In the Middle Ages in France and Spain these people were treated much worse than Jews and Gypsies. In Gascony they were called kagots, gakhets, ghafets and gezitens; in the Basque country - agots, gafos and agotaks; in Anjou and Languedoc - with bonnets; in Brittany - kakhets, kakons, kakos and kakins. But wherever they lived and no matter what they were called, they were all outcasts.
European early medieval society was quite loyal to people from a simple class. One could be born in a peasant or craft environment and die as an adviser to the king. Personal merit and talents were highly valued, and we know many examples of the unexpected rise of the worthy. The mere fact of low birth did not mean so much then as is commonly thought today.
Under the load of origin
However, there were insurmountable obstacles, they put a kind of stigma on a person. The one who was born a Jew was considered unhappy. Or kagot, which was much worse than being born a Jew.
The first mentions of kagots date back to around the 10th century. It was then, and apparently in significant numbers, that they appear throughout western France and northwestern Spain, from Brittany to the Pyrenees. In different places they are called differently, but the essence is the same - these are people who, it was believed, offend God himself with their existence.
Some scholars of that time even thought that the Kagoths were a special harmful people. Several medieval descriptions of the appearance of these people have survived. According to one of them, Spanish, the kagoths are stocky, broad-faced, with high cheekbones, round skulls, very pale (almost white) skin, relatively light (from light brown to light brown) hair, light blue or green, slightly slanted eyes and fingers with markedly thickened joints. In another, French, their eyes are dark or brown, curly hair, dark or black, and their skin is dark or olive. Two completely different ethnic portraits. And obviously the Spanish Kagoths and the French Kagoths are children of different nations. But such dissimilar outcasts, united by one name, had a trait that made them relatives - the features of the structure of the auricle. The Kagoths had no earlobes. Sometimes they also call a couple of special features - the presence of a noticeable goiter and a wide, as if "faceted" nose. But appearance was of secondary importance. To become a Kagot, one simply had to be born into a Kagot family. And that was the verdict.
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Prohibition on normal life
One could get rid of the stigma of a Jew - it was enough to convert to the Christian faith. In the same way, one could even stop being a Saracen. But it was impossible to “drop out” from the Kagoths. Despite the fact that they were not gentiles, but the most ordinary Christians. They were written like that - "chrétien" - that is, "Christians." And the special places where they lived were also called "Chretiens", then they began to be called kagothiers. And these places were special. If in the city - so something like a ghetto, where next to the houses of the Kagots there were no houses of normal people. Sometimes it was a whole "Kagotskaya" street, sometimes an area outside the city walls. In the villages, they were settled on the outskirts so that they did not come into contact with fellow villagers, or they were expelled outside normal villages - to farmsteads or to special Kagot villages. Very often in Gascony and other mountainous areas they were allocated the most remote and inaccessible lands for life. They had to live in isolation, marry only with the same kagots, in no case touch ordinary people, moreover, do not touch the railings of bridges or stairs with their hands, because these railings can then be touched by normal people. They were forbidden to touch any food, fabrics, items of clothing, which could then be used by ordinary people. And for them, a special ban on professions was introduced: the kagots could not be cooks, cooks, innkeepers, maintain hotels, engage in cattle breeding and agriculture, brew beer, squeeze oil, produce wine, even wash floors and wash clothes for the rich. But it was allowed to fish, because it is the image of Christ, and God will overcome any evil, as well as to be blacksmiths and carpenters,because the Kagotsk infection is not transmitted through wood and iron. They could also provide any services related to sewage and death: be undertakers, executioners, weave ropes and ropes, engage in obstetrics and surgery. As Christians, they were not prohibited from going to church, but with significant reservations: they could only enter through a special low entrance, which was often called that - kagot. They had no right to approach the altar, from the side of the Kagotsky entrance a special beam blocked their way; they had no right to touch the vessel with holy water; for them there was a special container - "only for the Kagots." They were even baptized in a special way - in complete silence, without bell ringing and at dusk, they gave only a name and never wrote down their parents - only the profession of their father. In the registers of the time, as historians say,it is impossible to be mistaken: if the name of the child is written "carpenter" - this is an exact sign that the father of the newborn was a Kagot.
In France, even today, it is possible to determine by the last name whether there were Kagoths in the family. It can be said with almost one hundred percent certainty that Charpentier, Cordier, Chretien, Laplace, Coquet, Cretin, Colbert, Gezi come from the Kagoths. By the 16th century, when the laws became softer and many restrictions for the Kagoths were canceled, which contributed to the growth of mixed marriages, the Kagoths and descendants of the Kagoths accounted for almost a tenth of the population. And now, as the researchers say, almost every French has at least one Kagoth in their ancestors.
White lepers
That is exactly what - "white lepers" - the Basques called the Kagoths. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Kagots had only one right - to pay taxes, often increased, and the obligation to answer for misdeeds. The last rule has been in effect since the first mention of the kagoths. Any violation was considered as desecration of other people and sacrilege. If a kagot touched a holy book or dipped his hand into a vessel with holy water, his hand was immediately cut off like a thief. And in order for the kagota to be immediately seen and identified, he was supposed to wear a special sign - on the left side of his clothes he sewed a sign in the form of a red goose paw, and walked along the street with a rattle in his hand - like a leper.
It was this that led scientists to the idea that, perhaps, the Kagoots were in fact lepers or suffered from some kind of skin disease. In France of that time, for example, especially after the Crusades, a very significant part of the population was sick with leprosy. In the XII century, 19 thousand leper colony were built! The then medicine poorly distinguished leprosy from other skin ailments, and people who suffered from various dermatoses, ichthyosis, psoriasis ended up in the leper colony. Distinguished white leprosy, red leprosy. These patients were not separated. Only isolated.
One of the differences between the Kagoths was a persistent unpleasant smell. It is possible that this was a sign of a skin disease. Like a thickened nose or goiter, it could be a sign of cretinism or hyperthyroidism. Then the precautions that were prescribed by the law for the Kagots are clear. And the ban on marriages with them. At that time, it was believed that leprosy can be inherited and manifest even after several generations.
There are, of course, other versions of the origin of the Kagots. According to one of them, these outcasts were Cathars, recognized by the Church as heretics. The descendants of the Cathars even visited Pope Leo X in 1514 and asked to remove from them, as from the Kagots, all the restrictions imposed by the law. The Pope issued the corresponding bull and made the Kagotos equal in rights with other people. Historians, however, question the identity of the Cathars and Kagoths. In their opinion, it was a clever political move in order to avoid church persecution.
According to another version, the Kagoths came from the ancient, non-Celtic, population of ancient Gaul. The tribes that replaced them pushed the conquered into hard-to-reach places, and although they adopted Christianity, they treated them as gentiles. Moreover, none of the laws that abolished discrimination against the Kagoths did not work until the Great French Revolution. Then the enraged kagoths burned the registers and all records concerning their origin. And only in this way did they manage to get rid of the fatal stigma.
Nikolay KOTOMKIN