In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX (#Pope from 1227-1241), believed that cats had Satan himself within them . Following a Papal Bull (essentially laying down #Church doctrine), virtually everyone in Western Europe began to exterminate cats. #Christmas #Christianity
Thousands were accused of #witches or devil worshipers, and either tortured, killed or both. The cat genocide petered out following Gregory death, but the gory tradition remained alive. #Christmas #Christianity
During another witch hunting frenzy in the late 1400s, cats were killed en masse again, as a part of Church’s war against #Satan. Killing of cats on such a massive scale, resulted in a huge increase in rat population in #Europe. #Christmas #Christianity
Many attribute the subsequent outbreak of Bubonic plague, which claimed millions of lives, to the elimination of cats, under Gregory orders. #Christmas #Christianity
The persecution of cats, or at least their images lived on in Elizabethan England, as well, where the queen’s coronation included the burning of a cat - stuffed effigy. #Christmas #Christianity
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