page_title: Cagot
section_title: Origin and etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Cagot / Origin and etymology
caption_attribution_description: Map of the way of St James In Europe
context_page_description: The Cagots were a persecuted minority found in the west of France and northern Spain: the Navarrese Pyrenees, Basque provinces, Béarn, Aragón, Gascony and Brittany. Their name differed by province and the local language: Cagots, Gézitains, Gahets, and Gafets in Gascony; Agotes, Argotes, 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 mills. They were allowed to enter a church only by a special door and, during the service, a rail separated them from the other worshippers.
context_section_description: The origins of both the term "Cagots" (and "Agotes", "Capots", "Caqueux", etc.) and the Cagots themselves are uncertain. It has been suggested that they were descendants of the Visigoths, and that the name Cagot derives from caas ("dog") and "Goth". Yet in opposition to this etymology is the fact that the word "cagot" is first found in this form no earlier than the year 1542. Seventeenth century French historian Pierre de Marca, in his Histoire de Béarn, propounds the reverse – that the word signifies "hunters of the Goths", and that the Cagots were descendants of the Saracens, although this proposal was comprehensively refuted by the Abbé Venuti as early as 1754.
  Medieval popular explanations
  Another theory is that the Cagots were descendants of the Cathars, who had been persecuted for heresy in the Albigensian Crusade. A delegation by Cagots to Pope Leo X in 1514 made this claim, though the Cagots predate the Cathar heresy. Perhaps this was a strategic move. In limpieza de sangre statutes such stains of heresy expired after four generations and if this was the cause of their marginalisation, it also gave grounds for their emancipation.
  One early mention of the Cagots is from 1288, when they appear to have been called Chretiens or Christianos. 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.
  Another possible explanation of their name Chretiens or Christianos is to be found in the fact that in medieval times all lepers were known as pauperes Christi, 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. However, early edicts apparently refer to lepers and Cagots as different categories of undesirables. By 1593 the distinction was explicit. The Parlement of Bordeaux repeated customary prohibitions against them but added when they are lepers, if there still are any, they must carry clicquettes (rattles).
  In Bordeaux, where they were numerous, they were called ladres, close to the Catalan lladres and the Spanish ladrón meaning robber or looter, similar to older, probably Celtic term bagaudae (or bagad), a possible origin of agote. The Welsh "lladron" (robbers) similarly bears a resemblance to the aforementioned terms
  The alleged physical appearance and ethnicity of the Cagots varied wildly from 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 favoring the Arab descent story said that Cagots were considerably darker. One common trend was to claim that Cagots had no earlobes, or that one ear was longer than the other. (The same thing appears in popular culture in the novel of Salman Rushdie, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, as a characteristic of the Duniazát.)
  Graham Robb finds most of the above theories unlikely:
  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.
  Collapsed carpentry guild
  A modern hypothesis of interest is that the Cagots are the descendants of a fallen medieval guild of carpenters. This theory 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.
  There was a brief construction boom on the Way of St. James 
caption: The Way of St. James; the anti-Cagot prejudice existed in northern Spain, Western France, and Southern France, roughly coinciding with the main routes.
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