How cats were really treated in the Middle Ages
One of the common myths about the Middle Ages is the suggestion that cats were treated horribly then.
A particularly popular story is about black cats that were allegedly burned together with their mistresses - witches.
However, as Stephanie Demchuk, associate professor of the Department of Art History at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, writes, this legend does not stand up to the scrutiny of historical facts.
In reality, in the Middle Ages, the attitude towards cats was much more complex and diverse.
Although black cats were sometimes associated with evil forces, especially after the publication of Pope Gregory IX's bull "Vox in Rama" in 1233, where the black cat was considered a symbol of Lucifer worship, there was no mass extermination of cats. Historian Donald Engels hypothesised that the plague spread due to a decline in the number of cats, but this view has not been confirmed.
The myth of the "great extermination of cats" is also often confused with the events of the 18th century, when apprentices in Paris massacred their masters' cats because of poor living conditions. But this story dates back to the early modern period.
Historical sources, on the other hand, contain abundant evidence of care and affection for cats. For example, in bestiaries (medieval collections of animal descriptions), cats were depicted with mice, washing or even with a crown on their heads.
Cats were an integral part of everyday life, and even monks allowed them to roam freely in their scriptoriums, leaving paw marks on manuscripts. An English copy of Isidore of Seville's Etymologies preserved the paw prints of a cat that had walked across the pages of the book.
Also interesting is an example from ninth-century Japan, where the young Emperor Uda wrote lovingly and ironically about his black cat in his diary. These entries demonstrate that the emotional bond between humans and cats was no weaker in the Middle Ages than it is now.
Thus, despite superstitions and fears, attitudes towards cats in the Middle Ages were much warmer than we often realise.
As Stephanie Demchuk writes, myths about the mistreatment of cats in the "Dark Ages" are more fiction than reality.