Revered and Reviled

by L A Vocelle

  Van Vechten (2004), in a footnote in Tiger in the House states, “But there is proof enough that classical antiquity loved the cat. Among the objects unearthed at Pompeii was the skeleton of a woman bearing in her arms the skeleton of a cat, whom perhaps she gave her life to save” (p. 214).

  Figure 3.8. Central emblem of a floor mosaic with a cat and two ducks, first quarter of the 1st century. National Archeological Museum, Naples, Photograph by Marie-Lan Ng

  Figure 3.9. Birds Drinking from Bird Bath, National Archeological Museum, Naples, Photograph by Marie-Lan Ng

  THE CAT IN WAR

  In war the cat accompanied Roman legions emblazoned upon their shields and flags. “The company of soldiers, Ordines Augustei, who marched under the command of the Colonel of Infantry, sub Magistro peditum, bore on their ‘white’ or ‘silver’ shield, with a light green cat the colour of the mineral prase, or sea-green”( Simpson, 1903). The cat is seen running while turning its head over its back (figure 3.10). Another company of the same regiment, called ‘the happy old men’ (Felices Seniores) carried a demi-cat, red, on a buckler, (a small shield hung from the belt) with its paws up, as if trying to catch something. Under the same chief, a third red cat with one paw raised and with one eye and one ear, was carried by the soldiers qui Alpini Vocabantur.

  Finally, in the 6th century AD, we find a cohort of the Praetorian guards named Cattiar or the Cats, and according to inscriptions found, soldiers even had the name Cattius included in their names (Engels, 2001). Both the Romans and warrior tribes clearly esteemed the cat for its courage and cunning.

  Figure 3.10. Felices Seniores, Notitia Dignitatum - Magister Peditum

  CATS ON ROMAN BURIAL STELES

  The cat accompanied the conquering Roman legions not only on banners and in name, but also physically. With the spread of the Roman Empire, the cat too enlarged its world, evidenced by the fact that Gallo-Roman burials included images of cats on funerary steles and sarcophagi. The Tombstone of Laetus’s daughter†, now in the Museum of Bordeux, stands as a fine representation of the spread of Roman culture and that young children along with their pets and toys were often forever memorialized on funeral steles and tombstones. On the tombstone stands a young girl, some think a boy, with her pet rooster and cat in her arms (figure 3.11).

  Figure 3.11. Laetus' Daughter’s Grave, From Les Chats, Champfleury, 1869

  On five additional funeral steles from Roman Gaul (southern France), young children are either holding cats or the cats are seated next to them. In east central France, carved in relief upon part of a table pedestal, a boy holds a cat facing forward wearing a red collar and a bell (Engels, 2001). Furthermore, mosaics of cats can be found from Jordan to Morocco. On a Roman mosaic found in the Church the Apostles in Madaba, Jordan, and now housed in the Bardo Museum, Tunis, a brown cat stands erectly facing forward haughtily posing for the artist, while on a mosaic from Volubilis, Morocco, a cat, Vincentius (conqueror), kills a mouse named Luxurius.

  Evidence from archaeological digs proves that the cat accompanied the Romans to the far reaches of their empire. Roman era cat remains, many near ancient military encampments, have been found in North Africa (Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria), and Europe (France, England, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria, Germany and Hungary, and Turkey) (Engels, 2001). The cat even hitched a ride on Roman ships that sailed to meet Chinese merchants in Ceylon where they exchanged goods as early as AD 166, just around the time that the cat was first documented in China (Gibbons, l900, Vol.7 p. 392).

  POPULARITY AND ORIGIN OF THE CAT’S NAME

  With the coming of the Roman imperial age, the cat grew more popular especially among young women. The name “Little Cat or Kitten” Felicula, Felicla was a common nickname given to women as evidenced by the fact that there are over 250 references to this name in various inscriptions. A tombstone dedicated to Calpurnia Felicla (kitten), and her husband includes a small bas-relief of a cat. The name cattus, first used by Palladius, even came to be used as an adjective for someone who was sharp witted.

  Some historians believe that the name cattus originated from the North African Berbers’ name for the cat, kaddiska, or from the Nubian name, qadis. It is interesting to note that many terms for the cat in differing languages begin with a k or g sounds, derived from the Roman name cattus† (Rogers, 2001). The Latin name for cat, felis, preceded that of cattus and was the universal name for cats, martens, ferrets, polecats, and tomcats, so actually there was no differentiation between the various animals in early Roman writing. Today, the domestic cat is referred to as Felis cattus. However, many other names for cat begin with ‘p’ or puss. Some argue that the origin of the names for cat starting with a ‘p’ sound derive from the name of the ancient Egyptian cat goddess Pasht.† Others believe that the origin of these names for cats came from the psst sound that one uses when calling them, or possibly from the Sanskrit, putchha. And there is of course the Chinese who refer to the cat as mao which must be a derivation of the ancient Egyptian name for cat, miu, again originating most likely from the “meow” sound they make.

  HISTORICAL BASIS FOR THE CAT BEING REVILED

  The foundation for our fair feline being reviled throughout most of the rest of history lies in the final years of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity. The last 200 years of the Western Roman Empire were marked with constant attacks and instability of rule. Before Diocletian became emperor, from the years AD 235-285, there had been on average a new emperor every two years. So, when he decreed a tetrarchy, a rule of 4, Diocletian, with this provision for a smooth succession, brought some semblance of stability to an otherwise chaotic government. However, most important of all, in AD 285, he divided the rule of the empire between east and west preparing the way, years later, for a Christian Byzantine Empire.

  In AD 324, by moving Rome’s capital to Constantinople in the East, and by declaring that Christianity officially be tolerated, Constantine I perhaps made some of the most important changes to the Eastern Empire. Up until the time that Constantine I converted to Christianity, there were various Roman emperors who did not tolerate the Christian threat to paganism, such as Diocletian who tried to unsuccessfully purge it from the Empire. But in AD 312, just before a battle with Maxentius, known as the enemy of the Christians, Constantine is said to have had a dream† wherein Jesus told him that if he put the letters XP ☧on his standards, he would be victorious.☧ represents the first two letters of the name Christos in Greek and still appears on Greek orthodox churches even today.

  Constantine won the battle and is said to have converted to Christianity immediately thereafter. In AD 313, he instituted the Edict of Milan, whereby Christians were to be tolerated, and their property was to be returned to them. Canonized even though he murdered his first son Crispus and his wife Faustus, he is known as the first Roman emperor to totally embrace Christianity.

  With Theodosius I’s rule from AD 379-395, Christians gained even more rights, and paganism was declared illegal throughout the Roman Empire. The fate of the cat was forever changed when in AD 380, Theodosius proclaimed Catholic Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. According to Gibbons, in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Theodosius says, “It is our will and pleasure….that none of our subjects, whether magistrates or private citizens, however exalted or however humble maybe their rank and condition, shall presume, in any city or in any place to worship an inanimate idol by the sacrificing of a guiltless victim. The rites of pagan superstition, which might seem less bloody and atrocious are abolished, as highly injurious to the truth and honor of religion; luminaries, garlands, frankincense and libation of wine are especially enumerated and condemned; and the harmless claims of the domestic genius of the household gods, are included in the rigorous proscription. The use of any of these profane and illegal ceremonies subjects the offender to the forfeiture of the house or estate where they have been performed; and if he has artfully chosen to the property of another for the scene of his impie
ty, he is compelled to discharge, without delay a heavy fine of twenty-five pounds gold----” (Gibbons, 1900, Vol. 1. p. 91-92). Just one year before Theodosius’ death in 395, Nicomachus Flavianus held the last festival in honor of the goddess Isis in Rome.

  Even though paganism was forbidden under the new decree, pagans continued to worship their gods in secret. To meet this new threat, Theodosius established two principles that would become important later on in history when persecuting pagans, heretics and even cats. The first was if a judge did not prosecute a religious crime, he would be guilty of that crime himself, and the second, idolatry,† which was to be considered the most heinous crime against God (Gibbons, 1900).

  This new law ushered in a period of pagan persecution. The tide had turned, and now it was the victims’ turn to terrorize, plunder and murder. The Christians, armed theologically with Theodosius’ idea that there could be nothing more of an effrontery to God than a pagan, and with St. Augustine’s belief that whosoever is not baptized is of the devil, started their devastating destruction. Monks proceeded to destroy the library at Alexandria and to forbid women from holding any church offices of responsibility as they had done from Christianity’s very inception. In Gaul, the Bishop of Tours led his monks in the destruction of all pagan idols and temples. In Syria, the Bishop Marcellus condoned the killing of pagans, and immediately destroyed the temple of Jupiter. Other temples and edifices were simply turned into Christian churches. Gibbon offers an apt description, “…in almost every province of the Roman world, an army of fanatics, without authority and without discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants; and the ruin of the fairest structures of antiquity still displays the ravages of those Barbarians (Christians), who alone had time and inclination to execute such laborious destruction” (Gibbons, 1900, Vol. 5. p. 84).

  By the year AD 476, unrelenting Barbarian hordes were attacking the Western Roman Empire. Quickly disintegrating under the strain, and with Romulus Augustus’ abdication to Odoacer, a Germanic King of Italy, Rome ultimately saw its death. The Western Empire had lasted approximately 500 years. In most of those 500 years, before the onslaught of Christianity, the Romans managed to include the cat in their daily lives, worship her in the form of Isis and Diana, and carry her to the far reaches of the empire. Even though sometimes aligned with the evil and darkness of Hecate and Diana, the Romans never thought to torture and kill our beloved cat. Both Greeks and Romans simply accepted it, as they did all of nature. Moreover, all the ancient Aegean civilizations as well as both Greek and Roman found the cat important enough to capture in their art. Some postulate that it was the coming of Christianity that brought the Roman Empire to its inevitable doom, as it surely did the cat. The Dark Ages and fanatical Christianity would consume paganism and the cat together, and the cat once adored, then tolerated, would soon become demonized.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THE DARK AGES

  CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM

  The Dark Ages were a time of great turmoil and instability. Hegemony over territory and religion were the driving factors in the ongoing conflicts of the age, and amidst this upheaval, the plague of Justinian claimed all those it could. Tribal kingdoms remained in continuous conflict over territory, and with the beginning of the Islamic era, Islam and Christianity competed for power and influence in both Europe and Asia. In the years AD 500-1000, barbarian tribes in Europe and the British Isles gradually shifted their pagan beliefs to Christianity, which led to the slow and continual demonization of female goddesses and their companion cats.

  The struggle for religious domination between Christianity and paganism, which had begun in the 4th century, continued on throughout the Dark and Middle Ages. Ruthless Christian fanatics in their quest for pagan conversion began to systematically discredit their beliefs. As St. Patrick headed to Ireland to convert the Irish in the 5th century†, St. Cyril, the Patriarch of Alexandria, had a vision of the goddess Isis as a devil (Engels, 2001). Goddesses and, by association, the cat came under constant attack.

  Pagans believed that all creatures had spirits, and Christians believed all those spirits were evil (Russell, 1972). Paganism and Christianity represented opposing ideologies which led to diametrically opposed faiths: polytheism versus monotheism, man versus woman, nature versus man, freedom versus control. During the Plague of Justinian AD 541-547, Christians surrounded by nothing but death, knew that they, and especially the non-believers, had angered their God. And while the plague that killed over 5,000 people a day in Constantinople, and ultimately over 50-60% of the total European population was ravaging his own empire, Justinian sent his emissaries to spitefully mutilate the Isis Temple on the Island of Philae (Engels, 2001; Thompson, 1908, 2003). According to Procopius, a Byzantine historian, the 6th century plague started in Pelusium, Egypt (Zahler, 2009). Ironically, this was the site of Cambyses’ wily defeat of the Egyptians by driving cats and other holy animals in front of his army.

  The Roman Christians knew that a fragmented empire meant eventual destruction, so Christianity became a vehicle for conquest and unification. Using the Christian religion as their ideological sword, they set out to convert and thus control their two most powerful adversaries, the Vendels (AD 550-793) and the Franks. From the north, with their Norse Gods Odin, the god of war; Thor, the god of thunder; and Freya, the goddess of love, the Vendels threatened the weakened Roman Empire and hindered the spread of Christianity. But as the Vendels, and later the Vikings, came into contact with Christians through their attacks, especially on the British Isles, they started to convert due to intermarriage and the fact that only Christians were allowed to trade goods. Clovis†, (AD 466-511) the king of the Franks, converted to Roman Catholicism in the early 6th century, and he encouraged his Germanic tribal leaders to embrace Christianity too. In AD 530-35, the Byzantines took control of Italy and spread Christianity through the building of churches. St. Benedict of Nursia founded the Abbey of Monte Cassino on the site of the former temple to the Greco-Roman god Apollo.

  In AD 596, Pope Gregory, who was said to have always had a cat on his lap, (Winslow, 1900) sent a group of forty Benedictine monks called the Gregorian mission to convert the Saxons in Britain. A year later, the kingdom of Kent converted. The mission was successful, and missionaries based in Britain headed for Europe to convert the pagans of the Netherlands and Germany. Paganism was to be eradicated.

  With the demise of paganism the nature goddesses slowly lost their power and importance. Threatened by female cults, the patriarchal

  Christian church wished to totally crush them. The cat, inextricably linked to the female goddesses Isis, Artemis, Diana and Freya, also became demonized. The goddesses of the moon became goddesses of the devil. Luna became lunatic. Pushed out of their roles of authority, women had to submit to the patriarchy of the church. The Canon of Eposcopi (AD 892), a list of regulations for bishops, stated, “It is also not omitted that some wicked women perverted by the devil, seduced by illusions and phantasms of demons, believe and profess themselves, in hours of the night to ride upon certain beasts with Diana, the goddess of pagans, and an innumerable multitude of women, and in the silence of the dead of night to traverse great spaces of earth, and to obey her commands as of their mistress and to be summoned to her service on certain nights” (Waddell, 2003, p. 84).

  But not all tribal leaders accepted the new faith. They simply pretended to convert for their own advantage while continuing to worship their forest gods and goddesses. Christianity’s stronghold was in the cities, while the pagans† kept to the countryside where deep in the forests their rituals continued. And so, Christians considered the old faiths that the pagans continued to adhere to as forms of magic (Erman, 1907 p. 237).

  THE CAT AND EARLY SAINTS

  During this time the cat, not yet completely reviled, still had its admirers even amongst those closest to the church. As the contest between Christianity and paganism raged, St. Gertrude of Nivelles in AD 640 became known for her benevolence towards cats. Most often pic
tured with rats and mice at her feet, she was known for her vigilance against vermin, and so it makes sense that she welcomed the help of the cat. Prior to St. Gertrude, St. Agatha (d. AD 251) known as a frequent visitor to cemeteries, became the patron saint of death and cats in some parts of southwestern France. Some believe that she appears on her feast day, February 5th, in the form of a cat to punish those who have angered her. Moreover, the ascetic, St. Jerome† (AD 340 - 420), owned a cat as seen on the left hand side of da Messina’s painting (figure 4.1). Finally, the patron saint of lawyers, St. Ives (1253-1303), has a cat as his emblem, a symbol of constant vigilance (Spence, 1917).

  Figure 4.1. St. Jerome in his Study, Antonello da Messina, National Gallery, London

  CHARLEMAGNE’S PURGE OF PAGANISM

  By no means a saint, Charlemagne (AD 768-814), the first Holy Roman Emperor, led an assault against paganism by publishing a code of laws for Saxony, which included the death penalty for those still clinging to the old faiths. Not willing to convert, over 4,500 Saxons were beheaded in the massacre of Verden in AD 782. In addition, with the Council of Salzburg making torture lawful in AD 799, Charlemagne was the first ruler to condone torture in cases of witchcraft (Gage, 1893). These were troubling times for cats as well. Ample evidence from recent excavations proves that the Saxons kept cats as pets, and they must have served as evidence of witchcraft e.g. paganism to the intransigent Charlemagne.