Agote

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Agotes or Cagots were a discriminated minority in the Navarrese Pyrenees, Basque provinces, Bearn, Gascony and also Brittany. They have been also known by other names: Cagots, Gahets, Gafets in France; Agotes, Gafos in Spain; and Cacons, Cahets, Caqueux and Caquins in Brittany.

The earliest mention of them is in 1288, when they appear to have been called Christiens or Christianos. Graham Robb in his book The Discovery of France says cagots could be found throughout the west of the country as far back as AD1000.

During the Middle Ages they were popularly looked upon as cretins, lepers, heretics and even as cannibals. They were shunned and hated; were allotted separate quarters in towns, called cagoteries, and lived in wretched huts in the country distinct from the villages. Excluded from all political and social rights, they were only allowed to enter a church by a special door, and during the service a rail separated them from the other worshippers. Either they were altogether forbidden to partake of the sacrament, or the Eucharist was handed to them on the end of a stick, while a receptacle for holy water was reserved for their exclusive use. They were compelled to wear a distinctive dress, to which, in some places, was attached the foot of a goose or duck (whence they were sometimes called Canards). And so pestilential was their touch considered that it was a crime for them to walk the common road barefooted. The only trades allowed them were those of butcher and carpenter, and their ordinary occupation was wood-cutting.

1 The origin of Agotes
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] The origin of Agotes

The origin of Agotes (or Cagots) is uncertain. It has been suggested that they were descendants of the Visigoths, and somebody derives the name from caas (dog) and Goth. But opposed to this etymology is the fact that the word "cagot" is first found in this form no earlier than 1551. French historian Pierre de Marca (16th century), in his Histoire de Beam, holds that the word signifies hunters of the Goths, and that the Cagots are descendants of the Saracens. Others made them descendants of the Albigenses.

A far more probable explanation of their name Christians is to be found in the fact that in medieval times all lepers were known as pauperes Christi, and that, Goths or not, these Cagots were affected in the Middle Ages with a particular form of leprosy or a condition resembling it. Thus would arise the confusion between Christians and Cretins.

It was not until the French Revolution that any steps were taken to ameliorate their lot, but today they no longer form a class and have been practically lost sight of in the general peasantry.