Historically persecuted people
The Cagots () were a persecuted minority who lived in the west of France and northern Spain: the Navarrese Pyrenees, Basque provinces, Béarn, Aragón, Gascony and Brittany. Evidence of the group exists as far back as 1000 CE. The name they were known by varied across the regions where they lived.
The origins of the Cagots remain uncertain, with various hypotheses proposed throughout history. Some theories suggest they were descendants of biblical or legendary figures cursed of God, or the descendants of medieval lepers, while others propose they were related to the Cathars or even a fallen guild of carpenters. Some suggest descent from a variety of other marginalized racial or religious groups. Despite the varied and often mythical explanations for their origins, the only consistent aspect of the Cagots was their societal exclusion and the lack of any distinct physical or cultural traits differentiating them from the general population.
The discriminatory treatment they faced included social segregation and restrictions on marriage and occupation. Despite laws and edicts from higher levels of government and religious authorities, this discrimination persisted into the 20th century.
Name.
Etymology.
The origins of both the term (and , , , etc.) and the Cagots themselves are uncertain.
It has been suggested that they were descendants of the Visigoths
defeated by Clovis I at the Battle of Vouillé,
and that the name derives from ("dog") and the Old Occitan for Goth around the 6th century.
Yet in opposition to this etymology is the fact that the word is first found in this form in 1542 in the works of François Rabelais.
Seventeenth century French historian Pierre de Marca, in his , propounds the reverse – that the word signifies "hunters of the Goths", and that the Cagots were descendants of the Saracens and Moors of Al-Andalus (or even Jews) after their defeat by Charles Martel,
although this proposal was comprehensively refuted by the Prior of Livorno, Abbot Filippo Venuti as early as 1754.
Antoine Court de Gébelin derives the term cagot from the Latin , meaning "false, bad, deceitful", and meaning "god", due to a belief that Cagots were descended from the Alans and followed Arianism.
Variations.
Their name differed by province and the local language:
Previously some of these names had been viewed as being similar yet separate groups from the Cagots.
Origin.
The origin of the Cagots is not known for certain, though through history many legends and hypotheses have been recorded providing potential origins and reasons for their ostracisation. The Cagots were not a distinct ethnic or religious group, but a racialised caste. They spoke the same language as the people in an area and generally kept the same religion as well, with later researchers remarking that there was no evidence to mark the Cagots as distinct from their neighbours. Their only distinguishing feature was their descent from families long identified as Cagots.
Biblical legends.
Various legends placed the Cagots as originating from biblical events, including being descendants of the carpenters who made the cross that Jesus was crucified on, or being descendants of the bricklayers who built Solomon's Temple after being expelled from ancient Israel by God due to poor craftsmanship. Similarly a more detailed legend places the origins of the Cagots in Spain as being descendants of a Pyrenean master carver named Jacques, who traveled to ancient Israel via Tartessos, to cast Boaz and Jachin for Solomon's Temple. While in Israel he was distracted during the casting of Jachin by a woman, and due to the imperfection this caused in the column his descendants were cursed to suffer leprosy.
Religious origin.
Another theory is that the Cagots were descendants of the Cathars, who had been persecuted for heresy in the Albigensian Crusade. With some comparisons including the use of the term to refer to Cagots, which evokes the name that the Cathars gave to themselves, . A delegation by Cagots to Pope Leo X in 1514 made this claim, though the Cagots predate the Cathar heresy and the Cathar heresy was not present in Gascony and other regions where Cagots were present. The historian Daniel Hawkins suggests that perhaps this was a strategic move, as in the statutes such discrimination and persecution for those convicted of heresy expired after four generations and if this was the cause of their marginalisation, it also gave grounds for their emancipation. Others have suggested an origin as Arian Christians.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of Cagotes is in the charters of Navarre, developed around 1070. Another early mention of the Cagots is from 1288, when they appear to have been called or . Other terms seen in use prior to the 16th century include , , and , which in medieval texts became inseparable from the term , and so in Béarn became synonymous with the word leper. Thus, another theory is that the Cagots were early converts to Christianity, and that the hatred of their pagan neighbors continued after they also converted, merely for different reasons.
Medical origin.
Another possible explanation of their name or is to be found in the fact that in medieval times all lepers were known as , and that, whether Visigoths or not, these Cagots were affected in the Middle Ages with a particular form of leprosy or a condition resembling it, such as psoriasis. Thus would arise the confusion between Christians and Cretins, and explain the similar restrictions placed on lepers and Cagots. Guy de Chauliac wrote in the 14th century, and Ambroise Paré wrote in 1561 of the Cagots being lepers with "beautiful faces" and skin with no signs of leprosy, describing them as "white lepers" (people afflicted with "white leprosy"). Later dermatologists believe that Paré was describing leucoderma. Early edicts apparently refer to lepers and Cagots as different categories of undesirables, With this distinction being explicit by 1593. The Parlement of Bordeaux and the Estates of Lower Navarre repeated customary prohibitions against them, with Bordeaux adding that when they were also lepers, if there still are any, they must carry (rattles). One belief in Navarre were that the were descendants of French immigrant lepers to the region. Later English commentators supported the idea of an origin among a community of lepers due to the similarities in the treatment of Cagots in churches and the measures taken to allow lepers in England and Scotland to attend churches.
In the 1940s to 1950s blood type analysis was performed on the Cagots of Bozate in Navarre. The blood type distribution showed more similarity with those observed in France among the French than those observed among the Basque. Pilar Hors uses this as support for the theory that the Cagots in Spain are descendants of French migrants, most likely from leper colonies.
Other origins.
Victor de Rochas wrote that the Cagots were likely descendants of Spanish Roma from the Basque country.
In Bordeaux, where they were numerous, they were called . This name has the same form as the Old French word , meaning leper (ultimately derived from Latin ). It also has the same form as the Gascon word for thief (ultimately derived from Latin , and cognate to the Catalan and the Spanish meaning robber or looter), which is similar in meaning to the older, probably Celtic-origin Latin term (or bagad), a possible origin of .
The alleged physical appearance and ethnicity of the Cagots varied wildly between legends and stories; some local legends (especially those that held to the leper theory) indicated that Cagots had blonde hair and blue eyes, while those favouring the Arab descent story said that Cagots were considerably darker. In Pío Baroja's work , he comments that Cagot residents of Bozate had both individuals with "Germanic" features as well as individuals with "Romani" features, this is also supported by others who investigated the Cagots in the Basque Country, such as Philippe Veyrin who stated the "ethnic type" and names of Cagots were the same as the Basque within Navarre. Though people who set out to research the Cagots found them to be a diverse class of people in physical appearance, as diverse as the non-Cagot communities around them. One common trend was to claim that Cagots had no ears or no earlobes, or that one ear was longer than the other, with other supposed identifiers including webbed hands and/or feet, or the presence of goitres.
Graham Robb finds most of the above theories unlikely:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;Nearly all the old and modern theories are unsatisfactory ... the real "mystery of the cagots" was the fact that they had no distinguishing features at all. They spoke whatever dialect was spoken in the region and their family names were not peculiar to the cagots ... The only real difference was that, after eight centuries of persecution, they tended to be more skillful and resourceful than the surrounding populations, and more likely to emigrate to America. They were feared because they were persecuted and might therefore seek revenge.
A modern hypothesis of interest is that the Cagots are the descendants of a fallen medieval guild of carpenters. This hypothesis would explain the most salient thing Cagots throughout France and Spain have in common: that is, being restricted in their choice of trade. The red webbed-foot symbol Cagots were sometimes forced to wear might have been the guild's original emblem, according to the hypothesis. There was a brief construction boom on the Way of St. James pilgrimage route in the 9th and 10th centuries; this could have brought the guild both power and suspicion. The collapse of their business would have left a scattered, yet cohesive group in the areas where Cagots are known.
Robb's guild hypothesis, alongside much of the work in his "The Discovery of France", has been heavily criticised for "[failing] to understand most of the secondary works in his own bibliography" and being a "recycling of nineteenth-century myths".
For similar reasons due to their restricted trades, Delacampagne suggests a possible origin as a culturally distinct community of woodsmen who were Christianised relatively late.
Geography.
Distribution.
The cagots were present in France in Gascony to the Basque Country, but also in the north of Spain (in Aragon, south and north Navarre, and Asturias).
Cagots were typically required to live in separate quarters, these hamlets were called then from the 16th century , which were often on the far outskirts of the villages. On the scale of Béarn, for example, the distribution of Cagots, often carpenters, was similar to that of other craftsmen, who were numerous mainly in the piedmont. Far from congregating in only a few places, the Cagots were scattered in over 137 villages and towns. Outside the mountains, 35 to 40% of communities had Cagots, especially the largest ones, excluding very small villages. The buildings making up the are still present in many villages.
Toponomy.
Toponymy and topography indicate that the places where the cagots were found have constant characteristics; these are gaps, generally across rivers or outside town walls, called " (and derivatives) or " (Laplace names are frequent) next to water points, places allocated to live and above all to practice their trades.
Toponymy also provides evidence of areas where Cagots had lived in the past. Various Street names are still in use such as in the municipalities of Montgaillard and Lourdes, in Laurède, in Roquefort, in Saint-Girons, and in the municipalities of Mézin, Sos, Vic-Fezensac, Aire-sur-l'Adour, Eauze, and Gondrin.
In Aubiet, there is a locality called "". It was in this hamlet, that the cagots () of Aubiet lived, on the left bank of the Arrats, separated from the village by the river. In this last example, the discovery of the name of the place allowed teachers to discover the local history of the Cagots and to start educational work. Until the beginning of the 20th century, several districts of Cagots still bore the name of ("Carpenter").
Treatment.
Cagots were shunned and hated; while restrictions varied by time and place, with many discriminatory actions being codified into law in France in 1460, they were typically required to live in separate quarters. Cagots were excluded from various political and social rights.
Religious treatment.
While Cagots followed the same religion as the non-Cagots who lived around them, they were subject to variety of discriminatory practices in religious rites and buildings, this included being forced to use a side entrance to churches, often an intentionally low one to force Cagots to bow and remind them of their subservient status. This practice, done for cultural rather than religious reasons, did not change