Agotes: who were these forgotten inhabitants of the Pyrenees?
This article is dedicated to a forgotten people: the exhausts . That his name does not tell you anything is not surprising. His story is somewhat mysterious and to some extent obscure, but if this is true it is because he tried to end it deliberately.
And speaking of the depleted is still considered bad or undesirable in some areas of the Pyrenees. In other places, nobody simply remembers them.
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The mysterious history of the exhausts
It is known that the exits inhabited in the western part of the Pyrenees, between what is now France and Spain. The first records about them date back to the thirteenth century , and already in these the exhausts are referred to as an inferior race. They were known as "the untouchables."
However, the history of this group is very blurred, and its opacity is due to different factors, but its disappearance as a people has prevented any kind of oral history.
In addition to his disappearance as a collective, he wanted to forget his story. In fact, in the end it was they who tried to make this happen. In times of the French Revolution, many exhausts or descendants of them they came to loot local files to erase any trace of information about their ancestors . It is believed that many emigrated and others ended up being assimilated among the general population.
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Living in apartheid since the 13th century
In medieval times, exhausts were not allowed to mix with other people, having to live apart from other people. They were set apart over the centuries, and when an exhaustion entered a city they had to report their presence. In the same way as lepers, They had to go ringing bell .
Traditionally it has been related to depletion with some type of plague. A so-called "white plague" is documented, which supposedly had a hereditary character and would only affect them. In addition, the bad smells attributed to them made that they were forbidden to dedicate themselves to making a living with certain jobs (agriculture, livestock or anything that could mean contagion).
By not being allowed to enter most of the trades or professions, they were pushed to perform jobs such as construction or music. But it seems that one of the professions that they were forced to take on with special zeal was that of lumberjacks, and they ended up being good carpenters with time .
They made barrels for wine, coffins for the dead and even churches of the Pyrenees, of which they were partially excluded. They could enter the churches, but they had their own doors to access them separately from the rest.
Prohibitions and persecution
It is undeniable that there were prohibitions on very strange exhausts. For example, while the peasants went barefoot, they were forced to cover their feet , because it was believed that they were deformed. Nor were they allowed to touch certain parts of public buildings such as bridges.
Knowing rarities of the style, it is not surprising that the exhausts were not allowed to eat with the non-depleted. They were even forbidden to marry other members of society. This led to a marked inbreeding during centuries.
Some said that the exhausts were psychotic and even cannibalistic, and sometimes fanaticism was brutally applied to them. There is evidence of terrible concrete acts against them at the beginning of the 18th century. For example, one's feet were pierced with sharp pieces of iron for daring to cultivate fields and many others were burned at the stake .
Basically, if there was a crime in a village, the agotes were usually blamed, just as it was with the women who considered themselves witches.
Who were they and where did they come from?
As we have been able to verify, there have been many absurd ideas around the exhausts, but most of the information comes from "Scientific examinations" carried out by French doctors from the 18th century .
In this way, what we know is that there was a group of people who lived apart from the rest, because apparently they had to be repudiated for some reason as serious as unknown. People discriminated against them for some concrete reason that nobody remembered anymore. In addition, they are said to be despicable, because defects and diseases were allegedly expressed in their body.
But who were the actual depletes? Where did they come from? Next, we will look at the 4 most serious hypotheses that are held so far.
Hypothesis # 1: leprosy
There are several historians who have dedicated themselves to trying to solve the mystery of the agotes. One of the existing theories is that they were simply contagious leproses or descendants of them. This would explain why he did not let himself touch certain things to the exhausts. But this contrasts with various sources that describe them as healthy and even robust individuals .
Hypothesis # 2: slaves
Another hypothesis is that the exhausts were Slaves of the Goths , a Germanic people who arrived in what is now France during the Middle Ages. The etymologists deduce that the exhausts, known as "cagots" in France, could owe their name to "cani Gothi". This means "dogs of the Goths". Although it is also thought possible that his name derives from "poop".
Hypothesis # 3: carpenters
In 2008, the British writer Graham Robb formulated a new theory through the publication of his book The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography. Robb thinks that the exhausts were originally a guild of carpenters who worked wood very well. This new hypothesis goes in the direction that the commercial rivalry generated a fanaticism against them .
Hypothesis # 4: Saracens, Cathars or some other human group isolated
There is also the belief that the exhausts are descendants of some ethnic group that was isolated at some particular moment in history. It is believed that they could be a group of Saracens, Arabs who remained in that region after the Muslim invasions of the 8th century of what is now Portugal, Spain and southern France.
Fidels are also associated with Catharism , whose geographic center was located in Occitania. This Christian doctrine criticized that Catholicism had abandoned the evangelical ideals and exhibited gold in their churches. Thus, in the thirteenth century, Pope Innocent III declared what was known as the Albigensian Crusade to eliminate the "heretics", allowing what was the incorporation of Occitania to France.
Bibliographic references:
- Aguirre Delclaux, M.C. (2005). The exhausts. The end of a curse. Madrid: Sílex Ediciones.
- Bell, G. (2008). The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
- Fabre, M. (1987). Le Mystère des Cagots, race maudite des Pyrénées. Pau: MCT.
- García-Egocheaga, J. (2003). Damn minorities: the unknown history of other peoples of Spain. Madrid: Susaeta Ediciones.
