CAGOTS.
(Vol. iv., pp. 190. 331.)
A reference to Dr. Guggenbühl's Letter to Lord Ashley on Cretinism, and to the reviews of the subject, of which I can name two in the Athenæum, one in 1848, p. 1077., and another on June 21, 1851, will, I think, show that there are no "races of Cretins," though the disease—for it is nothing but a disease—will sometimes largely affect even families. One of the principal characteristics of the disease is a disgusting goître, enlarging the neck to such a size, that a part of it becomes pendulous to the length of upwards of a foot, and can even be flung over the shoulder, and is, indeed, often carried there. It is very commonly accompanied by idiocy; and, in fact, the Cretin is one of the most distressing objects that can be seen. The disease is very common in some parts of Switzerland, especially, I believe, the Valais; some attribute it to the water: and probably climatic influences, in conjunction with the deleterious elements contained in the water, and the frequent intermarriage of the villagers, and deficient or unwholesome diet, are the chief sources to which it must be traced. It is curable; at the institution on the Abendberg the treatment is very successful. The disease never appears above a certain level, and disappears when, under favourable circumstances, the patient is raised to that level. Cases have been found in Lancashire, and at Chiselborough in Somersetshire, and at other places which present predisposing causes resembling those of Switzerland.
I do not think that AJAX'S suggestion "credentes" as the derivation of Cretin can be substantiated. Is it a term at all connected with diversity of religious opinion and consequent persecution? In the Alps, Cretinism is regarded with pity and kindness, as RUSTICUS truly remarks. The term cagot is current in the French with the meaning of an impostor, a hypocrite; "celui qui a une dévotion fausse ou mal-entendue," is the meaning in the Dictionnaire de l'Académie; also a bigot.
It is altogether a religious term. May I suggest that they are a relique of the old population of the mountain vallies imperfectly Christianised, therefore despised by the more enlightened population of the neighbourhood,—half-civilised, perhaps, and physically degraded by the same causes which have given the goître and the idiocy of the Cretin to the inhabitants of the Valais. If so, they may be Iberian, or what is commonly called Celtiberian, a term which I think there is reason for abandoning. I shall be glad to hear more of these Cagots; about the Cretins a good deal is known, and with much certainty, but nothing, as far as I can learn, that tends to identify them historically with any religious sect.
I am able to add further information concerning the Cagots. They are a miserable race, mostly beggars, or employed only about the meanest and filthiest work, abounding in leprosy and other cutaneous diseases, and in the most loathsome vermin; houseless, half-clad, inhabiting stables, barns, or any casual place of shelter, generally mutilated and lame, outcasts from society, reputed to lead infamous lives, indulging in the most horrible practices, even of cannibalism, and worse offences than that. Their brand used to be an eggshell on their clothes, and the custom was to pierce their feet with an iron. Scaliger derived their name from "Canis Gottus," and their origin has been assigned to some one of the northern nations which penetrated into the south of France and north of Spain in the third and fourth centuries before our era.
On this may I be allowed to forward a Query or two? What is their language? What are their own traditions concerning their origin? I am confirmed in my opinion that they are no way analogous to the Cretins; the latter being diseased, and Cretins because they are diseased; the Cagot being diseased and filthy, and despised because he is a Cagot, an individual of a degraded and outcast race of men.
THEOPHYLACT.
TEXTS BEFORE SERMONS.
(Vol. iv., p. 344.)
In the early church the sermon was delivered immediately after the reading of the Scriptures (Const. Apost. lib. viii. c. 5.), and sometimes preached without any text; at other times, upon more texts than one; but most commonly the text was taken out of some paragraph of the Psalms or Lessons, as they were read. Origen expressly calls Sermons, explanations of the Lessons (Orig. cont. Cels., lib. iii.). The Fathers sometimes so ordered the matter, as to preach upon the Psalm, the Epistle, and the Gospel all together, when they happened to be on the same subject. Thus St. Augustine (Serm. x. t. x. p. 112.) preached upon the subject of praise and thanksgiving, out of the Epistle, the Psalm, and the Gospel together, because they each had something relating to his subject. (Bingham, book xiv. ch. iv. § 17.) This may have given rise to the present plan of textual preaching. During the middle ages we frequently meet with the terms postilla, postillæ, postillare, and the like (from post illa verba Scripturæ sacræ), denoting sometimes merely expositions of Scripture, and sometimes popular discourses founded upon a passage just before read.
In England, about the year 957, Elfric, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, required the priest in each parish to explain the Gospel of the day, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, on Sundays and holydays. (Canon XXIII. Ælfrica, Wilkins, Concil. tom. i. p. 253.) The same person afterwards compiled Homilies in the Anglo-Saxon language, which for some time continued to be read in the English Church. (Cave, Historia Literaria, tom. ii.)