Superstitions related to cats began in the Middle Ages . The courts of the Inquisition starred in one of the bloodiest and darkest chapters in the history of mankind. In Europe many people were tortured and burned at the stake for alleged witchcraft practices or relationships with the devil. In the trials for witchcraft held in England, France, Switzerland or Germany, between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries thousands of innocent women were found guilty and burned. Black cats were not spared from barbarism either.
In the Middle Ages, black cats were believed to be the evil and supernatural servants of witches, sent by Satan himself . They were also thought to be witches who transformed into stealthy, nocturnal creatures to carry out their witchcraft practices. At that time, people believed that his presence brought sadness and melancholy; They were seen as fearless, cruel and ruthless and were pictured attacking and gouging out the eyes of their victims.
The solution to avoid these supposed evils inherent to felines was to burn them and even throw them from church towers. In some European countries such as Germany, France or England, the All Saints Day festival began with the burning of boxes and sacks full of live cats. In Scotland, the “devil’s dinner” was organized annually in which felines were impaled and roasted alive. Finally, another of the barbaric customs occurred in Paris, during the night of San Juan cats were burned in the presence of the King and at fairs, one of the most visited attractions was the shooting at the feline, an “attraction” that consisted of introducing the animal in a basket and shoot arrows.
All of this led to the widespread eradication of black cats in Europe and brought with it an unexpected event that some have called punishment for the atrocities committed. We are referring to the spread of the Black Death .
The unforeseen consequence of the ruthless persecution to which innocent animals were subjected for the mere fact of having black hair was a plague of rats and mice that devastated European towns and cities, seriously affecting crops and crops. food resources of the population.
This situation worsened with the arrival of the Black Death, which wiped out a third of the population. This disease became a true epidemic, facilitated by the incessant reproduction of rats and mice, transmitters of the disease that invaded human territories by not having to face their natural predator: the cat.
The people realized that where there were cats, the disease did not wreak havoc… In this way, the people stopped persecuting them, because they finally understood the benefit that their presence provided them.
