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.
In one of the most interesting historical events, 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.
