Did a Pope’s Hatred Of Cats Lead To The Plague?

Fewer cats resulted in more plague-bearing rats, or so the story goes

Photo by Raquel Pedrotti on Unsplash

People have different attitudes toward cats. Some people love them while others - not so much. But historically, the pendulum has swung much further toward each extreme.

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The Egyptians worshipped cats for thousands of years, associating them with the goddess Bastet. Their love for them was so well known that during the Battle of Pelusium in 525 BCE, the invading Persians painted the image of Bastet on their shields while driving cats and other sacred animals before them, hoping the Egyptians would give up rather than risk hurting the animals. It worked, and the Egyptians fled.

After conquering Egypt, the Romans saw how useful the cats were in protecting crops from vermin, so they brought more of them to Europe. While they are annoyingly independent and can’t be trained or controlled like dogs, their ability to kill animals like rats increased their popularity.

This changed in the 1230s. On the 13th of June 1233, Pope Gregory IX issued a papal bull called Vox in Rama that linked cats to satanism and witchcraft. Throughout most of the medieval period, cats had a horrendous time and were tortured and culled in huge numbers. Annual festivals where cats were killed sprung up and some of them continue to this day - although happily, in a much nicer form.

Many scholars believe the Black Death, carried by rats from the East, gained a foothold in Europe because of depleted cat numbers. As a consequence of a Papal dislike of felines, around half of all Europeans died in the most fatal pandemic in human history.

But how true is this story? And is it fair to pin the deaths of millions of people and one man’s anti-cat agenda?

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Why did Pope Gregory IX issue Vox in Rama in the first place?

Heretical beliefs were on the rise at the time, and many, such as the Waldensians and Cathars, were directly challenging the Catholic church. This needed to end. So, Gregory IX set up inquisitors and started what would later become inquisitions.

The Spanish Inquisition is the most well-known, but it wasn’t the only one around. There was also a German Inquisition whose Grand Inquisitor was a keen and zealous fellow named Conrad of Marburg. And he was increasingly alarmed at the rise of satanic cults in Germany.

Conrad had ‘proof’ in the form of confessions. These confessions were the result of torture and described initiation ceremonies to the satanic groups. Given that the only source for a lot of this was Conrad himself, things should be taken with a pinch of salt. The ceremonies he described to his superiors were… interesting.

Conrad and his confessions describe what happens when initiates enter the satanic sect. First, they would be met by a giant frog or toad. They kiss the creature on the mouth or ‘hind quarters’ and get some of its salivae. This causes a thin, pale man with black eyes to appear. The novice gives this man a kiss too, and the result of this is that “the memory of the [C]atholic faith totally disappears from his heart”.

According to the Vox in Rama, this is when the cat comes into the picture.

Afterwards, they sit down to a meal and when they have arisen from it, the certain statue, which is usual in a set of this kind, a black cat 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 buttocks. Then each [returns] to his place and, speaking certain responses, they incline their heads toward to cat. “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.” (You can read more of the ‘initiation’ here.)

The Vox in Rama was a response to Conrad’s concerns and was the first papal bull to link cats with satanic worship, ancient Egyptian cults and witchcraft.

The superstition surrounding cats leads to violent feline persecution

Cats, especially black cats, were now seen as evil and representatives of the Devil. They were also associated with witchcraft, prompting an outbreak of accusations and persecutions. Across Western Europe, in particular, cats were beaten and tortured, often in the belief that it was a way to banish evil and break spells.

Cat burning became popular in medieval France, with the poor creatures trapped in cages and burnt over a fire or simply set alight. In Denmark, the Fastelavn saw people beating cats to death to banish evil for lent. In Ypres, Belgium, it was the custom to throw felines from church belfries and then burn them as part of the Kattenstoet festival — the festival is still going, but happily with stuffed cats.

Bishops in the German kingdoms nicknamed heretics ‘ketzer’ (after katzke, meaning cat), and some even called them ‘katzenkussers’ — cat kissers.

The British (as continues to be the case) didn’t follow European trends. In fact, there is evidence that their ability to catch vermin was praised as being akin to the Devil capturing souls. In England, a black cat was actually seen as lucky. White cats, however, were seen as ghostly, and they were the ones who had a bad time.

Conrad of Marburg, who started the whole thing, seemed to relish his role as an inquisitor and the literal witch-hunt he had started. In his eagerness and zealotry, he got carried away and accused Henry II, the Count of Sayn, of taking part in satanic rituals and orgies. This was a step too far. Henry was acquitted, and soon after, Conrad was ‘mysteriously’ murdered.

What is undisputed is that the Pope issued the Vox in Rama and that cats were linked to devil worship and witchcraft. As a result, in Europe, lots were killed.

So when a particularly lethal variant of the plague arrived in Europe in 1346 — the Black Death — some scholars blamed it on a century of cat persecution. Fewer cats would logically lead to more rats, and rats carried the plague. Right? Well, it is actually pretty debatable.

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There is little evidence that the mass cat cull led to the Black Death

While it would feel somewhat karmic to have such mass cruelty to animals paid back with a plague, it seems unlikely.

For one thing, the plague arrived over a century after the Vox In Rama. Cats may have been unpopular, but it is unclear whether their persecution was maintained as eagerly for over the following 100 years as it was in the 1230s. There are no accurate figures for how many were killed, but even so, they can breed pretty quickly, have strong survival skills and are hard to catch.

A few other basic facts make the story less likely. It seems true that the Bubonic plague was initially spread by fleas that lived on rats. Fleas carry the Yersinia pestis bacteria (that causes the plague) in their gut. But fleas aren’t fussy and will happily infect humans, dogs and, ironically, cats.

Possibly the most damning evidence was that the black death wasn’t the end of the plague. There were several, and they kept happening for nearly 500 years, even in cat-loving countries. And this wasn’t even the first plague. There have been several before, such as the Plague of Justinian in the 6th century, that hit the Near East particularly hard.

Finally, we come full circle and return to the feline-worshipping Egyptians. There too, the plague ran rampant, just as it did in Europe. In fact, there is some evidence that the Bubonic may even have originated there.

So, it seems highly unlikely that the plague came to Europe due to Pope Gregory IX starting an anti-cat purge. Love or hate them, cats probably had nothing to do with the plague. Or devil worship. Whatever their colour.