He was definitely not a cat person.

In a world where the best and easiest way to learn about a person's likes and dislikes

is by looking at their actions, he had sent a

clear message. Cats, as far as he was concerned, were evil. Now, to be fair, judging between good

and evil was sort of his forte. He was, after all, the Pope, Pope Gregory the Ninth, to be precise,

who sat on the Holy Throne from 1227 to 1241, nearly 800 years ago.

In 1233, he issued a decree known as Vox in Rama, which was a condemnation of something known as

Luciferianism, a belief system that the Catholic Church had deemed heretical. And in the process of explaining

why, Gregory described a satanic ritual supposedly performed in some parts of Europe, a ritual,

he said, that ended with the appearance of a black cat. The results of this decree were pretty

complex, and it's led to a lot of misguided and inaccurate

history. Simply put, cats and black cats in particular took on a bad reputation. But while it's

true that they became one of many symbols of things like witchcraft and the devil, the Pope's

decree did not lead to the mass murder of millions of cats.

That, my friend, is just internet rumor.

Now, all that said, looking at the historical record, mass panic has happened before.

All too often, actually.

But through the lens of Gregory the 9th and his mention of cats, it's easy to see why.

We are, by nature,

insecure beings who long for safety. We deeply desire security and comfort, and perhaps more than all of that, we want our fears to be left unfulfilled. Which makes sense because there is a lot

to be afraid about in life.

And, for many people in the 17th and 18th centuries, there was even more to fear in death.

...