The strange history of the Cagots

A very painful affair

Towards the end of the reign of Louis XIV, in 1706, in Lialores, a small hamlet north of Condom in Gers, Laurent and Julie Arboucan experienced a real drama, unfortunately very common at the time, their daughter Marie just died.

They prepare to bury the child Christianly, but when the child's remains arrive at the cemetery, a furious and threatening crowd forbids them access, there is no question that Mary is buried in the same land as the other inhabitants of the parish.

Such a refusal against grieved parents may shock but at the time the reaction of the inhabitants of the village was not surprising.

In fact, Mary and her parents belong to a disdained population that remains in memory under the name of « clots ». In many southwestern cities, these people, though settled for generations and perfectly Christian, are the object of an ostracism anchored, stubborn and without concessions.

Yet the only thing that differentiates gossip from the rest of the population is their physical aspect. They are small in size without being dwarfs, have deformed hands. This lends them all kinds of rather special attributes and it is true that one recognizes a snag at first glance.

However, in 1683 the royal power promulgated an ordinance to end this xenophobia, unfortunately nobody wants to know anything and at the bottom of the southwestern countryside the obscurantism is still omnipresent.

However, Laurent Arboucan was no less determined to fight for his daughter and took justice. It's a long and painful affair that begins.

An ostracism that goes back in time

It will be necessary to wait until 1710 for the Bordeaux Parliament, the judicial authority of this region, to impose the burial of Mary in the cemetery of Lialores, but when Laurent Arboucan comes to die in his turn his remains will suffer the same fate and it will again be necessary to appeal to the justice so that the poor man can rest in peace with his daughter.

This sad case illustrates the condition of the gossips attest to their situation since that time.

Since the tenth century the Cago families have been ordered to live apart outside the village. Objects of deep disgust many unfounded beliefs run on them, they would be of repugnant filth, their breath would be fetid, some even accusing them of pouring into occult disciplines close to black magic.

We avoid as much as possible, to talk to them, to touch them, we even pretend to drink in the same glass as a snag would be deadly.

Strategies exist to counter the bad fate of which they are bearers, so decrees of the Parliament of Navarre impose on them the wearing of a brand of infamy, a red goose foot sewn on the left shoulder is imposed on them; This is reminiscent of a much infamous, much more recent star.

In some cities the gossip had to announce to the sound of a crepel like lepers and prohibited them from moving bare feet in order not to contaminate the ground.

Of course the clots only contract union between them, are assigned to specific occupations often related to wood or stone.

However they are recognized as Christians, they have the right to go to the church but a door and a bentier are reserved for them because the clergy have always given them some support, but they only receive a lostia at the end of a pole; the population refusing the priest to contaminate his fingers.

But then where can such a deep-rooted rejection come from?

Many historians have studied the subject and some of their hypotheses are quite surprising.

The name of Cagot is somehow the generic term. In some areas they were called the Agotas, the Coliberas or the Jesites.

The latter name comes directly from Gehazi, a biblical figure: the prophet Elisha, having healed a Syrian prince of leprosy, his servant Gehazi wanted to benefit from healing and claimed money to the miraculous. When Elisha was informed, he and all his offspring were condemned to leprosy.

It is assumed that they are truly descendants of lepers who were forced like them to live isolated. Marrying each other these lepers would have had descendants who over the centuries have kept the stigmas of the disease without being carriers of it as well as a physical degeneration due to inbreeding.

But this is just a medical hypothesis that would explain the physical aspect of the Cagots. There are other avenues based on ethno-religious assumptions.

A hypothesis continues that clot has been formed by contraction of ca-nes-goth in ca-goth then snags by phonetic deformations patoisant, because goth populations pushed southward by the Franks, took refuge in numbers inside and at the feet of the Pyrenees. On their journey, these Goth groups received abusive names from indigenous people.

Other more or less farfetched tracks have also had their hour of glory but ultimately it is clear that no one really knows where the gossip comes from.

Last gossip

Their situation will change, but it will be necessary to wait for the fate of a man under Louis XVI, Bernard Dufresne, son of a Franciscan and a cagote who will rise in the circles of power until he receives from Louis XVI the office of director of the Treasury.

The last clots recorded date back to 1962, it is a sister and her two brothers, the Dannes family in St Jean-de-Luz.