Saturday, September 24, 2016

Cagots

The Cagots were a persecuted and despised minority found in the west of France and northern Spain: the Navarrese Pyrenees, Basque provinces, Béarn, Aragón, Gascony and Brittany. Their name has differed by province and the local language: Cagots, Gézitains, Gahets, and Gafets in Gascony; Agotes, Agotak, and Gafos in Basque country; Capots in Anjou and Languedoc; and Cacons, Cahets, Caqueux, and Caquins in Brittany. Evidence of the group exists back as far as AD 1000.
Cagots were shunned and hated. While restrictions varied by time and place, they were typically required to live in separate quarters in towns, called cagoteries, which were often on the far outskirts of the villages. Cagots were excluded from all political and social rights. They were not allowed to marry non-Cagots, enter taverns, hold cabarets, use public fountains, sell food or wine, touch food in the market, work with livestock, or enter the mill. They were allowed to enter a church only by a special door, and during the service, a rail separated them from the other worshippers.
They were compelled to wear a distinctive dress, to which, in some places, was attached the foot of a goose or duck. So pestilential was their touch considered that it was a crime for them to walk the common road barefooted or to drink from the same cup as non-Cagots. The Cagots were often restricted to the trades of carpenter, butcher, and rope-maker.

The Cagots were not an ethnic group, nor a religious group. They spoke the same language as the people in an area and generally kept the same religion as well. Their only distinguishing feature was their descent from families identified as Cagots. Few consistent reasons were given as to why they should be hated; accusations varied from Cagots being cretins, lepers, heretics, cannibals, to simply being intrinsically evil. 
The Cagots did have a culture of their own, but very little of it was written down or preserved; as a result, almost everything that is known about them relates to their persecution. Their cruel treatment lasted through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Industrial Revolution, with the prejudice fading only in the 19th and 20th centuries.


4 comments:

  1. The stupidity of the masses never fails to amaze me!

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  2. This is another example of the need for the majority to have some group to oppress, no mater how silly the reason might be. In fact, in this case, no reason needed. It was sad to read about how they were treated. Another religion fail: having to enter the church by a separate door and being separated from the rest of the congregation by a rail.

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  3. Wow, you ripped this off word for word from the Tom Knox book Marks of Cain.

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    Replies
    1. Actually, no.; it comes from Wikipedia, but really, you needn't be an Einstein for finding that either.
      Many texts for posts here come from Wikipedia and open source sources. I don't claim to write every post myself; I am a chronicler of everything beret, bring relevant texts and photos together, one post a day for the last 10 years. No more - no less.

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