The Cagots (pronounced [ka.ɡo]) were a persecuted minority who lived in the west of France and northern Spain: the Navarrese Pyrenees, Basque provinces, Béarn, Aragón, Gascony and Brittany.

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.

It has been suggested that they were descendants of the Visigoths[1][2] defeated by Clovis I at the Battle of Vouillé,[3][4] and that the name Cagot derives from caas ("dog") and the Old Occitan for Goth gòt around the 6th century.

[6] 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[7][1] and Moors[8] of Al-Andalus (or even Jews)[9][10] after their defeat by Charles Martel,[11][12][4] although this proposal was comprehensively refuted by the Prior of Livorno, Abbot Filippo Venuti [it] as early as 1754.

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.

[12] 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.

[51] The historian Daniel Hawkins suggests that perhaps this was a strategic move, as in the limpieza de sangre 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.

[50] 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.

[72] 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.

[74] Cagots were typically required to live in separate quarters,[24][75][68] these hamlets were called crestianies then from the 16th century cagoteries,[26][76] 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.

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.

[83] Cagots were shunned and hated; while restrictions varied by time and place, with many discriminatory actions being codified into law in France in 1460,[26][86] they were typically required to live in separate quarters.

[90][24] These restrictions were taken seriously; with one story collected by Elizabeth Gaskell explaining the origin of the skeleton of a hand nailed to the church door in Quimperlé, Brittany, where in the 18th century, a wealthy Cagot had his hand cut off and nailed to the church door for daring to touch the font reserved for "clean" citizens.

[12] Either they were altogether forbidden to partake of the sacrament, or the Eucharist was given to them on the end of a wooden spoon,[100][1][25] while a holy water stoup was reserved for their exclusive use.

[106] The Cagots were often restricted to craft trades including those of carpenter,[107][108][109] masons, woodcutters,[53] wood carvers,[110] coopers,[94][111] butcher,[112] and rope-maker.

[53][109] Cagots who were involved in masonry and carpentry were often contracted to construct major public buildings, such as churches, an example being the Protestant temple of Pau [fr].

They were viewed as untouchables, with Christian Delacampagne [fr] noting how it was believed that they could cause children to fall ill by touching them or even just looking at them,[119] being considered so pestilential that it was a crime for them to walk common roads barefooted[21] or to drink from the same cup as non-Cagots.

[50] The French early psychiatrist Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol wrote in his 1838 works that the Cagots were a subset of "idiot", and separate from "cretins".

[47][105] Philosopher Jacob Rogozinski [fr] highlights how even from as far back as the work of François Rabelais in the 16th century, the term cagot was used as a synonym for people viewed as deceitful and hypocritical.

[12] Also in the 17th century Jean-Baptiste Colbert officially freed Cagots in France from their servitude to parish churches and from restrictions placed upon them, though in practicality nothing changed.

[88] In 1709, the influential politician Juan de Goyeneche [es] planned and constructed the manufacturing town of Nuevo Baztán (after his native Baztan Valley in Navarre) near Madrid.

[128][129] In 1723 the Parlement of Bordeaux instituted a fine of 500 French livres for anyone insulting any individual as "alleged descendants of the Giezy race, and treating them as agots, cagots, gahets or ladres"; ordering that they will be admitted to general and particular assemblies, to municipal offices and honors of the church, they may even be placed in the galleries and other places of the said church where they will be treated and recognized as the other inhabitants of the places, without any distinction; as also that their children will be received in the schools and colleges of the cities, towns and villages, and will be admitted in all the Christian instructions indiscriminately.

[131][24][45] Revolutionary authorities claimed that Cagots were no different from other citizens,[130] and de jure discrimination generally came to an end.

[132] And while their treatment did improve compared to previous centuries,[45][133] local prejudice from the non-Cagot populace persisted,[134] though the practice began to decline.

[136] Examples of prejudice still occurred into the 19th and 20th century,[45] including a scandal in the village of Lescun where in the 1950s a non-Cagot woman married a Cagot man.

[109] Family names in Spain still associated with having Cagot ancestors include: Bidegain, Errotaberea, Zaldua, Maistruarena, Amorena, and Santxotena.

[145][98] In July 1841 the German poet Heinrich Heine visited the town of Cauterets and learned of the Cagots and their discrimination by others, subsequently becoming the topic of his poem Canto XV in Atta Troll.

[24][146] After travelling in southern France in 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell published her non-fiction work An Accursed Race, detailing the contemporary condition of the Cagots.