On 2009-09-28, HeyBub wrote:

"The persecution of cats in Europe is often overlooked as a contributing
factor in the spread of plague. In years prior to the outbreak, cats had
been vilified and slain in mass, due to their growing popular association
with Satan and witches. Pope Gregory IX declared cats' association with the
devil in the early 1200s. The mass slaughter of cats preceding the arrival
of infected rats greatly reduced a potential predator of the rat, allowing
rat populations to flourish unnaturally. "

"Many modern researchers have argued that the disease was more likely
to have been viral (that is, not bubonic plague), pointing to the
absence of rats from some parts of Europe that were badly affected and
to the conviction of people at the time that the disease was spread by
direct human contact. According to the accounts of the time, the black
death was extremely virulent, unlike the nineteenth and early
twentieth century bubonic plague."

So, we have different views, as I stated. I make no claim of the validity
of one over the other, only that more than one theory exists.

nb