I AGREE. Does the dwindling population of cats indirectly cause the infamous Black Death? So theres a lot of weak info out there about the backwards things that Medieval people were wont to do. The cat thing is a footnote in his story. Reply . Dogs are sweet but they dont really have that self respect that cats do. Then each [returns] to his place and, speaking certain responses, they incline their heads toward to cat. Cats dont generally take on rats. Pope Gregory IX did not say cats are evil, and did not order people to kill cats. 1999. Pope Gregory IX (1147-1241) was probably the world's worst cat hater or at least he did the most damage to cats. On June 13, 1233, Gregory issued the Vox in Rama, an official papal decree declaring that Satan was half-cat and sometimes took the form of a cat during Satanic masses. 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. Poor cats though. 2022 History of Yesterday | All Rights Reserved. On January 23, 1229, he sent messages to Riga, Lubeck, Sweden, to Gotland with an appeal to begin . Unfortunately, modern DNA testing allowed us to dig into the causes of death from aging corpses. Many superstitions, including fear of black cats, continue to this day. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Museum Hack leads small group, VIP museum tours that are fun, fast-paced and surprisingly cool. People banged drums and kept the sparrow in the air not permitting them to land until they died of exhaustion! As a strategic communicator, I juggle many balls but Im a writer first. Even today, the Vatican still throws shade at cats. 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. A bit hard to read when YOU ARE SCREAMING AT ME though! If the Black Death was airborne, then rats had nothing to do with it, exonerating Gregory. As a journalist, I spoke daily with public affairs officers who represented diverse government and corporate clients. THE HUMAN POPULATION NEEDS TO BE CUT BACK BECAUSE OF THEIR EVIL NATURE. why did pope gregory think that cats were evil? Its true that paper cutouts of these furry creatures make nice imagery at Halloween parties. He therefore gave his official blessing to the widespread persecution of cats across Europe. 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. Gregory IX was the head of the Catholic Church from 1227 to 1241. This persecution was so savage that some scholars believe that by the 1300s, Europes cat numbers were sufficiently depleted to prevent them efficiently killing rats and mice- thus allowing the bubonic plague to spread. He was born Ugolino di Conti but took the name Gregory when he becamethe pope. His papacy started when hereticism run rampant in Europe, and yet, by the end of his term, he saw the completion of one of the most important canon law in the Catholic Church known as the Decretales Gregorii IX, Decretales Gregorii IX, Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Vox-in-Rama-authentic-What-effects-did-it-have, PetMD. Gregory lived from 1145 to 1241, AD. 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. Home; About; Contacts; Location; FAQ Cats came to be seen as a symbol of witchcraft, and even as the embodiment of Satan himself. 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. Pope Gregory IX was a pretty good pope by medieval standards. Sweet Home Alabama Lyrics: What Does Muscle Shoals Has Got the Swampers Mean? However, historian Donald Engel believes that the Vox acted as a death warrant for the cat. The Black Death came in 1347. Anyone with a thing against cats may get some satisfaction from a weird history "fact" circulating on the internet. 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. 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. In other words, the Europeans were murdering their best ally in the war against the pandemic. Cats were beloved by Egyptians. Homeless Cats Recruited to Fight Rising Tide of Rats, Erika Engelhaupt National Geographical, September 29, 2017. Kitty cats are not everyones flavor of pudding, but they serve an important role in many urban areas, especially in the developing nations outside the western world. 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. 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. 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. Retrieved from http://historycollection.co/thou-shalt-not-suffer-a-cat-to-live-why-pope-gregory-ixs-vox-in-rama-implicated-cats-in-devil-worship/, Gibbens, Sarah. He said they ate too much grain and it was the responsibility of every person to kill a sparrow if they saw one and they were not to give up until they achieved it !!.. Information junkie with high probability of being a real-life Ted Mosby. While the papal bull was sent to several rulers such as Emperor Frederick II and King Henry of Germany, the central prominent figure that assumes that task very seriously is one Konrad von Marburg. Others posit that the smaller geoglyphs were used as location markers for travelers. Id already discounted that idea. Gregory IX approved the Northern Crusades of the Teutonic Order, the purpose of which was the baptism of the Baltic pagan peoples, and which led to the attempts of the Catholic colonialists to seize the lands of Pskov and Novgorod principalities. They were shunned, persecuted and often killed by people who feared that they . His papacy started when hereticism run rampant in Europe, and yet, by the end of his term, he saw the completion of one of the most important canon law in the Catholic Church known as the Decretales Gregorii IX, excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and (allegedly) founded the earliest incarnation of the papal inquisition. On June 13, 1233, the Pope issued the Vox in Rama to King Henry of Germany. While there were no immediate effects of the unjust cathunt, Europe will be affected in the years to come, with the rise of the Bubonic Plague. Medieval people were indeed superstitious (but so are modern people), and cats are great but, lets face ittheyre assh*les. 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. (2010, February 4). 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. As one might have predicted, thereafter, mass slaughters of cats blanked Europe. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death, Georgievska, Marija. I like cats, but I dont wear leopard skin or go around posting pictures of cats everywhere. At first glance, these rites, with their orgies and obscenities seem to be deliberately far-fetched. However, it was also a piece of papal legislation that was notable in another way, for the Vox was the first papal bull to associate the cat with witchcraft. 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. While I cannot say for certain that things didnt happen this way, there appear to be holes. Although the explicit heretic activities mentioned within the Vox in Rama do mention something about our feline friend, this doesn't mean that Gregory IX endorse cathunt. Indeed the belief that the torture or killing of cats could break spells continued across northern Europe. Thanks for writing this! For years there was a debate if the Black Death and the Bubonic Plague were the same, adding speculation to the rat spreading theory. Classical Cats: The Rise and fall of the Sacred Cat, Donald W Engels, Psychology Press. Over many centuries, Egyptians found that a cat was the one creature that could make the world safe, according to Purina. 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. 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. 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. (dogma defined as the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology, or any kind of organization: it is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from). April 1st was originally celebrated as the New Year day, until in 1582 Pope . Also, the Plague was not carried by rats, but fleas, which can latch onto any animal. 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. Not only did the Egyptians hold the cat sacred in the form of Bast, a warrior goddess associated with fertility and the moon, but so too did the Romans, for whom the cat was one of the symbols of the goddess of freedom, Liberta. Tomb of Ancient Viking High King Discovered, The Most Bizarre Relics From The Ancient Funeral Rite. 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). I dont know what to make of the authors contention that we like to hate on the middle ages. Yeah you have a good point there! Apparently torture produced some pretty convincing confessions from people who worshipped the devil and his black cat. That was when Ugolino was over 80 years old. Lastly, a bit of science about the plague: the disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and is initially transmitted by fleas, which pass it to their hosts. Literally no cats. The Vox described the depraved rituals of the cult in detail, portraying the devil worshipped by the witches as a shadowy half cat and half man figure. Ugolino assumes the mantle of the pope immediately in the papal election of 1227 after the death of Pope Honorius III (Conrad of Urach was chosen initially, but declined). 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. 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. no- blood dives; you are 100% wrong, irrational clearly an agnostic who mocks then defends his false god, the pope- also, review another diatribe from papal high tower urging cats killed-clearly minions of satan, word cat not in catholic bible problem is, what did david kill as shepherd attacking his sheep? Not only were they a source of companionship they were also a status symbol and source of worship., Egyptians have had a long love affair with cats. (Accessed 2018, June 1). Classical Cats: The Rise and fall of the Sacred Cat, Donald W Engels, Psychology Press. 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. 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? 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. Public Domain. (2017, June 6). That is the well-accepted history, but is it really true? In any case, the various popes saw nothing wrong with burning heretics alive, so they already had a savage reputation. Denmark's Fastelavn held at the start of lent was based on the premise that for spring to begin, evil had to be banished. The account began by describing the initiation of novices to the coven. Though Ive learned important lessons from each of my trips, my trip to Chile the string bean-shaped country was my favorite. 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. HUMAN OVER-POPULATION ISNT PRETTY, IT IS THE CAUSE BEHIND CHRONIC WARS. But myths often transcend evidence, dont they? 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. 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. 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. Before the prospect of burning at the stake for having contact with the purring pets, Catholics around the the continent began slaughtering any feline that entered their property. For some reason, we find the idea that our ancestors were dumb rather appealing. Not a cat person? Even for modern times, that is not a young age to take on the papal role. Cats Blamed for Spreading the Plague During the Middle Ages, it wasn't uncommon for cats to be killed, given their association with evil, Compora says. Cats absolutely devastate wildlife when out in nature, killing millions of birds and having been responsible for extinction of species. 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. By Gregorys decree, there was a target on the head of every black cat. Thou Shalt not suffer a Cat to Live: Why Pope Gregory IXs Vox in Rama Implicated Cats in Devil Worship. 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. 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