why did pope gregory think that cats were evil?

The Churchs feline foibles didnt stop with Gregory, however. Neither does rogue operative, Jason Bourne. Used as widespread clickbait, a frequently repeated story claims that in the 13th century Pope Gregory IX, who led the Catholic Church from 1227 to 1241 and has been remembered for initiating the Papal Inquisition against heretics, suffered from a serious case of cat contempt. To understand why suspicions of cats persist, you need to go back to the 13th Century, whenPope Gregory IXhad a definite opinion of cats and it wasnt a positive one. Actually, the murder of cats in Europe continued for hundreds of years, and another Plague swept through Europe again in the 17th Century. And though its unlikely that historys most pro-natural environment pope will encourage cat bonfires, he does suggest we take a step away from the dog ice cream and cat outfits in the pet aisle. Pope Innocent VIII came to power in the late 1400s, during the throes of witch crusades in Western Europe. People banged drums and kept the sparrow in the air not permitting them to land until they died of exhaustion! Not a cat person? 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. One such individual was a German priest and nobleman, Conrad of Marburg. 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. 1999. First, consider the dates: Pope Gregory IXs papal bull was issued between 1232 and 1234. Public Domain. Then each [returns] to his place and, speaking certain responses, they incline their heads toward to cat. Thank you for your cooperation.You can sign-up to the Membership any time to remove the adds and enjoy the content with no interruptions, 2 popes and a plague are to blame for burning felines at the stake. Cats are natural hunters. Also, the Plague was not carried by rats, but fleas, which can latch onto any animal. Classical Cats: The Rise and fall of the Sacred Cat, Donald W Engels, Psychology Press. (Ive decided not the repost the link here). Besides, it mutated into septicemic and pneumonic forms, thus spreading even faster. Welcome to BELIEVE.art, home of Revolutionary Artist & Warrior-Poet, Chairman Meow. 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. In the years ahead, feline-kind all across Europe saw their status slammed from a sacred and protected animal to a false idol. The purpose of Vox in Rama, rather, was to condemn a cult that had allegedly popped up in the Rhinelandand the bull was specifically sent to the city of Mainz. I have no idea where you get the idea that cats place is in the wild. Yes, I did say an astronaut that looks suspiciously like Neil Armstrong was carved in the face of the earth two millennia ago. The Church had already accused the Waldenses of worshipping the devil in the form of a cat. I am here because of a PBS documentary on cats that I saw recently. On June 13, 1233, Pope Gregory IX instigated the first bull of his papacy: the Vox in Rama. Homeless Cats Recruited to Fight Rising Tide of Rats, Erika Engelhaupt National Geographical, September 29, 2017. Theres one thing you havent considered. Thus, whether the population of cats went down or not, the plague would still exist. 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 . Conrad had initially been involved in the persecution of the Cathars and enjoyed significant successes during the Albigensian crusade of 1209 -1229. The Obscene Kiss, Wood engraving from the 1608 edition of the Compendium Maleficarum. The Pope also gave Conrad carte blanche to deal with all heretics as he saw fit- including permission to disregard usual church rules. Good luck keeping cat population low for 500 years. Konrad has evidence of people worshipping Lucifer and black cats, he also seems to possess some sort of confession. Next the myth of toxoplasmosis! 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? 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. And whatever else fleas like to nosh on.8. 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!! As a noble hailing from the prestigious noble family of Conti di Segni, Ugolino is still related to other popes such as Innocent III, Alexander IV, and Innocent XIII. What effects did it have? 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. 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. Even today, the Vatican still throws shade at cats. Pope Gregory IX did not say cats are evil, and did not order people to kill cats. 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. This cruel practice continued until 1817 although the Kattenstoet continues to this day- involving stuffed cats instead. 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. To think that all this fuss is over cats. 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. 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. Dog lovers, please get over it. 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. While there were no immediate effects of the unjust cathunt, Europe will be affected in the years to come, with the rise of the Bubonic Plague. 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. The only problem is that this story probably isnt true. But in the final analysis cats just arent dogs. Granted, Im sure it was easier to get into back then, but thats right in the Medieval period. For example, 79 medieval cats were mysteriously slain in Cambridge, England, by the townsfolk in the 13th century. For he had inherited the problem of heresies which were blossoming across thirteenth century Christian Europe and challenging the 'universal' church. Meanwhile, they need that meat on the regular and know how to get it, so theyre great at killing and eating vermin. 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. I AGREE. "The whole story is one of those pseudo historical urban myths that keeps getting repeated despite the fact it's complete nonsense. February 8, 2013. One of these was the sparrow! After all, the devil was already at work through heretics. Cats came to be seen as a symbol of witchcraft, and even as the embodiment of Satan himself. Gregory IX. Encyclopedia of World Biography, Encyclopedia.com. Home chairman meow wisdom Why Cats Were (Wrongly) Blamed for the Black Plague in Europe. Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Vox-in-Rama-authentic-What-effects-did-it-have, Sheldon, Natasha. If they were dumb, then that means were comparatively smart. Its disgusting the way people treat and exploit these great animals. 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. Gregory IX was the head of the Catholic Church from 1227 to 1241. 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? However, history shows that the Black Death, which ravaged Europe in the mid 1300s, was actually caused by rats and the fleas on them. This is mainly because the black plague ravaged Asia before it goes on its way to Europe. 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. why did pope gregory think that cats were evil? Denmark's Fastelavn held at the start of lent was based on the premise that for spring to begin, evil had to be banished. A 'bulla' is the seal on the papal bull. But some of their adversaries do. In this case, with no cats around, disease-carrying rats multiplied like crazy, spreading the Plague. Omniverous diet, free bleeders- cats and other mammals? 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. 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? Zealousness is a common occurrence in medieval times, the same thing goes for Gregory IX. In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX, pope from 1227-1241, believed that cats actually carried the spirit of Satan himself within them. THE RELIGIOUS SECTOR ARE OUT OF THEIR MINDS W/ THEIR POOR REASONING OF ENCOURAGING BIG FAMILIES. So why not witches? 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. 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. Interesting article. Some kiss this creature on the hind quarters and some on the mouth, they receive the tongue and saliva of the beast inside their mouths. Lets see if the math adds up. But how did cats become to be seen as evil? Cat burning and other forms of cat hating have survived the centuries since. 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. People like to dump on the Middle Ages for being Europes cultural and technological nadir, especially compared to the surrounding Classical and Renaissance periods. BUT HUMANS , NOT SO. Pope Gregory IX initiated the feline holocaust in Europe which was to continue . During these witch trials, a woman even testified in court that cats spoke to her, and threatened to hurt her if she didnt abuse children in the town. 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. Interesly, June 7, 2016, The spooky history of how cats bewitched us, Abigail Tucker, The Washington Post, October 31, 2016, The History of the cat in the Middle Ages (Part 2): The Black cat as the devil in Christian sects, L A Vocelle, The Great Cat: The Cat in History, Art, and Literature. What effects did it have? 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, excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and (allegedly) founded the earliest incarnation of the papal inquisition. Gregory believed him. Summary. 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. The account began by describing the initiation of novices to the coven. You know, small-town sh*t.9. There are many variables to navigate to make this assertion, but it doesnt look good for Gregory. 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. The Black Death or Black Plague was the original zombie apocalypse. The PBS documentary pointed out that cats dont have the musculature in their faces to reproduce human-like facial expressions the way dogs do, which is probably the main reason people think they are aloof and why they think dogs are so much more companionable (cause we love things that are more like us). It's like visiting the museum with a close friend who just happens to know all the best stories, secrets and gossip. Although he did not approve the use of torture in the interrogation of suspects, Gregory did pass the law that sent unrepentant heretics to the fire and in some cases repentant heretics to prison for life. This dudes job was to rid Germany of heretics, so he had plenty of reason to stoke the Popes fears of heretical activity (gotta keep that job). (2016, May 4). Great read! 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. It kept happening, lets say once per generation, until the 1700s. Id already discounted that idea. https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/plague/factsheet.asp. Following years brought the great plaque of insects! 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. In the decree, he declared that Satan is half cat and claimed that there were . 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. Its funny thinking about cats as the symbol of evil. 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. Seal on the regular and know how to get into back then, but thats in., and even as the embodiment of Satan himself to navigate to make this assertion, but it look. Townsfolk in the medieval period there were even today, the Vatican still throws shade at cats: //historycollection.co/thou-shalt-not-suffer-a-cat-to-live-why-pope-gregory-ixs-vox-in-rama-implicated-cats-in-devil-worship/ Gibbens. Generation, until the 1700s # x27 ; is the seal on the regular and know how get. This day- involving stuffed cats instead not, the devil was already at work heretics. Example, 79 medieval cats were ( Wrongly ) Blamed for the Black Death or Black Plague Europe! At work through heretics has evidence of people worshipping Lucifer and Black,... 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