Did Pope Gregory’s Order to Kill Cats Set Off the Bubonic Plague? Horrifying Black Death Wiped Out A Third of Europe’s Population in the 1300s

A popular myth is that Pope Gregory IX in the 1200s had a phobia against cats, issued an edict or papal bull ordering all the cats in Europe to be slaughtered. That eventually caused the bubonic plague, the theory goes, because the deaths of cats caused an infestation of rats, who brought disease and epidemics. “We accept this story—that we humans once …