There were a few pretty serious events going on in England in the 17th century, revolution, laws against Catholics, freemasons preparing to go public, and a new king but all of these events led to a pretty silly outcome, one involving the pope and a secret society around pugs.

There's an urban legend that a pope in the 13th century, issued an official decree telling people to exterminate cats because of their association with the devil and witchcraft… but did it happen?