Cats and other animals in sermons
From Animal Wiki
Cats and other animals in preaching texts
Bernardino Busti, Rosarium Sermonum (Strasbourg, 1496), Sermon 16, 313.
Aliquam creaturam posse realiter transmutari in aliam speciem, puta in gattas, vel huiusmodi hoc enim est haereticum … apparente vero potuit fieri virtute daemonum. A certain creature could really metamorhose into other species, like in cats, and in every way this is heretic … it is just the virtue of demons than can make it [the metamorhosis] seem real.
Busti speaks of those witches who believe to be capable of turning into cats, following an old and long-lasting popular belief. The cat is the symbol of the devil.
