When Pope Gregory IX Worsened The Black Plague Because Of His Hatred For Cats
Pope Gregory IX (center) in a 16th century fresco.
In the early 12th century, a plague began to spread through Europe. Over the next seven years, roughly 100 million people would die from the Black Plague before it ended, as it ravaged through cites from Asia all the way to Sweden.
Stemming from Asia and traveling to Europe along the Silk Road, the plague was transmitted in multiple ways. The most dangerous of these forms was the bubonic plague, which was spread primarily by fleas that lived on rats, especially in Europe.
The best way to stop the rats was with cats.
Especially in Europe, cats heavily populated the cities, and were the main form of vermin control. Due to the high number of cats eating a high number of rats, the plague was kept somewhat at bay.
However, Pope Gregory IX, leader of the Roman Catholic church, and therefore most of Europe at the time, was not a fan of cats. During his reign, a century before the Black Death would become an imminent threat to Europe; he published a manuscript known as the Vox in Rama.
Pope Gregory IX created the Vox in Rama which declared that the black cat was an incarnation of Satan, and called for a complete elimination of all of them. Due to the elimination of the cats, by the time that the Black Death spread to Europe, the rats had gone completely unchecked and effectively spread the plague much further than it would have on its own.
Interesting Historical Events: Nellie Bly’s Trip Around The World
Nellie Bly at 26 years old, circa 1890.
In 1873, a French author named Jules Verne published a novel titled Around The World In 80 Days. The journey was by no means impossible, as all means of travel mentioned in the book were very real, but until the book came out, no one ever anticipated that the journey could be made.
However, in 1889, an investigative reporter attempted to prove that it could be done. She even managed to shave eight days off the journey, and meet Jules Verne himself.
Nellie Bly had already become famous for her investigative reporting, and her undercover reporting, when she pitched the idea of the trip to her editors. With the book’s success, Bly wanted to prove that the journey could be done in reality. And, not just that, but that she herself, a woman, could do it alone, and in less time.
Backed by her paper the New York World, Bly set off on her adventure at 9:40 a.m. on Nov. 14, 1889. Contrary to her editor’s beliefs, she packed light. Extremely light, in fact, bringing along one pack, the size of a modern-day carry-on.
She traveled from New York to London, met Verne himself in Paris, bounced to Egypt and then went to Suez Canal and Japan and everywhere in between.
Public DomainIllustration of Nelly Bly coming home from her trip in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1890.
Much to her surprise, Cosmopolitan magazine had sent another reporter to race Bly, a woman headed around the world but in the opposite direction.
When confronted by the other woman while in Japan on Christmas Eve, Bly was shocked to learn of her existence. In one of her dispatches to her paper, she recalled the encounter with a Japanese reporter.
“Aren’t you having a race around the world?” he asked as if he thought I was not Nellie Bly.
“Yes; quite right. I am running a race with Time,” I replied.
“Time? I don’t think that’s her name.”
“Her! Her!!” I repeated, thinking, “Poor fellow, he is quite unbalanced,” and wondering if I dared wink at the doctor to suggest to him the advisability of our making good our escape.
“Yes, the other woman; she is going to win. She left here three days ago.”
In the end, the other reporter ended up getting stuck on her way back to America from England, putting Nellie in the lead. She arrived back in the states before her competitor and became the first woman to make a solo trip around the world, cementing this story’s place as one of history’s most interesting events.
Though her original goal was 75 days, she arrived back in Jersey City 72 days, six hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds after she left.
