Part 38 (1/2)
In the Basque country they are called _Agots_, and it is ascertained that, though held in the same aversion as in Bigorre, Navarre, and Bearn, they have no physical defects, nor any difference of manners or appearance to the rest of the natives: they are there also vulgarly said to descend from the Goths.
The popular notion of the shortness of the lobe of the ear, which is supposed to be a characteristic of a Cagot, seems to be only worthy of the laughter which accompanied its first announcement to me; yet it is an old tradition, and has long obtained credence.
The learned Marca, who has treated this subject, remarks: ”These unfortunate beings are held as infected and leprous; and by an express article in the _Coutumes de Bearn_ and the provinces adjacent, familiar conversation with the rest of the people is severely interdicted to them. So that, even in the churches, they have a door set apart by which to enter, with a _benitier_ and seats for them solely: they are obliged to live in villages apart from other dwellings: they are usually carpenters, and are permitted to use no arms or tools but those expressly required in their trade: they are looked upon as infamous, although they have, according to the ancient _Fors de Bearn_, a right to be heard as witnesses; seven of them being required to make the testimony of _one uninfected_ man.”
Though previous to the time of Louis VI. called Le Gros, in 1108, the Cagots were sold as slaves _with_ estates, it does not appear that their fate, in this respect, was different from that of other serfs, who were all transferred from one master to another, without reserve. A denomination given to a Cagot, however, in the record of a deed of gift, mentioned by Marca, gives rise to other conjectures, involving still more interesting inquiries. It is there stated, that with a ”_na.s.se_”
was given a _Chretien_, named Auriot Donat; that is to say, the _house_ of a Cagot and himself with it.
In the cartulary of the _ci-devant_ Abbey of Luc, in the year 1000, and in the _Fors de Bearn_, they are designated as _Chrestias_, and the term _Cagot_, we are informed by Marca, was first employed in acts relative to them in the year 1551. They are called _gaffos_ in an ancient _Fors_ of Navarre, in 1074; and the term _Chrestiaas_ even now is used to denote the villages where the Cagots reside.
It appears that the Cagots of the present day are ordinarily denominated _Agotacs_ and _Cascarotacs_, by the peasants of Bearn and the Basque country: that of _Chretiens_ seemed affixed to them formerly, but was equally so to the lepers who were obliged to live isolated, and their abodes were called _chrestianeries_.
As the serfs became emanc.i.p.ated, the Cagots, who had been slaves peculiarly appropriated by the Church, and called by them, it seems, _Chrestias_, were allowed similar privileges: added to which, from having belonged to the ecclesiastics, and from not enjoying the rights of citizens, they were exempt from taxes. In later times, this led to innovations by these very Cagots, who, becoming rich, endeavoured to usurp the prerogatives of n.o.bility. The Etats of Bearn, issued a command to the ”_Cagot d'Oloron_,”--who appears to have been a powerful person--to prevent him from building a _dovecote_, and to another to forbid him the use of arms and the costume of a gentleman.
At the church of St. Croix at Oloron is still to be seen a _benitier_, set apart for the use of this race; and at the old fortified church of Luz, was a little door, now closed up, by which they entered to perform their devotions.
The prohibition to carry arms, which never extended to _lepers_, would seem to indicate that the Cagots, always separately mentioned in all the public acts, were persons who might be dangerous to public tranquillity.
And this, together with the appellation of _Christians_, may give colour to another opinion, entertained by those who reject the idea of their being descendants of those Goths who took refuge in the mountains after the defeat of Alaric by Clovis.
The opinion to which I allude, and which is adopted by Pala.s.sou, is that they come from those Saracens who fled from Charles Martel in the eighth century, after the defeat of their chief, Abderraman, near Tours: these Saracens are supposed to have sheltered themselves from pursuit in the mountains, where, being prevented by the snows from going further, they remained hemmed in, and by degrees established themselves here, and conformed to Christianity; but does this account for the contempt and hatred which they had to endure for so many centuries after? for no race of people, once converted, were any longer held accursed in the country where they lived. If, indeed, they remained pagan, this severity might naturally have visited them; but the Cagots were certainly Christians from early times, as the accommodations prepared for them in churches proves.
There seems little doubt that the armies of Abderraman spread themselves over the Pyrenees, where they long kept the French and Gascons in fear: traditions of them still exist, and the name of a plain near the village of Ossun, in Bigorre, called Lane-Mourine, seems to tell its own tale, as well as the relics found in its earth of the skulls of men, p.r.o.nounced by competent judges to be those of the natives of a warm climate: in other words, of Saracens, or Moors. But still there seems nothing to prove that the Cagots are the children of these identical Moors, who are said to have been infected with leprosy, and consequently shunned by the people amongst whom they had intruded themselves.
Lepers, at all times, were ordered to be kept apart from the rest of the people, and were placed under the care of the Church to prevent their wandering and carrying infection with them; and the miserable condition in which the proscribed race of Cagots existed, probably made them more liable to take the hideous disease which would have separated them from their kind, even if not already in that predicament: but there must have been something more than mere disease which kept the line for ever drawn between these poor wretches and the rest of the world.
It is expressly defined in the speeches of ministers from the altar to those afflicted with leprosy:--”_As long as you are ill_ you shall not enter into any house out of the prescribed bounds.” This applied to _all_ afflicted with leprosy; but the embargo was never taken off the Cagot.
At one period, the priests made a difficulty of confessing those who were Cagots, and Pope Leo X. was obliged to issue orders to all ecclesiastics to administer the sacraments to them as well as to others of the faithful.
They were during some time called _gezitains_, or descendants of Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, leprous and accursed; but by what authority does not appear. The leprosy was called the _Arab evil_, and supposed to have been brought into Europe by the Saracens: the _suspicion_ of _infection_ which attached to this race might have caused them to be so shunned; and, whether afflicted or not, they never got the better of this suspicion.
The greatest number of Cagots are to be found in those parts of the Pyrenees which lead directly to Spain, which may strengthen the supposition that the Moors are really their ancestors. A sad falling off to the glory and grandeur of this magnificent people is the notion that all that remains of them should be a race of outcasts, loathsome and abhorred! I cannot induce myself to adopt this idea till more proof is offered to support it, and better reason given to account for the contempt and hatred shown to a people, who, though once followers of Mahomed had become _Chretiaas_.
Amongst other names given them are those of _gahets_ and _velus_, for which there seems no explanation; but every new fact involves the question in still deeper obscurity.
It was always enacted that _catechumens_, during the two or three years of probation which they pa.s.sed previous to being received as children of the Church, should live apart from professed Christians, being neither allowed to eat or frequent the baptized, or give them the kiss of peace: and the Saracens of course were subjected to the same trials, from whence might first have arisen the habit of their living apart, and being looked upon with suspicion, both on account of their former faith and their supposed leprosy. This is, however, I think, scarcely sufficient to warrant the long continuance of the enmity which has pursued them.
One of the acts of the parliament of Bordeaux shows with how much harshness they were treated, and what pains were taken to keep them from mixing with the people, long after the panic of leprosy must have disappeared. In 1596 it was ordained that, ”conformable to preceding decrees, the _Cagots_ AND _gahets_ residing in the parishes and places circ.u.mjacent, shall in future wear upon their vestments and on their b.r.e.a.s.t.s a red mark, _in the form of a goose's or duck's foot_, in order to be separated from the rest of the people; they are prohibited from touching the viands which are sold in the markets, under the pain of _being whipped_, except those which the sellers have delivered to them; otherwise, they will be banished from the parish they inhabit: also, it is forbidden to the said _cagots_ to touch the holy water in the churches, which the other inhabitants take.” The same decree was issued to put in force ancient ordinances concerning them, in Soule, in the year 1604.
Still further animosity was shown to these miserable people in 1606. The three states of the said country of Soule, in a general a.s.sembly, pa.s.sed an order by which it was forbidden ”to the Cagots, under pain of whipping, to exercise the trade of a miller, or to touch the flour of the common people; and not to mingle in the dances of the rest of the people, under pain of corporal punishment.”
Severe as these laws were, those against _lepers_ were still more cautious: for whereas Cagots were allowed to enter the churches by a private way, the lepers were not permitted to attend divine wors.h.i.+p at all; and had churches appropriated to them alone, which was never the case with the Cagots, who were merely placed apart in the lowest seats.
Much the same arrangements were made respecting the _Cacous_ of Brittany, who were allowed to occupy a distant part of the churches, but not to approach the altar, or touch any of the vestments or vases, under a fine of a hundred sous; but chapels, or _freries_, were permitted them at the gates of several towns--an indulgence apparently never permitted to the _Cagots_.
Lobineau derives their name from Latin and Greek words signifying ”_malady_,” a denomination which strengthens the opinion of those who imagine the crusaders brought the leprosy back from Palestine on their return from their pilgrimage.
That the Cagots were exempt from leprosy, appears from a circ.u.mstance which took place in 1460, when ”the States of Bearn demanded of Gaston de Bearn, Prince of Navarre, that he would command the rule to be enforced that the Cagots should not walk bare-footed in the streets, for fear of communicating the leprosy, and that it should be permitted, in case of their refusing to comply with the enactment, that their feet should be pierced with a hot iron, and also that they should be obliged, in order to distinguish them, to wear on their clothes the ancient mark of a goose's foot, which they had long abandoned: _which proposition was not attended to_, thereby proving that the council of the Prince did not approve of the animosity of the States, and did not consider the Cagots infected with leprosy.”