*Written by Lark Devon, author of adult fantasy romance where the research shows. Published October 23, 2026.*
**Short answer:** The concept of the "animal familiar" (*spiritus familiaris*) became especially visible in English witch trials, where accused people and their animals could be described as part of a demonic relationship. Cats became the classic witch companion through trial stories, folklore, and later art. No single biological cause or papal decree explains the whole association, and *Vox in Rama* was an anti-heretical polemic, not a general ban on cats.
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Is there a single fantasy witch who doesn't have a cat? A witch's cat is one of my favorite tropes, so I went looking for a fun origin story, and the trial records turned out a lot darker.
A witch in a pointed hat beside a black cat with glowing eyes is familiar shorthand in fantasy novels, comic books, and Halloween illustrations.
In the trial records, the animal familiar shows up most in England. It appears in some Scottish cases, but the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft found only nine definite examples.
In France, Germany, and Italy, the surviving records more often focus on alleged pacts, harmful magic, or the Sabbath than on a pet familiar, though there are exceptions.
In England, courts and witch-finders questioned accused people, often poor older women, about their cats, dogs, ferrets, and toads, and claimed these animals were demonic imps sent from hell.
An ordinary pet could become evidence in a witchcraft trial that ended in execution. The demonized "imp" later became a magical sidekick in modern fantasy.
## The English Imp Obsession: Chelmsford to Matthew Hopkins
In continental Europe, witchcraft trials were prosecuted under inquisitorial legal systems that focused on Satan's conspiracy, while English trials operated under a common-law tradition that focused on tangible property damage and visible evidence.
Because English judges had difficulty proving invisible demonic pacts, they seized on something physical: the **animal familiar** (*spiritus familiaris*):
1. The Chelmsford Trials (1566): The very first published English witchcraft trial pamphlet recounted the trial of Elizabeth Francis. She confessed that her grandmother gave her a white-spotted cat named **Sathan**, whom she fed on bread and drops of blood in exchange for domestic favors.
2. Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General (1645): During the chaotic English Civil War, Matthew Hopkins launched a lucrative witch-hunting campaign across East Anglia. Hopkins specialized in "watching" accused women for days without sleep until a passing mouse, fly, or cat entered the room, declaring the animal to be a demonic imp.
3. The Famous Names of Familiars: In his 1647 tract *The Discovery of Witches*, Hopkins listed imp names like **Pyewackett**, **Peck in the Crown**, and **Grizel Greedigut**, which he said no mortal could invent. The book's frontispiece adds **Vinegar Tom**, drawn as a long-legged beast.
English courts claimed that witches nursed these animals from unnatural marks or moles on their bodies ("witch's teats"). Under the 1604 Witchcraft Act, feeding or rewarding an evil spirit was itself a felony that could carry the death penalty.
## Why the Cat? Biology, Behavior, and Medieval Heresy
Why did the cat, of all animals, become the symbol of witchcraft?
Several things probably fed into it:
* The Reflective Eye Glow (*Tapetum Lucidum*): Cats have a reflective layer of tissue behind their retinas (*tapetum lucidum*) that amplifies low light for night hunting. In a dark seventeenth-century cottage lit only by dying embers, a cat's glowing green or gold eyes could have looked supernatural.
* Nocturnal Autonomy: Cats hunt at night, move almost silently, and climb almost anything. To villagers who feared the dark, that could seem supernatural.
* Aloof Independence: Dogs were bred to follow commands, and cats mostly do what they like. My guess, and it's only a guess, is that an animal that ignored orders didn't help its reputation in a society that prized obedience.
* Pope Gregory IX and *Vox in Rama* (1233): Gregory IX's letter condemned alleged heretical groups and included a sensational cat ritual in its description. It was an anti-heretical polemic aimed at particular accusations, and it's one medieval text in a longer, changing history of trial narratives, folklore, and visual culture, so its later influence is hard to pin down.
## The Crime of Pet-Keeping: Solitude and Social Suspicion
In *In the Company of Animals*, anthrozoologist James Serpell examined how early modern witchcraft accusations used the emotional bond between solitary humans and companion animals against them.
Serpell argues that in seventeenth-century rural England, keeping an animal purely for company could look odd or suspect:
1. Working Animals vs. Pets: In farming communities, animals were supposed to be utilitarian tools: sheep for wool, oxen for plowing, and guard dogs for security.
2. The Solitary Elderly Woman: When an impoverished, widowed woman lived alone in an isolated cottage, her cat or small terrier could be her main company, as well as her rodent control.
3. Affection as Evidence: In this reading, a lonely widow's affection for her cat could look to suspicious neighbors like a magical bond.
## From Demonic Imp to Fantasy Companion
Over the eighteenth century, witch trials ended for several reasons, including growing doubts about the evidence and changes in law and politics. Familiars continued in romantic folklore, Victorian fairy tales, and modern fantasy literature, where the familiar became a sympathetic figure:
* From Blood-Drinker to Protector: In modern fantasy (from classic urban fantasy to romantasy), the familiar is a loyal magical guardian, spiritual counterpart, and telepathic ally.
* The Shapeshifter Ally: Authors expanded the familiar into powerful magical beings: sentient panthers, witty talking cats, and shapeshifting protectors who possess their own distinct personalities, magical powers, and romantic agency.
Modern fantasy gives you an animal who understands your mind and never leaves your side. I still love a good fantasy familiar, and now every one of them comes with Elizabeth Francis and her cat Sathan attached.
## Myth vs. Reality: The Witch's Familiar
| Pop-Culture Familiar Myth | Archival & Historical Reality |
| :--- | :--- |
| All European Witches Kept Cats | Animal familiars were most prominent in English trials, with fewer cases in Scotland and some in America. |
| Familiars Were Always Black Cats | Trial records documented dogs, toads, ferrets, mice, moles, and birds as familiars. |
| The Cat Was a Demon in Disguise | Accused women kept normal household pets for companionship and rodent control. |
| Medieval People Burned All Black Cats | *Vox in Rama* described a cat in an anti-heretical polemic, while cats also remained ordinary working animals in medieval households. |
| Familiars Were Loyal Magical Servants | In 17th-century trial transcripts, familiars were described as demanding parasites that bit their owners. |
> [!lore] The courts turned a lonely woman's cat into evidence. At the Willow Inn, the only cat is paper, and it's taped to the kitchen door. *Lantern's Glow* is on Lark Devon. [Start reading →](https://larkdevon.com/storytime/story/lanterns-glow)
## How I Used This in Lantern's Glow
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*Lantern's Glow* doesn't have a familiar. It has a paper black cat taped to the Willow Inn's kitchen door, which Caitlin puts up as a polite warning to guests who wander where they shouldn't. After reading the familiar research, that cat looks a lot less like a joke.
What the trial records show is ordinary companionship being read as evidence: an older woman living alone with her cat, and neighbors deciding that meant something. Caitlin has a gentler version of the same problem. She's the single librarian who shows up alone every October to decorate other people's party, and the town has a story about what that means.
The book's real familiar, if it has one, is the lantern. It stays close to Caitlin, it turns up in places it has no business being, and it never explains itself. I left it that way on purpose. The old familiars were frightening because nobody could prove what they were doing.
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## What Caitlin Thinks
> *Caitlin is the Glensford town librarian, and she decorates the Willow Inn every Halloween. Hand her the research. This is what you get.*
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I'd like it on the record that I don't own a cat. This article makes me want one out of spite.
The part that got under my skin is the old women. They lived alone with an animal that loved them, and their neighbors turned that into a court case. I work at a library. I know exactly how fast a town can decide what a woman living alone is up to.
The only cat at the Willow Inn is paper, and it's on the kitchen door. Ms. Hawthorne didn't say a word when I put it up. She set it aside and let me tape it there, which in her language means yes. If this were 1640, she'd be first in the dock and she'd make the magistrate wipe his feet.
If anyone needs me, I'll be at the shelter looking at cats with strong personalities, which is shelter language for a cat that will judge your dates.
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> [!lore] Familiars went from courtroom evidence to fantasy best friends. Mine is a brass lantern that won't stay where it's put. *Lantern's Glow* is on Lark Devon. [Meet Caitlin and Liam.](https://larkdevon.com/storytime/story/lanterns-glow)
## Related Questions
### What was an animal familiar in historical witchcraft?
In English witchcraft trials, and in some Scottish cases, an animal familiar (*spiritus familiaris* or "imp") was believed to be a low-ranking demonic spirit taking the form of a domestic pet (such as a cat, dog, or toad) that performed magical tasks for a witch in exchange for blood or food.
### Who were Pyewackett and Vinegar Tom?
Pyewackett and Vinegar Tom were familiars associated with the 1645 East Anglian witch hunt led by the self-styled Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins. Pyewackett is named in his 1647 *The Discovery of Witches*, and Vinegar Tom, a strange long-legged creature, appears on its frontispiece.
### Why did cats' eyes make people fear them?
Cats possess a reflective layer of ocular tissue called the *tapetum lucidum* behind their retinas, which amplifies ambient light and makes their eyes appear to glow luminous green or amber in low light, fueling superstitious beliefs about internal magical fire.
### What was the papal bull *Vox in Rama*?
Issued by Pope Gregory IX in 1233, *Vox in Rama* was an anti-heretical letter describing alleged rituals attributed to groups in Germany. Its cat imagery is real, but historians do not treat it as a general church ban on cats or a single cause of later witch imagery.
## Related Reading
- [Love Magic Was the Most Common Magic: What the Trial Records Show](https://larkdevon.com/blog/love-magic-was-the-most-common-magic-what-the-trial-records-show)
- [The Witch Trials Weren't About Magic: What Historians Found in the Archives](https://larkdevon.com/blog/the-witch-trials-werent-about-magic-what-historians-found-in-the-archives)
- [Tarot Was a Card Game for Centuries: How It Became Divination](https://larkdevon.com/blog/tarot-was-a-card-game-for-centuries-how-it-became-divination)
- [Does Astrological Compatibility Predict Anything? The Studies Exist](https://larkdevon.com/blog/does-astrological-compatibility-predict-anything-the-studies-exist)
- [The Grimoire Trade: Who Actually Owned Spellbooks?](https://larkdevon.com/blog/the-grimoire-trade-who-actually-owned-spellbooks)
- [Samhain to Halloween: How a Fire Festival Became Date Night](https://larkdevon.com/blog/samhain-to-halloween-how-a-fire-festival-became-date-night)
- [Cunning Folk: The Village Magic Workers History Forgot](https://larkdevon.com/blog/cunning-folk-the-village-magic-workers-history-forgot)
## Sources
1. Wilby, Emma (2005). *Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic*. Sussex Academic Press. ISBN: 978-1845190798. [CNRS APOSCRIPTA record for *Vox in Rama*](https://telma-chartes.irht.cnrs.fr/aposcripta.php/26666).
2. Serpell, James A. (1996 / 2002). *In the Company of Animals: A Study of Human-Animal Relationships*. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0521577793.
3. Gibson, Marion (1999). *Reading Witchcraft: Stories of Early English Witches*. Routledge. ISBN: 978-0415206464.
4. Hopkins, Matthew (1647). *The Discovery of Witches*. London.
5. Thomas, Keith (1971 / 1991). *Religion and the Decline of Magic*. Penguin Books. ISBN: 978-0140137446.