolific enough to continue to be culled. DeAgostini/Getty Images. Constantly told the Truth is stranger than fiction!!! Cats are not assholes, as this writer and many dog lovers like to repeat endlessly (and its SO tiresome to listen). Gregory IX. Encyclopedia of World Biography, Encyclopedia.com. Which means that killing off the rats main predators was probably not the best idea. He therefore gave his official blessing to the widespread persecution of cats across Europe. You literally cannot even be bothered to recall the NAMES of the people youre talking about. Name is important in the papacy as it is seen as a signal of how their reign is envisioned. A pandemic so severe that it kills more than 50 million people in Europe in a couple of years, and killed more than 200 million people worldwide. Black Death. Wages rose fast in the absence of labor. February 8, 2013. The following rites of this [sect] are carried out: When any novice is to be received among them and enters the sect of the damned for the first time, the shape of a certain frog [or toad] appears to him. Public Domain. https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/plague/factsheet.asp. (Accessed June 1, 2018). During this period, cat-burning was considered to bringgood luck. People like to dump on the Middle Ages for being Europes cultural and technological nadir, especially compared to the surrounding Classical and Renaissance periods. Of course, the Bubonic Plague also motivated the kitty killings, as many believed that cat germs contributed to the plagues spread. Cats, dogs, horses, humans. As one might have predicted, thereafter, mass slaughters of cats blanked Europe. Not only were they a source of companionship they were also a status symbol and source of worship. Purina. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,600],'historyofyesterday_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_5',111,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-historyofyesterday_com-large-mobile-banner-2-0');Ancient Peruvians may have been attracted to cats in a way similar to Egyptians. I dont really agree that cats offered no protection from the plague. Interestingly enough, Halloween originally a pagan celebration also has Catholic roots in the form of All Hallows Eve, that is the Vigil of All Saints Day, when Catholics remember those who have gone before them to enter their heavenly home. April 1st was originally celebrated as the New Year day, until in 1582 Pope . And neither of these areas were parts of the Holy Roman Empire and thus subject to anything Pope Gregory IX might have said (but didnt) about a no-cats policy. They spread via trade boats. On a personal level, my parents taught me the value of travel when I was young, and since then,Ive been an avid traveler I have visited 20 countries. As it went into the fourth and fifth years ! February 8, 2013. 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. However, historian Donald Engel believes that the Vox acted as a death warrant for the cat. From there, its just a couple of logical leaps to the connection to the Black Death: inspired by Pope Greg IXs bull, everyone across Europe killed off all the cats. The cat had obtained a darker connotation through its association with Galinthias, who became a servant of Hecate, a Greek goddess of the underworld after she was turned into a cat by the goddess Hera. The Remains of Dead US Presidents Will Be Sent Into Space, The Man Who Surgically Brought Back Unicorns. *Coupons: Check out our coupons for stores like Checks Unlimited and CheapOair! 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. no; mice? 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. Pope Gregory IX became pope of the Catholic Church in 1227 and he wanted to kill cats. Exterminating cats during the black plague epidemic in the 14th century: Cat owners were often accused of witchcraft, and often murdered along with their pets. (2017, June 6). People banged drums and kept the sparrow in the air not permitting them to land until they died of exhaustion! Where once these creatures had been common household animals, they were now regarded as dangerous, unpredictable and demonic. Cats just arent dogs, and I respect and love them specifically for that reason. 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. 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. Cat burning became a favorite medieval pastime in France, where cats were suspended over fires in cages or doused and set alight- even chased on fire through the streets by cat chasers. 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? There is little real evidence for this. 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? While I cannot say for certain that things didnt happen this way, there appear to be holes. The disease was ravaging Asia before it ever made its way to Europe. Gregory lived from 1145 to 1241, AD. Though, really, they were dealing with a cat infestation and decided to make it an excuse to drink. Im on the fence about getting an electronic cat that responds to touch (i.e., purring, meowing and flicking its robotic tail) but I can see why Egyptians of antiquity fell in love with cats. 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. I was among the attendees of this event, and can attest that it was a doozy. Cats were seen as agents of the devil, throughout much of history, and slaughtered again centuries later in New England during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. 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. While in power, Pope Gregory IX declared that cats were to be associated with devil worship and had them exterminated. As one might have predicted, thereafter, mass slaughters of cats blanked Europe. However, historian Donald Engel believes that the Vox acted as a death warrant for the cat. If cats were evil, it made sense that they were responsible for all the death and . Conrads methods, however, yielded results and in 1231, the Archbishops of Trier and Mainz wrote to the Pope, full of praise for their heretic catcher. Cats are awesome rodent hunters. The mass killing of those docile beautiful creatures is despicable. NASA is launching the DNA of some of the most prolific presidents in US history, The 1985 story of a bear that ate 77 pounds of Plabo Escobar's finest cocaine. Pope Gregory IX was a pretty good pope by medieval standards. 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. The Bubonic plague was carried not by rats themselves but their fleas; fleas which could just as easily transfer to dogs- and cats. Where do we get our stuff? Sweet Home Alabama Lyrics: What Does Muscle Shoals Has Got the Swampers Mean? The fleas just love cat blood so much more than ours. Like, if I were to think of evil depictions on display in a museum, this would be one of them. Even those among us who love cats (not me, I like dogs) freely admit that they are mercurial and probably evil animals that deal death for fun and would eat our eyes if they got the chance. While I dont have any cats my allergist says owning a cat for me is worse for my lungs than chain smoking Ive long revered cats. The same evil popes who say God created all creatures of the earth, yet they, wantonly murdered these defenseless creatures of the earth that God created. Id already discounted that idea. As a journalist, I spoke daily with public affairs officers who represented diverse government and corporate clients. 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. I soon realized thatpublic affairs combined the best of both worlds of journalism and television talk shows I get to learn interesting and unusual things about people who worked with me, I then get to tell their story. Before the 13th century, many societies, . Pope Gregory IX (1147-1241) was probably the world's worst cat hater or at least he did the most damage to cats. Indeed the belief that the torture or killing of cats could break spells continued across northern Europe. Just want to add that I like pretty much all animals, even dogs, but I am a cat person. 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. In the years ahead, feline-kind all across Europe saw their status slammed from a sacred and protected animal to a false idol. 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. Based on these confessions, in 1233 Pope Gregory IX issued an official papal decree declaring that Satan was half-cat and sometimes took the form of cat. After Pope Gregory IX associated cats with devil worship, cats throughout Europe were exterminated in droves. Medieval people were indeed superstitious (but so are modern people), and cats are great but, lets face ittheyre assh*les. Fewer cats, more rats, more fleas, and more plague. (2016, May 4). Locusts and every other kind because the sparrow not only ate grain but also insects the great 3 year famin followed and the official Chinese records showed 15 million people died of starvation but later studies done by experts from outside of China say the official numbers are fudged badly in an optimistic attempt to cover the true death toll of around 45 million plus some even say as high as 70 million!! In 2021, I dont think that most Catholics or people of other religious believe that cats are evil. 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. Firstly, they are greeted by an abnormally large frog or toad, whose behind they must kiss and then a man of fearful pallor and thinness whose task was to suck out every last remnant of faith in the Catholic Church from their soul. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/eight-witchcraft-myths/. I would suggest that theres more to the story. 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. You wouldnt hate that, would you? Cats and the Black Plague. 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. They were shunned, persecuted and often killed by people who feared that they . In other words, the Europeans were murdering their best ally in the war against the pandemic. Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Vox-in-Rama-authentic-What-effects-did-it-have, PetMD. Theres one thing you havent considered. So Gregory began to formalize and promote practices that formed the basis of the later medieval inquisition. Many of these rodents had fleas that carried diseases including the Black Plague. The purpose of Vox in Rama, rather, was to condemn a cult that had allegedly popped up in the Rhinelandand the bull was specifically sent to the city of Mainz. Denmarks Fastelavn held at the start of lent was based on the premise that for spring to begin, evil had to be banished. In a papal bull of 1233 he denounced the black cat as diabolical. My guess is this had something to do with ancient cat worship in places like Egypt, which made its clams by farming the fertile land around the Nile.1. With this thought in mind, I spent two years at CIA, where I was a supervisor in the Public Communications Branch at the Office of Public Affairs. And it gets repeated because it feels right to many people - it makes our ancestors look stupid and so make. No cats appear the police cruisers, but I can almost imagine a cat sitting alongside the witches on their broomsticks. His condemnation of cats may not be responsible for the spread of black death, but it's definitely connected to the decline in cat populations at the time, and the proliferation of rat populations. It was one of the most deadly pandemics in history. But feline-human relations deteriorated sometime in the early 1230s (CE) when Pope Gregory IX issued a papal bull called Vox in Rama. 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. They catch cockroaches, snakes, and scorpions too. They were hunted into extinction ! The bull began by bewailing the various woes that afflicted the church- the most recent being the satanic cult identified by Conrad of Marburg as flourishing in Northern Germany. (Ive decided not the repost the link here). 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. 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. The people of the time may have felt that this was the end of days, but the wake of the plague was nothing but an opportunity for survivors. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. In my home, I use cat statuettes as bookends, and have various other representations of these felines throughout my home. Gregory immediately recognizing Conrad as a useful tool in his war against religious dissent. He is mostly known for issuing the Decretales and starting the Papal Inquisition. The cat throwing. I AGREE. 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. Your writing is comical! According to Pope Gregory IX, cats were the embodiment of the devil himself. Homeless Cats Recruited to Fight Rising Tide of Rats, Erika Engelhaupt National Geographical, September 29, 2017. Pope Innocent VIII came to power in the late 1400s, during the throes of witch crusades in Western Europe. Wolves/dogs integrated themselves into society. THE RELIGIOUS SECTOR ARE OUT OF THEIR MINDS W/ THEIR POOR REASONING OF ENCOURAGING BIG FAMILIES. Others are less sure. Thus, whether the population of cats went down or not, the plague would still exist. Literally no cats. Some believed that the disappearance of those cats helped rats spread the bubonic plague aka the Black Death that killed millions of people in the 1300s. Learn how cats first spread around the world. That is the well-accepted history, but is it really true? You know, small-town sh*t.9. Further, the plague wasnt a one-off event in Europe. But the cars we have for pets are not naturally in the wild for thousands of years. Gregory was a reluctant pontiff- and not just because of his age. It was his distaste for cats that penned the Vox in Rama. And each time it hit Europe again, it appears to have come from Asia. But still, cultural images of cats being a marker of femininity didnt sprout fromVogue,any more than the idea that cats are plain evil stem fromSports Illustrated. You cant even accept that cats may have offered some protection from the plague. 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