Cats....All About Cats

[Revoltingest]

I have four cats. And I can testify alongside the Egyptians that they are all indeed Gods.

Or at least they think they are.

 

[Revoltingest]

The Black Death was in any case over a century after Vox in Rama. No serious historian of the Black Death says anything about it having been made worse by the killing of cats. This is just a nonsense story, made up to make the Catholic church look foolish.

Well, it's not a story I'm telling.
I spoke of the cat killing.

 

[ChristineM]

I watch a lot of movies, so I know.

The following movie is accurate to history, only the facts have been changed to pander to delicate sensibilities

 

[exchemist]

The book that I mentioned was in fact real. The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History is a collection of essays on French cultural history by the American historian Robert Darnton, first published in 1984. The title comes from its most famous chapter.

Darnton describes how, as the apprentices suffered hard conditions, they came to resent the favours which their masters gave to their cats, and contrived to deal with the nuisance cats by slaughtering them so as to distress their masters. Darnton interprets this as an early form of workers' protest. (As may the wife in the story, who says she believes that "they were threatened by a more serious kind of insubordination" beyond the simple stoppage of work.)

The cats were a favourite of the printer's wife and were fed much better than the apprentices, who were in turn served 'catfood' (rotting meat scraps). Aside from this, they were mistreated, beaten and exposed to cold and horrible weather. One of the apprentices imitated a cat by screaming like one for several nights, making the printer and his wife despair. Finally, the printer ordered the cats rounded up and dispatched. The apprentices did this, rounded up all the cats they could find, beat them half to death and held a 'trial'. They found the cats guilty of witchcraft and sentenced them to death by hanging.

The printer? So this was an act or rebellion by a handful of employees of one man, in France. Nothing to do with the church or with witchcraft.

And obviously after the invention of the printing press, which was around 1440, i.e. a century after the Black Death and two centuries after Gregory IX's Vox in Rama.

 

[exchemist]

Well, it's not a story I'm telling.
I spoke of the cat killing.

Which seems also to be a myth.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

The printer? So this was an act or rebellion by a handful of employees of one man, in France. Nothing to do with the church or with witchcraft.

And obviously after the invention of the printing press, which was around 1440, i.e. a century after the Black Death and two centuries after Gregory IX's Vox in Rama.

That's correct -- late 1730s. I had forgotten the context, since I hadn't read the whole book -- just bought it as a birthday gift for a friend with an interest in French cultural history. (After all, I bought it nearly 35 years ago!)

 

[Revoltingest]

The following movie is accurate to history, only the facts have been changed to pander to delicate sensibilities

Are you saying that Hellboy isn't faithful to history?

 

[exchemist]

That's correct -- late 1730s. I had forgotten the context, since I hadn't read the whole book -- just bought it as a birthday gift for a friend with an interest in French cultural history. (After all, I bought it nearly 35 years ago!)

Oh well. On another occasion I can tell you a funny story about a dog that got run over in Dubai. But it would be derailing the thread to recite it here.

 

[ChristineM]

Are you saying that Hellboy isn't faithful to history?

Aww come on Anung Un Rama is no devil, not even a real demon, hes a cutie.

 

[Revoltingest]

Which seems also to be a myth.

I'm finding many claims, but nothing scholarly.
Example...
Cats and the Black Death

 

[WhyIsThatSo]

I just saw an interesting NOVA episode about cats.
I highly recommend it.

But one odd thing I ran across was how the Catholic Church
had an anti-cat campaign in the 1200s. Apparently cats are
Satan's minions. So they began to exterminate all they could
find, torturing them to death.
How odd...the Egyptians treated them as favored by a god.
Ref...
The Vicious Battle Between the Vatican and Cats

All cat comments are welcome.

And we Gnostics know ALL about "extermination" by the RCC.
True history don't lie......people do.

 

[WhyIsThatSo]

I have four cats. And I can testify alongside the Egyptians that they are all indeed Gods.

Well, I got 12 up on you ( or rather "she" does )
and you're right, all they do is sleep, eat, and s++t,

Gnostic understanding of the "god" that created this physical realm of "animals" ( "humans" included ),
is that the "god of this world" has the anthropomorphic characteristics of a "Lion" ,
So, yeah, they think their s++t don't stink...….literally.

 

[Howard Is]

Actually, cats have a unique ability, like a lot of animals do,
they can sense (see) the vibratory realm just "above" this one,
where all the "ghosts" hang out. And they don't like cats.

It is a custom in many countries that when a person moves into a new home,
they get a cat to come in and "investigate" first, and to rid the home of any paranormal entities.

This is why the RCC exterminated them at one time,
and why I have several.

I added Thorazine to my cat’s diet, and those hallucinations stopped.
Unfortunately so did most everything else.

 

[Howard Is]

Are you saying that Hellboy isn't faithful to history?

He is, but he was forced to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement.
The elite minority are terrified of what he knows.

 

[Terry Sampson]

but was relieved to discover it was just a whisker...

The cook's or the kitchen rat-catcher's?

 

[Stevicus]

I just saw an interesting NOVA episode about cats.
I highly recommend it.

But one odd thing I ran across was how the Catholic Church
had an anti-cat campaign in the 1200s. Apparently cats are
Satan's minions. So they began to exterminate all they could
find, torturing them to death.
How odd...the Egyptians treated them as favored by a god.
Ref...
The Vicious Battle Between the Vatican and Cats

All cat comments are welcome.

A black cat crossed my path today. And this, seven days before Friday the 13th. It's a good thing I'm not superstitious, otherwise I'd be doomed.

But I know that black cat. I've seen around before. It's a very friendly cat, unlike most cats which are standoffish scaredy-cats.

I don't know why people have such a problem with cats. They're far less dangerous than dogs.

The article did answer one question I was thinking about, considering the timeframe. Killing all those cats made the Plague worse:

Some historians believe that the killing of so many cats was linked to the plague. The plaque didn’t just strike in the mid-1300s – it had been around for some time before, and killed people afterward.

Some attribute the killing of cats to the belief that they caused the plague, and of course, the plague came from? Yes, Satan. Actually, the killing of so many cats likely contributed to the spread of plague, as the rodents carrying them flourished without their natural enemy hunting them.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Little bit of trivia here, the Bible never mentions the domesticated cat, not even once.

 

[Stevicus]

The Black Death was in any case over a century after Vox in Rama. No serious historian of the Black Death says anything about it having been made worse by the killing of cats. This is just a nonsense story, made up to make the Catholic church look foolish.

Maybe so. The article linked in the OP suggests it, although I'll admit I haven't studied that period thoroughly.

It was an interesting idea just the same. It seems logical that if there had been a mass killing of cats, there would be a rise in rodentia.

 

[Nakosis]

 

[Revoltingest]

Little bit of trivia here, the Bible never mentions the domesticated cat, not even once.

Cats wanted to remain anonymous.