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I sent this article to my wife, who is doing a PhD in medieval history, specifically looking at women who've taken religious vows, and she had this to say: "Ca
by jon-wood 11y ago
I sent this article to my wife, who is doing a PhD in medieval history, specifically looking at women who've taken religious vows, and she had this to say:
"Cats weren't just popular with nuns, but particularly with anchoresses [effectively female hermits]. Which I suppose makes sense because you'd want the company! The 13th century rule for anchoresses 'Ancrene Wisse' forbids all pets except a cat. So they can't have been considered that demonic "
- jqm 11y agoAmazing. Apparently crazy cat ladies have been a feature of western civilization for a lot longer than I realized.
- duaneb 11y agoThe companion meme came later, I think. The first references to black cats I've seen (you can see a taste of this if you read Name of the Rose) were of superstitions positive and negative) regarding path crossing and sacrificing of black cats. But by the time witch hunts rolled around, they definitely used "familiars" as evidence in some cases. I wonder if the "cat ladies" were a part of this, and if there were "cat men" for monks.
- dang 11y agoWow. Please send more HN articles to your wife! Even better, convince her to comment here.
- laura-wood 11y agoWhy hello.
- PeterWhittaker 11y agoOne of my favourite types of humour is the unexpected development. This made me LOL. Would that I could upvote more than once.