By removing many cats from the food chain, the population of rodents began to rise across Europe, as Asian and other foreign ships carrying rats brought them to European harbors. Did Pope Gregory's comfort with the law cause him to overstep his station as the pope? While rat-kind cant directly carry the disease, they carry the fleas that contain the bacteria Y. Pestis. However, historian Donald Engel believes that the Vox acted as a death warrant for the cat. The reforms were based on the suggestions of the Italian scientist Luigi Lilio, with some modifications by the Jesuit mathematician and astronomer Christopher Clavius. 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. Its long-term effect, however, was to reshape the view of the cat in European society in general, morphing it from a pagan sacred animal into an agent of hell. 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. Pope Benedict died Dec. 31, 2022, at the age of 95 in his residence at the . By rough estimates, as many as 200 million people died. Cats, especially black cats, were now seen as evil and representatives of the . Other sects, such as the Cathars or Albigensians had more esoteric beliefs. Pope Gregory IX initiated the feline holocaust in Europe which was to continue . A 'bulla' is the seal on the papal bull. He tended to treat all those accused as guilty until proven innocent and threatened all those who would not confess with the flames. He informed the Pope of his findings. DeAgostini/Getty Images. 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. The author provides citations for his claims. They both carry fleas, only the mice never jump in my lap and bunt their head-glands all over my jeans. At first glance, these rites, with their orgies and obscenities seem to be deliberately far-fetched. Chairman Meow Says: Iz so awful that such a time occurred in our history. 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. It is also doubtful that one papal bull sent to Mainz can influence the whole European stage. 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. Nature tries to maintain a balance .. dogs, cats, chickens, and snakes all relate well to preying upon rats and fleas. Id already discounted that idea. The bull does not, however, dictate that Catholics across Europe kill all cats to stop Satan. Even today, the Vatican still throws shade at cats. 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. That, or he was a true believer, or both. I thank you for your service to this great multiverse. 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. Does the dwindling population of cats indirectly cause the infamous Black Death? The Remains of Dead US Presidents Will Be Sent Into Space, The Man Who Surgically Brought Back Unicorns. Some people are sick. Anyone with a thing against cats may get some satisfaction from a weird history "fact" circulating on the internet. 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. 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. Fleas tend to prefer cat blood. Lets see if the math adds up. Reigning during the Western Schism, he was opposed by the Avignon claimant Benedict XIII and the Pisan claimants Alexander V and John XXIII.Gregory XII wanted to unify the Church and . As mentioned, this Pope initiated what has been described as the feline Holocaust 3 in Europe. On June 13, 1233, Pope Gregory IX instigated the first bull of his papacy: the Vox in Rama. My mum always said the best way to get rid of a flea infestation was to let a cat walk through your house. 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 !!.. Black Death. I am in France since 3 years and I would see the amount of cats I saw here during that time, maybe in a day or two in Turkey. 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. 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. According to Pope Gregory IX, cats were the embodiment of the devil himself. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death, Georgievska, Marija. WHY DONT U WRITE A SONG ABOUT THE PLAGUE THAT RAVAGED THE POPULATION OF HUMANS INSTEAD, BECAUSE THEY GOT WHAT WAS COMING TO THEM ALL. Dear Sir, 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. Meanwhile, they need that meat on the regular and know how to get it, so theyre great at killing and eating vermin. 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. Elsewhere in Europe, the legacy of cat killings passed into folk practices. ps. The Obscene Kiss, Wood engraving from the 1608 edition of the Compendium Maleficarum. 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. The Black Death came in 1347. Dog lovers, please get over it. 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. The Black Plague did happen. Share this article your friends will love it too! I have no idea where you get the idea that cats place is in the wild. Thou Shalt not suffer a Cat to Live: Why Pope Gregory IXs Vox in Rama Implicated Cats in Devil Worship. (Accessed May 31, 2018). Then each [returns] to his place and, speaking certain responses, they incline their heads toward to cat. Your email address will not be published. Pope Gregory IX was a pretty good pope by medieval standards. Much like modern-day Chicago, Egypt had a rat problem. Pope Innocent VIII came to power in the late 1400s, during the throes of witch crusades in Western Europe. Public Domain. Zealousness is a common occurrence in medieval times, the same thing goes for Gregory IX. Pope Gregory IX did issue a papal bull, . Eventually, the ItalianRenaissance would put this so far in the rearview, all we could think about wasfrilly collars. 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? You can say that Im addicted to it. Cats were beloved by Egyptians. 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. For Conrad in his quest for heretics around Mainz and Hildesheim claimed to have uncovered a Luciferian cult. 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. Gregory believed him. 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. The Churchs feline foibles didnt stop with Gregory, however. 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. They spread via trade boats. I was among the attendees of this event, and can attest that it was a doozy. However, historian Donald Engel believes that the Vox acted as a death warrant for the cat. Not a cat person? Public Domain. Answer: This looks like a job for History for Atheists! 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 BETTER THAN PEOPLE. Gregory IX. Encyclopedia of World Biography, Encyclopedia.com. Its also true that there was a pope at the time who was not a fan of cats, who banned them. cats were only interested in our rat infested granaries. That is the well-accepted history, but is it really true? Then, when the rats came bearing the Plague, there were no mousers left to keep the disease in check.3. Since the ninth century AD, the Canon Episcopi of the Catholic Church had deemed belief in witchcraft to be a heresy in itself. They were pure evil seeking nothing but power & control of the population. One small fact you havent taken account of here. Some historians have forgiven the rats. Gregory IX. Encyclopedia of World Biography, Encyclopedia.com. For example Either way, his account cant be true. Since that time, black cats have symbolized bad luck, or a curse, to people not only in Europe but throughout the world. Following years brought the great plaque of insects! https://historycollection.co/thou-shalt-not-suffer-a-cat-to-live-why-pope-gregory-ixs-vox-in-rama-implicated-cats-in-devil-worship/3/, Of course, theres also the wee tiny fact that the paranoia about witchcraft didnt really start to get into full swing until the 16th and 17th century, and that included black cats. How then could he have impacted the good people of the 1300s? Interesting article. Buy Long Live the Kitty! Long Live Chairman Meow Propaganda Poster, This Is Fine Meme: Dog Drinks Coffee In Burning House. The Decretals reorganized the whole library of Catholic laws. 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. I didnt expect to read the whole article, but I found myself tickled in all the right places, so dear sir, I did indeed finish the article in its entirety. 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. THE HUMAN POPULATION NEEDS TO BE CUT BACK BECAUSE OF THEIR EVIL NATURE. It was also a time when, people many believe, Pope Gregory IX hated on cats. 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. Actually, the murder of cats in Europe continued for hundreds of years, and another Plague swept through Europe again in the 17th Century. Here are our sources? Ugolino di Conti was born around 11451170 in Anagni, Rome. While I cannot say for certain that things didnt happen this way, there appear to be holes. Nazca, a culture that lived in what is now Peru, etched a 37-meter-long geoglyph of a cat in the coast plain some 2,000 years ago. It also saw the breakup of the Carolingian Empire in 843. Yes I agree with you on this as we can never judge history in modern times Is the Vox in Rama authentic? In 2021, I dont think that most Catholics or people of other religious believe that cats are evil. In the fourth century, a Christian monk named Evagrius Ponticus wrote down what's known as the "eight evil thoughts": gluttony, lust, avarice, anger, sloth, sadness . Constantly told the Truth is stranger than fiction!!! 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. Across Europe kill all cats to stop Satan a pretty good pope by medieval standards think..., so theyre great at killing and eating vermin for the cat would not confess with law... 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