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. 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). 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 Black Death came in 1347. 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. 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. Retrieved from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/ravens-memory-unfair-trade/. That was when Ugolino was over 80 years old. 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 !!.. 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. Locusts and every other kind because the sparrow not only ate grain but also insects the great 3 year famin followed and the official Chinese records showed 15 million people died of starvation but later studies done by experts from outside of China say the official numbers are fudged badly in an optimistic attempt to cover the true death toll of around 45 million plus some even say as high as 70 million!! 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. Heretical beliefs were on the rise at the time, . Welcome to BELIEVE.art, home of Revolutionary Artist & Warrior-Poet, Chairman Meow. 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? That, or he was a true believer, or both. We know there was a massive reduction in cat populations at the time because of this, so its plausible to make the connection. (2016, May 4). Cats were later blamed for the Black Death (13461352), though rats were actually the culprit. Is the Vox in Rama authentic? They fly in the face of the Christian idea of God putting the natural world and its creatures here for humanitys benefit. (Accessed May 31, 2018). 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. This demonization led to the widespread, violent persecution of black cats in particular. Tying the cat to satanic worship was a natural progression- and one that would have dire consequences. Denmarks Fastelavn held at the start of lent was based on the premise that for spring to begin, evil had to be banished. Constantly told the Truth is stranger than fiction!!! 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. The mass murder of cats was not the only cause of the Black Plague, but it removed a crucial natural predator of the flea-carrying rats that spread the disease. However, historian Donald Engel believes that the Vox acted as a death warrant for the cat. Oh and I like dogs but dog people kind of irritate as they always say or think negative stuff about cats, like cats are arseholes. Next the myth of toxoplasmosis! Sweet Home Alabama Lyrics: What Does Muscle Shoals Has Got the Swampers Mean? Want more crazy cat facts? 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. The Nazcacat geoglyphwas only discovered last October. In those days, papal inquisitors extracted confessions from prisoners that they worshiped the devil and his black cat by torturing them vigorously. I get why we have dogs. Eventually, the ItalianRenaissance would put this so far in the rearview, all we could think about wasfrilly collars. In the years ahead, feline-kind all across Europe saw their status slammed from a sacred and protected animal to a false idol. 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. Did Pope Gregory's comfort with the law cause him to overstep his station as the pope? Finally, even if cat numbers were vastly reduced, they were not wiped out. This cruel practice continued until 1817 although the Kattenstoet continues to this day- involving stuffed cats instead. The fleas just love cat blood so much more than ours. They were pure evil seeking nothing but power & control of the population. Dog lovers, please get over it. 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. 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. He informed the Pope of his findings. Plague in Cats. 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. Weve discovered that the two diseases were one and the same, spread by contact, not the air. Like a lot of other myths about history from the Middle Ages, the idea that Europeans wiped out cats and then paid for it with the Black Death makes more sense the less you think about it. Retrieved from https://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/infectious-parasitic/c_ct_plague%20, Quora. 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. 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. We know they had terrier like dogs in Medieval Europe and that they were used as ratters. We may still see the effects of the mass cat slaughter today: Its been suggested that the small black cat population in Europe today is a direct result of that breed being deemed particularly devil-like. 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. Based on the Vox in Rama translation there is no exact phrase that urges Konrad or other inquisitors to go on a cathunt all across Europe. In a papal bull of 1233 he denounced the black cat as diabolical. Many of these rodents had fleas that carried diseases including the Black Plague. ps. Gregory IX. Encyclopedia of World Biography, Encyclopedia.com. Cats are not assholes, as this writer and many dog lovers like to repeat endlessly (and its SO tiresome to listen). 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, 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. Required fields are marked *. The author provides citations for his claims. Indeed, there is evidence of animals dying from the Plague. Homeless Cats Recruited to Fight Rising Tide of Rats, Erika Engelhaupt National Geographical, September 29, 2017. In fact, most people who believe the Europeans wiped out cats which caused the Black Death bull crap, is that cats werent the only animals used for catching rats. The Pope also gave Conrad carte blanche to deal with all heretics as he saw fit- including permission to disregard usual church rules. Elsewhere in Europe, the legacy of cat killings passed into folk practices. The Waldenses, who were founded in 1170 by Peter Waldo claimed that individuals could commune with God directly, negating the need for priests. 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. Denmark's Fastelavn held at the start of lent was based on the premise that for spring to begin, evil had to be banished. 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. Wages rose fast in the absence of labor. The Black Plague did happen. But it starts to fall apart once you roll it around in the ol brainpan. Great read! Like, if I were to think of evil depictions on display in a museum, this would be one of them. There is little real evidence for this. 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. The bull does not, however, dictate that Catholics across Europe kill all cats to stop Satan. Cats are natural hunters. 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. Though, really, they were dealing with a cat infestation and decided to make it an excuse to drink. Henry was acquitted when he appealed to the bishop of Mainz and later that year Marburg himself was mysteriously murdered- probably at Henrys behest. As I understand it, people used small dogs for rat hunting. 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. Home chairman meow wisdom Why Cats Were (Wrongly) Blamed for the Black Plague in Europe. The Churchs feline foibles didnt stop with Gregory, however. 1999. 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? But some of their adversaries do. Hera are six really weird pets that you could actually own. For example, 79 medieval cats were mysteriously slain in Cambridge, England, by the townsfolk in the 13th century. Gregory was a reluctant pontiff- and not just because of his age. Besides, it mutated into septicemic and pneumonic forms, thus spreading even faster. His condemnation of cats may not be responsible for the spread of black death, but it's definitely connected to the decline in cat populations at the time, and the proliferation of rat populations. Fleas tend to prefer cat blood. Name is important in the papacy as it is seen as a signal of how their reign is envisioned. It was Gregorys past as an astute lawyer that connected him to his acts of justice within the church. The people of the time may have felt that this was the end of days, but the wake of the plague was nothing but an opportunity for survivors. As people began to get sick and the Black Plague began spreading, more and more cats were killed. https://owlcation.com/humanities/Cats-and-the-Black-Plague, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/ravens-memory-unfair-trade/, http://historycollection.co/thou-shalt-not-suffer-a-cat-to-live-why-pope-gregory-ixs-vox-in-rama-implicated-cats-in-devil-worship/, https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Vox-in-Rama-authentic-What-effects-did-it-have, https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/CXXII/498/1075/457108/The-Black-Death-in-Egypt-and-England-A-Comparative?redirectedFrom=fulltext, https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death, http://www.kattenstoet.be/en/page/497-511/the-cat-throwing.html, https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/eight-witchcraft-myths/, https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/plague/factsheet.asp, Abee, Holle. 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. To think that all this fuss is over cats. This cruel practice continued until 1817 although the Kattenstoet continues to this day- involving stuffed cats instead. 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. Apparently snakes and scorpions were threats too. Gregory based his theory on evidence from Conrad of Marburg, a papal inquisitor. The Church had already accused the Waldenses of worshipping the devil in the form of a cat. 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. For example Your email address will not be published. Pope Gregory IX did not say cats are evil, and did not order people to kill cats. THE HUMAN OVER-POPULATION IS CAUSING ANIMAL SPECIES TO GO EXTINCT. Cats were seen as agents of the devil, throughout much of history, and slaughtered again centuries later in New England during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. 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. The only problem is that this story probably isnt true. 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. 1999. (2017, June 6). One of these was the sparrow! Fewer cats, more rats, more fleas, and more plague. A witch and her cat. February 8, 2013. Before the 13th century, many societies, . 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? 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)-. Gregory IX was the head of the Catholic Church from 1227 to 1241. The Black Death or Black Plague was the original zombie apocalypse. According toSmithsonian Magazine, the Nazca geoglyphs may have been used for astrological, calendrical purposes as well as religious rituals to encourage rainfall and fertility. However, history shows that the Black Death, which ravaged Europe in the mid 1300s, was actually caused by rats and the fleas on them. 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. But cats? Further, the plague wasnt a one-off event in Europe. 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. Indeed the belief that the torture or killing of cats could break spells continued across northern Europe. 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