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 mass killing of those docile beautiful creatures is despicable. (Accessed June 1, 2018). 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? Theres one thing you havent considered. (Accessed 2018, June 1). My mum always said the best way to get rid of a flea infestation was to let a cat walk through your house. Where once these creatures had been common household animals, they were now regarded as dangerous, unpredictable and demonic. Other sects, such as the Cathars or Albigensians had more esoteric beliefs. February 8, 2013. BUT HUMANS , NOT SO. 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. While rat-kind cant directly carry the disease, they carry the fleas that contain the bacteria Y. Pestis. Then, there is the fact that cats just arent good ratters-, which is why dogs; especially terriers are employed to catch rodents. Pope Gregory IX initiated the feline holocaust in Europe which was to continue . 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. 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. Wierd Tales, Vol 36. 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. 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. The author provides citations for his claims. 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. But this time, Pope Francis is focusing on all pets saying that people spend way too much money on furry friends. The most you can say about cats from this papal bull is that they are perhaps among the icons worshipped by a Satanic cult. At length, when the novice has come forward, [he] is met by a man of wondrous pallor who has black eyes and is so emaciated [and] thin that since his flesh has been wasted, seems to have remaining only skin drawn over bone. 1958 China Chairman Mao and the great leap forward he had designs on wiping out the four evils The Pope also gave Conrad carte blanche to deal with all heretics as he saw fit- including permission to disregard usual church rules. Wikimedia Commons. Others posit that the smaller geoglyphs were used as location markers for travelers. Then, there is the fact that cats just arent good ratters-, which is why dogs; especially terriers are employed to catch rodents. Conrad had initially been involved in the persecution of the Cathars and enjoyed significant successes during the Albigensian crusade of 1209 -1229. 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. That was when Ugolino was over 80 years old. Cats, dogs, horses, humans. Lets see if the math adds up. 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. Share this article your friends will love it too! Both, however, rendered the Catholic Church redundant. (Accessed June 1, 2018). I was among the attendees of this event, and can attest that it was a doozy. Finally, even if cat numbers were vastly reduced, they were not wiped out. The nauseating details of the cult initiation process plunge Europe into a manhunt of felines a cathunt. Fewer cats, more rats, more fleas, and more plague. Cats are awesome rodent hunters. 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. Id rather see them in the wild doing what cats are meant to do than as someones indoor pet. ), Then, in 1484, another pope, Innocent VIII, issued apapal bullthat condemned to death all cats and their human companions. 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. Queen Elizabeth I celebrated her coronation with the burning of a cat-stuffed effigy. Cats were later blamed for the Black Death (13461352), though rats were actually the culprit. On January 23, 1229, he sent messages to Riga, Lubeck, Sweden, to Gotland with an appeal to begin . We accept this storythat we humans once crossed cats and it resulted in one in three of us dyingbecause it just feels rignt. It wasn't until Pope Gregory IX came to power in the 1200s that black cats became a symbol of bad luck. no; mice? 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. Though Ive learned important lessons from each of my trips, my trip to Chile the string bean-shaped country was my favorite. In those days, papal inquisitors extracted confessions from prisoners that they worshiped the devil and his black cat by torturing them vigorously. 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. Not sure I am convinced either way, but people (especially those who prefer dogs) do like to hate on cats, so it is not a stretch to believe that they have been killed en masse in any era. But, despite all the people who make their livings as cat psychologists, cats will just be cats. I thank you for your service to this great multiverse. However, historian Donald Engel believes that the Vox acted as a death warrant for the cat. I get why we have dogs. Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges pilgrims during his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Nov. 4, 2009. Even today, the police department of Salem, Massachusetts, where witch trials executed 20 women for witchcraft, uses the image of a witch on a broomstick on theirpolice cruisers. Check out France, rats on the street, brave-pigeons without flight reflex, but no cats. In Belgium, an entire festival, Kattenstoet, is dedicated to throwing cats from buildings and burning them in the streets. Wikimedia Commons. Zealousness is a common occurrence in medieval times, the same thing goes for Gregory IX. 1999. Wierd Tales, Vol 36. Its believed by some that the plague spread, at least in part,via rats. 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). Did Pope Gregory's comfort with the law cause him to overstep his station as the pope? 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. Sometimes it appears unduly large, and sometimes equivalent to a goose or a duck, and sometimes it even assumes the size of an oven. 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. 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. ALL ANIMALS ARE BEAUTIFUL, EVERY SPECIES KNOWN IS A JOY TO BEHOLD, EVERY ONE, RIGHT DOWN TO THE HIPPO, THE PIGS, EQUINES, PACHYDERMS , FELINES, CANINES, BOVINES. 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. Home chairman meow wisdom Why Cats Were (Wrongly) Blamed for the Black Plague in Europe. 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. Gregory based his theory on evidence from Conrad of Marburg, a papal inquisitor. When I was a kid, my mom thought that Id have my own talk show because I was always asking people lots of questions about themselves. 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. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. Cats were beloved by Egyptians. Lead bulla of Gregory IX. 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. Cats are natural hunters. After Pope Gregory IX associated cats with devil worship, cats throughout Europe were exterminated in droves. Great read! The Black Death came in 1347. 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. As one might have predicted, thereafter, mass slaughters of cats blanked Europe. People banged drums and kept the sparrow in the air not permitting them to land until they died of exhaustion! In 2019, Profs and Pints, an organization that was founded to democratize higher learning, hosted an event that was designed to demystify the magical, spiritual and even sexualdepictions of catsin media and society. He informed the Pope of his findings. Chairman Meow Says: Iz so awful that such a time occurred in our history. Tomb of Ancient Viking High King Discovered, The Most Bizarre Relics From The Ancient Funeral Rite. Wages rose fast in the absence of labor. How then could he have impacted the good people of the 1300s? No cats appear the police cruisers, but I can almost imagine a cat sitting alongside the witches on their broomsticks. Enter the ancestors of Garfield the Cat. If anything, the cathunt is Konrads interpretation of the papal bull. Thanks for writing this! The Bubonic plague was carried not by rats themselves but their fleas; fleas which could just as easily transfer to dogs- and cats. Honestly, I feel like even thinking that the cathunt resulted or directly influence the black plague is a bit of a stretch. Literally no cats. It also saw the breakup of the Carolingian Empire in 843. (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). Konrad has evidence of people worshipping Lucifer and black cats, he also seems to possess some sort of confession. But the association between cats and gender is not a new one. The purpose of the papal bull Vox in Rama, was to condemn a cult that had allegedly popped up in the Rhinelandand the bull was specifically sent to the city of Mainz. (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. 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 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. Omniverous diet, free bleeders- cats and other mammals? Do you believe that cats are invested with the spirit of Mr. Morningstar. Retrieved from http://www.kattenstoet.be/en/page/497-511/the-cat-throwing.html, MedicineNet.com. Pope Gregory IX (1147-1241). A quick Google search shows that a felinefemme fatalecat mask is conveniently available on Amazon for only $25.22. This is mainly because the black plague ravaged Asia before it goes on its way to Europe. Your writing is comical! 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. However, history shows that the Black Death, which ravaged Europe in the mid 1300s, was actually caused by rats and the fleas on them. It was his distaste for cats that penned the Vox in Rama. Terriers were also used for that purpose, in fact they were bred specifically for it. But in the final analysis cats just arent dogs. On June 13, 1233, Pope Gregory IX instigated the first bull of his papacy: the Vox in Rama. Gregory believed him. ANIMALS ARE BECOMING EXTINCT BECAUSE OF THE GREAT AMOUNT OF NEEDLESS BABIES BEING BORN. Potential infected flea hosts include: rodents, humans, dogs, and cats. Want more crazy cat facts? 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 would suggest that theres more to the story. Its a little school in England that was established in the year 1096. What he did caused the persecution of domestic and stray cats for 500 years. 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. Gregory IX. Encyclopedia of World Biography, Encyclopedia.com. As mentioned, this Pope initiated what has been described as the feline Holocaust 3 in Europe. Elsewhere in Europe, the legacy of cat killings passed into folk practices. 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. Without them, pests would run wild, and not just rats. 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. 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. 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. Buy Long Live the Kitty! BELIEVE! Henry was acquitted when he appealed to the bishop of Mainz and later that year Marburg himself was mysteriously murdered- probably at Henrys behest. Often fueled by a fear, individuals are often capable of doing illogical or terrible things as groups when given permission by authority figures. One small fact you havent taken account of here. Ravens Hold Grudges Against Cheaters. Home; About; Contacts; Location; FAQ DeAgostini/Getty Images. 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 few versions of this story that bother to give anything like some substantiation claim that cats were declared servants of evil by Pope Gregory IX in 1232 or even that he declared that they should all be killed. (Ive decided not the repost the link here). 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. 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