First, consider the dates: Pope Gregory IXs papal bull was issued between 1232 and 1234. You can say that Im addicted to it. Then, when the rats came bearing the Plague, there were no mousers left to keep the disease in check.3. Cats, dogs, horses, humans. 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. To think that all this fuss is over cats. Name is important in the papacy as it is seen as a signal of how their reign is envisioned. 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? Public Domain. Then each [returns] to his place and, speaking certain responses, they incline their heads toward to cat. The Bubonic plague was carried not by rats themselves but their fleas; fleas which could just as easily transfer to dogs- and 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. On June 13, 1233, Pope Gregory IX instigated the first bull of his papacy: the Vox in Rama. Plague in Cats. However, historian Donald Engel believes that the Vox acted as a death warrant for the cat. When an animal is removed from the ecosystem (especially out of fear) it usually causes a chain reaction. Indeed the belief that the torture or killing of cats could break spells continued across northern Europe. Lets see if the math adds up. 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. Further, the plague wasnt a one-off event in Europe. I SAY GOOD FOR ALL THOSE SENSELESS HUMANOIDS. Required fields are marked *. Long Live Chairman Meow Propaganda Poster, This Is Fine Meme: Dog Drinks Coffee In Burning House. People like to dump on the Middle Ages for being Europes cultural and technological nadir, especially compared to the surrounding Classical and Renaissance periods. The Nazcacat geoglyphwas only discovered last October. The theory that plague pandemics happen amidst a cat vacuum doesnt hold up: Europe didnt keep its cat population depleted for nearly 500 years. To start, lets look at what Pope Gregory IX actually said about cats in his bull (special formatting is my own): But the association between cats and gender is not a new one. The most likely targets were often older cat-owning peasant women (The Crazy Cat Ladies of their time) who were labeled witches and often burned alive at the stake. Where once these creatures had been common household animals, they were now regarded as dangerous, unpredictable and demonic. Gregory immediately recognizing Conrad as a useful tool in his war against religious dissent. 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. There are two types of people in this world: cat people, and not cat people. (Accessed June 1, 2018). Like, if I were to think of evil depictions on display in a museum, this would be one of them. Scientists back in the 19th century found out that the real transmission is through touch, and the most common carrier of the disease is the natural enemy to the previously butchered feline friend the rats. What effects did it have? 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. Many believed this was the end of the human race, and who could blame them? My mum always said the best way to get rid of a flea infestation was to let a cat walk through your house. There are two things we need to shed light on; whether Gregory IX endorse the newly-coined cathunt and whether the cathunt directly correlates with the black plague that happens 100 years after. Gregory based his theory on evidence from Conrad of Marburg, a papal inquisitor. 1999. The Church had already accused the Waldenses of worshipping the devil in the form of a cat. 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. Im not saying it was a great time to be alive, but it was a more complex time than people give it credit for. 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. Cat burning and other forms of cat hating have survived the centuries since. But feline-human relations deteriorated sometime in the early 1230s (CE) when Pope Gregory IX issued a papal bull called Vox in Rama. 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. Gregory IX. Encyclopedia of World Biography, Encyclopedia.com. Wierd Tales, Vol 36. Others posit that the smaller geoglyphs were used as location markers for travelers. Thus, whether the population of cats went down or not, the plague would still exist. why did pope gregory think that cats were evil? According to Pope Gregory IX, cats were the embodiment of the devil himself. We have detected that you are using extensions to block ads. 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. 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, Both, however, rendered the Catholic Church redundant. Eventually, the ItalianRenaissance would put this so far in the rearview, all we could think about wasfrilly collars. One assault (I despise catholic church so much-am true protestant) by a pope- I do not bother with their names- was due to cat allegedly not suiting him mentioned in their bible; one pope reversed these edicts-seeing half of europe dead- and anyone abusing a cat was severely punisheds), I love catholic people, but HATE the evil infiltration that came early, making a mockery of Jesus real story, one mother superior teaching mary got impregnated by another man when engaged to Joseph; also, during world war II; we fought germany japan and ITALY; so his holie ness: (misspelled to mean he is full of holes) sat in basement- the asshole that had power to divide spain and portugal surely could have rallied his cult to fight nazis and japanese fanatics; Luther returned us, PRAISE JESUS to the real truth of Jesus, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, this jackass is an I read one briticanna entry, now I know it all- when he knows zero; he paints pope as trusting one bad apple in this eradication of the limiting factor on rats- either a sharpshooter (as healthcare provider, like my clients who read one footnote in a pharmacology book I am not immediately aware of, suddenly, they should have DVM and PHD and DO (believe it or not, I do)-. Guess what? Gregory was a reluctant pontiff- and not just because of his age. Either way, his account cant be true. (Accessed 2018, June 1). But how did cats become to be seen as evil? 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. 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. Since that time, black cats have symbolized bad luck, or a curse, to people not only in Europe but throughout the world. So as you say, cats couldnt have contained bubonic plague. One can love animals, the Catechism says. Gregorys response was to issue the Vox in Rama. He has a brother named Adenulphus who later on in life served as the rector of Anagni, while Ugolino himself was educated in Paris and per known tradition, Bologna. When I graduated college,I began living my own dream as a reporter for a news media outlet. Poor cats though. THE RELIGIOUS SECTOR ARE OUT OF THEIR MINDS W/ THEIR POOR REASONING OF ENCOURAGING BIG FAMILIES. Not a cat person? STOP W/ THE BABIES ALREADY. For example (Accessed June 1, 2018). But in the final analysis cats just arent dogs. 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. I am here because of a PBS documentary on cats that I saw recently. As one might have predicted, thereafter, mass slaughters of cats blanked Europe. Wikimedia Commons. 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. 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? Not only that he founded the papal inquisition to prosecute heresy, but he also issues a papal bull a legal decree issued by a pope, designated as Vox in Rama that calls for crusades condemning the spread of heretics that follows Luciferianism in Mainz, Germany. As people began to get sick and the Black Plague began spreading, more and more cats were killed. Evil cradles in the Austin Powers franchise. It was Gregorys past as an astute lawyer that connected him to his acts of justice within the church. The Popes were all lecherous greedy thieves seeking nothing but power for themselves & their families. Thanks for writing this! Yet, in 2014 Pope Francis sparked an uproar by telling a girl whos cat who had died that she would be reunited Gods creatures in Paradise except for cats, who end up in hell. Retrieved from https://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/infectious-parasitic/c_ct_plague%20, Quora. They catch cockroaches, snakes, and scorpions too. The Vox in Rama encouraged Conrad of Marburg to overreach himself and that same year he accused Henry II, Count of Sayn of taking part in satanic orgies. Henry was acquitted when he appealed to the bishop of Mainz and later that year Marburg himself was mysteriously murdered- probably at Henrys behest. And it gets repeated because it feels right to many people - it makes our ancestors look stupid and so make. You wouldnt hate that, would you? A quick Google search shows that a felinefemme fatalecat mask is conveniently available on Amazon for only $25.22. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,600],'historyofyesterday_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_4',119,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-historyofyesterday_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0');Im definitely tracking the cat worship concept. All this was about to change. As was to be expected of a former angel The upper part of his body from the hips upward shines as brightly as the sun. However, his fall from grace was encapsulated by his lower body where his skin is coarse and covered with fur like a cat.. The Decretals reorganized the whole library of Catholic laws. Nature tries to maintain a balance .. dogs, cats, chickens, and snakes all relate well to preying upon rats and fleas. 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. 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. ITS TIME FOR THE GOVT TO STOP THE HUMAN OVER-POPULATION. BUT HUMANS , NOT SO. He is mostly known for issuing the Decretales and starting the Papal Inquisition. Information junkie with high probability of being a real-life Ted Mosby. Those arrested by Conrad, therefore, had only two options: admit to heresy and spend the rest of their lives as a known former heretic or burn. 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. However, history shows that the Black Death, which ravaged Europe in the mid 1300s, was actually caused by rats and the fleas on them. Where do we get our stuff? A witch riding a broomstick with a black cat. Potential infected flea hosts include: rodents, humans, dogs, and cats. Its true that paper cutouts of these furry creatures make nice imagery at Halloween parties. For he had inherited the problem of heresies which were blossoming across thirteenth century Christian Europe and challenging the 'universal' church. 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. So why not witches? I do support single mothers though, especially those willing to give me 2 for 1 lapdance specials, but I digress. It kept happening, lets say once per generation, until the 1700s. It also provided a remarkably full account of their Satanic rite. 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. you suck; F-; see edict ex cathadre by a subsequent POPE reversing greggy 9s cat condemnation- also, Y-Perstis fleas only and I mean ONLY like rats; why? Wikimedia Commons. Its also true that there was a pope at the time who was not a fan of cats, who banned them. Apparently torture produced some pretty convincing confessions from people who worshipped the devil and his black cat. I adore cats, they are so zen. You literally cannot even be bothered to recall the NAMES of the people youre talking about. On October 11, 1231, he appointed Conrad as the first grand inquisitor of Germany. After food, clothing and medicine, the fourth item is cosmetics and the fifth is pets, he said, referring to a study on where most peoples income goes. There is little real evidence for this. DeAgostini/Getty Images. Your writing is comical! But feline-human relations deteriorated sometime in the early 1230s (CE) when Pope Gregory IX issued a papal bull called Vox in Rama. 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. The Remains of Dead US Presidents Will Be Sent Into Space, The Man Who Surgically Brought Back Unicorns. Im coming out pretty strong against this cat-plague connection, but the truth is I cant say for sure. 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. (along with other predators including snakes, which had long since carried the label of being evil). The mass killing of those docile beautiful creatures is despicable. I get why we have dogs. When an animal is removed from the ecosystem (especially out of fear) it usually causes a chain reaction. But this time, Pope Francis is focusing on all pets saying that people spend way too much money on furry friends. If these furry creatures association with fictitious international criminals isnt enough, cats also have been linked to witchcraft: In the Middle Ages, women who owned black cats came under suspicion as did the cats, who were assumed to bewitches in disguise and were burned at the stake. Homeless Cats Recruited to Fight Rising Tide of Rats, Erika Engelhaupt National Geographical, September 29, 2017. Besides, it mutated into septicemic and pneumonic forms, thus spreading even faster. 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. Missionary Activity under Pope Gregory the Great. 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. Plague. Thats serious.. 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. I AGREE. 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. 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. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. 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. Many superstitions, including fear of black cats, continue to this day. CATS ARE BETTER THAN PEOPLE. 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. The only problem is that this story probably isnt true. Omniverous diet, free bleeders- cats and other mammals? 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. Dog lovers, please get over it. I like cats, but I dont wear leopard skin or go around posting pictures of cats everywhere. The fleas just love cat blood so much more than ours. 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. The proverbial compendium of collective human knowledge at that point was certainly shorter and harder to access than it is now, but people back then still used their brains. Finally, even if cat numbers were vastly reduced, they were not wiped out. And anyone who tries to understand them as the devil incarnate or as a female marker hasnt spent enough time enjoying a cat walking all over them, kneading them or running from cucumbers. Zealousness is a common occurrence in medieval times, the same thing goes for Gregory IX. 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