Pup and Purr 2021 | Page 41

Vox in Rama edict , which responded to rumors of Satanic cults in Germany , whose adherents worshipped a half-cat and half-devil . Pope Gregory ’ s edict called upon his Grand Inquisitor , Conrad of Marburg , to root out the cult , its adherents and the cats who were believed to be incarnation of Satan . Pope Gregory ’ s papal edict was the first official document to associate the cat with witchcraft . This edict , along with other superstitions , sealed the fate of black cats . The Inquisition , and later Salem Witch Trials , did not help improve their image .
Cats were seen as collaborators in devil worship . Natasha Sheldon , who holds a master ’ s in Ancient History and Historiography , writes of the persecution of cats across Europe in the online blog “ History Collection ” in a 2018 article “‘ Thou Shalt not suffer a Cat to Live ’: Why Pope Gregory IX ’ s Vox in Rama Implicated Cats in Devil Worship ”:
The Church had accused the Waldenses , a Christian Sect , of worshipping the Devil in the form of a black cat , cat burning was a favorite activity in medieval France , and in Belgium it was the custom to hurl cats from the belfry of local churches and set them on fire during the festival of cats or “ Kattenstoet ”. This cruel practice continued until 1817 although the “ Kattenstoet ” continues to this day and involves stuffed cats instead .
Photo by Anton Ponomarenko on Unsplash
During the Middle Ages , these fears led to mass killings of cats . Some believe this led to the explosion of rats and their fleas , the vectors of the Black Death which would go on to kill over 20 million Europeans . In
16th-century Italy , it was believed that death was imminent if a black cat would lay on someone ’ s sickbed . In Germany , people believed that the black cat was a sign that a death would soon occur .
Rowan Moffet , a Scottish writer for the
Scottish cultural blog “ ScotClans ,” writes about the Celtic people , who believed in “ The Cat Sìth ” (“ The Fairy Cat ”), witch who could freely transform into a cat and back again . It was believed that witches with this ability were only able to transform from a human to cat eight times and on the ninth time of changing into a cat , they would be unable to change back to a human ever again . It was this legend that gave us the saying that cats have nine lives .