Hi all--
This is slightly off-topic, but since it does relate somewhat to medieval
religion, I thought I'd ask here:
Has anyone seen real proof that there were widespread "cat massacres" in the
Middle Ages owing to the belief that cats were creatures of the devil?
I do know that the Lord Mayor of London ordered the slaughter of both cats
and dogs during the Great Plague because they were suspected of spreading
the disease (but not of anything else, as far as I can tell).
I'm currently doing some contract work for World Book Encyclopedia, and
found this in the article on cats on their CD-ROM:
"In Europe during the Middle Ages, the cat was considered a symbol of evil.
Superstitious people associated the cat with witchcraft and the Devil. For
this reason, people killed hundreds of thousands of cats.
Experts believe that the destruction of so many cats led to a huge increase
in the rat population of Europe and contributed to the spread of the Black
Death, an epidemic of plague. This disease, which is transmitted to people
by rat fleas, killed about a fourth of the people who lived in Europe during
the mid-1300's. "
I'm guessing that one of the cat history books cited by the author is the
source of this information, but I have yet to see real evidence for it
anywhere. I've seen scattered evidence of individual cats being killed as
witch's familiars, usually in the late Middle Ages or early modern period,
but nothing about "hundreds of thousands" of cats being killed.
Comments, anyone? (If this is actually misinformation, I plan on letting
them know. At least they don't repeat the common "Ring around the Rosie is
about the Plague" explanation.)
Susan
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