According to European folklore, if a black cat crosses your path, you’ve got run out of luck. The affiliation between strolling felines and horrible misfortune doubtless comes from the custom of the “witches’ familiar,” a small animal assistant, usually a black cat.
But in keeping with some social media posts, the connections between black cats and paganism run a bit deeper. These posts declare that through the Middle Ages, cats had been thought-about Satanic and evil due to a 1233 papal decree, so Europeans rounded up cats throughout the continent and dispatched them in mass killings. But the cats had their revenge from past the grave — their pest management prowess would have led to fewer rats had their inhabitants not decreased, and within the subsequent century or two, extra cats and fewer rats might have saved individuals from the Black Death, essentially the most devastating outbreak of plague in recorded historical past.
But as tidy as this story appears, it dates to the late-Nineteen Nineties somewhat than the mid-1200s.
‘Vox in Rama’
“Vox in Rama” is an actual doc written as a letter within the 12 months 1233 by Pope Gregory IX. Because of the historic significance of the pope, their paperwork are extensively categorised, and underneath that classification system, “Vox in Rama” is taken into account a papal decretal — that’s, a letter written by a pope whose objective was to make clear questions on administration and punishment. Some sources (however not all, unusually) consult with this doc as a papal bull — a decree that carries an official seal and begins with the pope’s title and the phrase “episcopus servus servorum Dei” (Bishop, servant of the servants of God). In some copied versions of the decretal, this phrase is present, while in others, it is not.
“Vox in Rama” was sent to Konrad of Marburg, a German priest and nobleman, along with the Archbishop of Mainz and the Bishop of Hildesheim. It did indeed target heretics in that area of Germany, who, according to the decretal, had formed cults worshipping the devil. The decretal describes in detail the exact ritual of the cults in question, and it does mention the use of cats in the rituals.
“Afterwards they sit down to a meal and when they have arisen from it, from a certain statue, which is usual in a sect of this kind, a black cat about the size of an average dog, descends backwards, with its tail erect. First the novice, then the master, then each one of the order who are worthy and perfect, kiss the cat on its hindquarters”
“Ad convivium postmodum discumbentibus et surgentibus completo ipso convivio, per quandam statuam, que in scholis huiusmodi esse solet, descendit retrorsum ad modum canis mediocris gattus niger retorta cauda, quem a posterioribus primo novitius, post magister, deinde singuli per ordinem osculantur, qui tamen digni sunt et perfecti.”
There isn’t any proof past “Vox in Rama” itself to counsel that these rituals truly took place.
Did ‘Vox in Rama’ Lead to Europeans Thinking Cats Were Evil?
Not actually. While “Vox in Rama” did have papal authority, it wasn’t extensively shared. A duplicate might or might have been despatched to Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, however there isn’t a proof of that. So all three of the confirmed recipients of the letters had been non secular leaders in Germany. Even in the event that they did preach in regards to the evils of cats, that may be their fault for misinterpreting the decretal, which once more, doesn’t demonize cats or examine them to Satan and as a substitute simply describes how black cats had been supposedly utilized in that specific ritual.
There is proof that Europeans killed cats through the Middle Ages, however none of that proof means that mass killings of cats occurred. One archaeological evaluation titled “Killing Cats in the Medieval Period. An unusual episode in the history of Cambridge, England” examined the stays of 79 medieval cats and decided that they had been skinned for his or her fur. Snopes want to emphasize the writer’s use of the phrase “uncommon” within the title.
Cats Can Get Plague, Too
This explicit declare says that the mass killing of cats elevated the rodent inhabitants, which made the bubonic plague that struck within the mid-1300s even worse. Bubonic plague is attributable to a micro organism named Yersinia Pestis, which infects fleas. These fleas do stay on rats, that are carriers of the plague, which means they’re not affected by it however can unfold it. But the cats that may act as pest management aren’t immune both. According to the Centers for Disease Control, cats are literally extremely inclined to plague.
Another entice can emerge right here, nevertheless — you would possibly assume that folks might have began killing the cats as a result of they introduced the plague. Luckily for the cat lovers on the market, there’s no proof for that both. The solely notable, documented instance of mass cat killing that has any semblance of fact to it’s from Paris within the 1700s. In the e-book “The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History,” American historian Robert Darnton dedicates a chapter to explaining the titular occasion. It had nothing to do with the bubonic plague.
Where Did This Idea Come from?
According to historian Mike Dash, like many frequent myths discovered on the web, it originated within the late 90s or early 2000s.
“The downside right here is just that the story in regards to the cats is almost actually a contemporary internet-based fabrication,” he informed Snopes through electronic mail.
Snopes discovered a reference to the parable in Donald Engels’ e-book “Classical Cats: The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Cat,” printed in 1999. Dash, an energetic poster on the AskHistorians subreddit, mentioned in a post there that he discovered a e-book reference to the concept in “The Cathars” by Malcolm Lambert, printed in 1998. The claims doubtless originated from these books, then unfold to blogs on the web, then past.
Sources:
“aposcripta-666 (acte) | aposcripta/notice/26666.” Telma – Chartes, http://telma-chartes.irht.cnrs.fr/en/aposcripta/notice/26666. Accessed 7 Nov. 2023.
CDC. “Plague for Veterinarians | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 7 Feb. 2022, https://www.cdc.gov/plague/healthcare/veterinarians.html.
Engels, Donald W.. Classical Cats: The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Cat. United Kingdom, Routledge, 2001.
Kors, Alan Charles, and Edward Peters. Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.
LUFF, & Moreno-García, Marta. (1995). Killing cats within the medieval interval. An uncommon episode within the historical past of Cambridge, England. Archaeofauna. 4. 93.
McDaniel, Spencer. “Were Cats Really Killed En Masse During the Middle Ages?” Tales of Times Forgotten, 5 Nov. 2019, https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2019/11/05/were-cats-really-killed-en-masse-during-the-middle-ages/.
Samokishyn, Marta. LibGuides: Canon Law: Papal Documents. https://ustpaul.libguides.com/c.php?g=522115&p=3569976. Accessed 7 Nov. 2023.
“The Spooky History of How Cats Bewitched Us.” Chicago Tribune, 31 Oct. 2016, https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-history-of-how-cats-bewitched-us-20161031-story.html.
“Why Did Poland Have Lower Rates of Black Death than Other European Countries during the 1300s?” R/AskHistorians, 29 Oct. 2017, www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/feedback/79dwua/why_did_poland_have_lower_rates_of_black_death/.
