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Dear All sorry to come in rather late in this discussion (I'm intrigued by how long it has gone on - is there, perhaps, some particular affinity between cats and medievalists? I will have to ask my own feline houseguest about this...). The article that Cecilia Gaposchkin cited (below) is indeed very good - and it's about one particular area where cats were very definitely associated with the devil, in medieval rather than early modern times. This is to do with heresy: various accounts of heresy tell of heretics kissing cats on the anus, as a way of worshipping the devil (eg Alain de Lille on the Cathars). In some accounts, the cat does appear to be standing in for the devil. Lipton's excellent article analyses images in the Bible MOralisee for how visual associations between heretics, Jews and cats are deployed. cheers john arnold On Sat, 10 Apr 1999, Cecilia Gaposchkin wrote: > > > More on Cats... > > I don't know whether this article has yet been cited: > > Sara Lipton, "Jews, heretics and the sign of the cat in the *Bible > moralisee*", Word and Image, vol 8, no 4 (1992), 362-377. > > This is a smart article, and will give fodder to the notion that cats were > associated with evil/bad/devil. > > cecilia > > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%