From Light in the Dark Ages, over at the Guardian:
Posted on August 30, 2003 01:51 PM. Filed under: history & archaeology.Cats are suited to a monastic life; they spend hours in silent contemplation and have little interest in worldly goods. Back in the Dark Ages, a cat could do a lot worse than make a home in a monastery, with its warm kitchens and quiet, cool corners. Opportunist strays were adopted by monks who appreciated the pest control and waste disposal services they offered. No doubt the companionship was also a welcome intrusion into a life of isolation and austerity.
Monastery cats even made a contribution to one of the world's most exquisite illuminated manuscripts. The Lindisfarne Gospels was created around the year 715 in the island monastery of Lindisfarne. On the initial page of St Luke's Gospel, an elongated cat stretches along the right-hand margin. A chain of birds walk blithely towards the cat, whose belly is already full of their hapless friends. There is a touch of humour in the illustration, as well as an allegorical warning to the faithful. According to Michelle Brown, curator of illuminated manuscripts at the British Library (where the Gospels are on exhibition), the cat represents "the ever present threat of evil waiting to pounce on the unwary".
Yet more cats decorate the Book Of Kells, another fine example of Celtic calligraphy, which was written around 800. In one image, two mice nibble at the Eucharist under the watchful gaze of a pair of cats. Two more mice have escaped peril by perching on the cats' backs. Medieval Christians may have worried about animals consuming the body of Christ, and this illustration may allude to unworthy receivers of the communion host. The cats sit in judgment - but are they guardians of good or agents of evil? Either way, it is likely that these monk-scribes were familiar with real cats. According to Felicity O'Mahony, a librarian at Trinity College Library, Dublin, where the Book Of Kells is displayed, "It may be that the scribes were drawing the very animals that shared the scriptorium with them, keeping vermin away from expensive vellum." [continue]