Black Cats and the Black Death - Curious Facts Contest 6

The Black Death pandemic is one of the darkest periods in European century. Just imagine the terror our ancestors must have felt confronted with a disease they could not understand, had no idea how it spread and had no way to treat.

• Patient Zero - The precise moment the plague came to Europe can be pinpointed to October 1347, with 12 ships arriving in the Italian port of Messina carrying merchandise from the Black Sea area and the Black Death. The sailors on these ships were dead or dying a terrible death, covered in boils. In the confusion created by the horrific discovery, nobody noticed the rats leaving the ships to infect the city. Even if they did, they had no way of knowing the pesky rats were carrying fleas infected with a bacterium we now call Yersinia pestis.

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• It is hard to establish how many people were killed by the plague - estimates range from 75 to 200 million people, that is 30 to 60% of Europe's population at the time.
• Although we think of it as a European catastrophe, the plague also wiped out half of the population of China, where according to modern science the pandemic originated. In Africa, one eighth of the population died during the pandemic.
• The Catholic church unwittingly helped spread the disease by the decree brandishing cats as evil, which allowed the flea-carrying rat population to spiral out of control. It was Pope Gregory IX (1145 - 1241) who put a price on black cats, which he considered satanic instruments. It was the same Pope who created the Inquisition, which lasted much longer and made hundreds of thousands of victims. Most of the victims were women accused of witchcraft and, as everybody knows, a decent witch must own a black cat.

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• Cat torture become a popular Christian entertainment, especially during religious holidays. Cats were burned at stake, thrown from church towers or hung. The feline population of Europe might have felt avenged by the Black Death, but unfortunately they were not immune to the disease, as were dogs.

• As cleanliness is next to godliness was not a thing back then, bathing was frowned upon as it was thought to encourage lusty behaviors. Stench was considered a means to keep the disease away, as were washing with urine and covering the boils with feces.

• The plague had one unexpected benefit, bringing about the end of the feudal system in Europe. As the plague decimated the population, the workforce became scarce. The landowners were forced to grant better wages to their peasants, to keep them from leaving to find better employment elsewhere.