December 5, 1484

A few months after being elected Pope, Innocent VIII issued a famous Bull, dated December 5, 1484,  extending the Inquisition to Northern Germany. In this document he recognised the reality of witchcraft, a modern credulity, though typically considered medieval.

The Pope's purpose, he wrote, was:

Desiring with supreme ardor, as pastoral solicitude requires, that the catholic faith in our days everywhere grow and flourish as much as possible, and that all heretical depravity be put far from the territories of the faithful, ...

This Inquisition was necessary because some:

by their incantations, charms, and conjurings, and by other abominable superstitions and sortileges, offences, crimes, and misdeeds, ruin and cause to perish the offspring of women, the foal of animals, the products of the earth, the grapes of vines, and the fruits of trees, as well as men and women, cattle and flocks and herds and animals of every kind, vineyards also and orchards, meadows, pastures, harvests, grains and other fruits of the earth; that they afflict and torture with dire pains and anguish, both internal and external, these men, women, cattle, flocks, herds, and animals, and hinder men from begetting and women from conceiving, and prevent all consummation of marriage....

If you look at his way of thinking, rather than the topic, you notice he is reliant on binary choices throughout.

Again a modern phenomenon. The subject of this document is sex. At least, I could make a case for that. Without fully understanding the cultural dimensions, my first thoughts are to contrast the witchcraft events, with the Cult of the Virgin.

That last phrase refers to

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries  [which] saw an extraordinary growth of the cult of the Virgin in western Europe, in part inspired by the writings of theologians such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), who identified her as the bride of the Song of Songs in the Old Testament. The Virgin was worshipped as the Bride of Christ, Personification of the Church, Queen of Heaven, and Intercessor for the salvation of humankind. This movement found its grandest expression in the French cathedrals, which are often dedicated to "Our Lady," ...


Certainly this emphasis was vivid during the 15th century. I bring this up to suggest, just a possibility, that the attention on witches, may represent a masculine panic over the power of women. And that the faces of old women were an unwelcome reminder of the fate of blossoming youth.

There are many explanations and views of the theme of witchcraft. All I can state with assurance is that it was a modern, not a medieval, phenomenon. And that cats were part of it, though they were not mentioned in the Bull above, directly. One modern authority, Desmond Morris, cites the lack of black cats today, as evidence for the efficacy of the persecution of those called witches. Notice in this context, that what we today call "black" cats, actually have, a few white hairs. Enough to let their feline forbears escape, long ago.