Folklore

A 13th-Century Pope Made Black Cats Scary — Here's How

By Lunaple · July 23, 2026 · English
A sleek black cat sitting in a pool of moonlight, surrounded by swirling medieval manuscript patterns, illustrated in a moody but whimsical style

That little black cat crossing your path? Its bad reputation has a paper trail — and it leads straight to a 13th-century papal document. The superstition millions repeat every Halloween was, at least in part, officially put in writing by the Catholic Church in 1233.

A stylized illustration of a medieval manuscript scroll, representing the kind of official document through which institutional ideas spread across Europe.
A stylized illustration of a medieval manuscript scroll, representing the kind of official document through which institutional ideas spread across Europe.

Wait, a Pope actually wrote about cats?

Yes, and it's as dramatic as it sounds. In 1233, Pope Gregory IX issued a papal bull called Vox in Rama — a document that linked cats, including black cats, to heretical ritual. According to this primary-source record, the decree became an early and documented root of the association between black cats and evil in medieval Europe. This wasn't gossip or folklore passed around a village fire. It was an official Church communication, which meant it carried serious institutional weight across the continent. One document, centuries of bad vibes for an entire species.

And then the witch trials made it so much worse

The papal bull planted a seed, and later folk tradition watered it aggressively. Historical records of medieval European witch-trial folklore document a belief that black cats served as witches' demonic familiars — supernatural companions that assisted witches in their supposed craft. This belief reinforced and spread the superstition through the centuries that followed, weaving black cats deeper into the cultural fabric of fear and suspicion. By the time witch trials became widespread in Europe, the black cat's reputation was thoroughly, institutionally ruined.

A whimsical illustration of a black cat perched beside a cauldron under a crescent moon, evoking the folk tradition of the witch's familiar documented in medieval European historical records.
A whimsical illustration of a black cat perched beside a cauldron under a crescent moon, evoking the folk tradition of the witch's familiar documented in medieval European historical records.

So every Halloween decoration is haunted by medieval politics

Here's the thing that gets me: most people who put a black cat silhouette on their front door in October have no idea they're echoing a chain of events that started with a 13th-century Church document and wound through centuries of folk belief and witch-trial hysteria. The image became so culturally embedded that it outlasted the specific fears that created it — and now it's just... a cute seasonal decoration. That's a genuinely remarkable journey for a superstition.

A stylized black cat silhouette against an orange background, the kind of seasonal image whose origins trace back to documented medieval European folklore and Church history.
A stylized black cat silhouette against an orange background, the kind of seasonal image whose origins trace back to documented medieval European folklore and Church history.

Of course, none of this says anything true about actual cats, who are simply cats — mysterious and unbothered, as they have always been. The superstition is a product of medieval institutional power and folk tradition, not feline reality. Worth knowing the next time one saunters across your path.

Sources:
  • Pope Gregory IX, Vox in Rama (1233) [primary source] — the papal bull that linked cats, including black cats, to heretical ritual, documented as an early root of the black cat–evil association in medieval Europe.
  • Medieval European witch-trial folklore — the "familiar" tradition [historical record] — the folk belief, reinforced through the witch-trial era, that black cats served as witches' demonic familiars.

This article is offered for cultural and historical reflection only, not as prediction or endorsement of any superstition.

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