Folklore in Europe states that you are out of luck if a black cat crosses your path. Strolling cats are generally associated with dreadful misfortune, most likely due to the tradition of the “witches’ familiar,” a little animal helper, most typically a black cat.
However, some social media posts suggest that there is more to the relationship between black cats and paganism. According to these writings, a papal decree from 1233 declared cats to be bad and Satanic. As a result, Europeans gathered up cats all over the continent and killed them in large numbers throughout the Middle Ages. However, the cats got their comeuppance after they died. If their population hadn’t dropped, their ability to control pests would have resulted in fewer rats, and over the course of the following century or two, more cats and fewer rats might have prevented the Black Death, the worst plague outbreak in recorded history.
Pope Gregory IX actually wrote a letter known as “Vox in Rama” in the year 1233. The pope’s historical significance has led to detailed classification of their papers, and “Vox in Rama” is classified as a papal decretal under that system. This means that the letter was produced by a pope to address issues related to administration and punishment. A papal bull is a decree that bears an official seal and starts with the pope’s name and the phrase “episcopus servus servorum Dei” (Bishop, servant of the servants of God). Oddly, not all sources refer to this document as a papal bull. This sentence appears in certain copies of the decretal but not in others.
