Journal of a Cowboy
There was conflict in the French Church
The White Capped Ones felt that the United States of America had unlawfully taken over the ancestral lands, so they issued a proclamation that boasted that they were: “1,500 strong White Caps and growing daily.”
Jean-Luc wondered if the new country that had promised so much freedom and land was really the paradise-on-Earth many had hoped for. Anonymous men who dressed in white outfits topped with pointed caps certainly seemed unique to him until old Jacques Duval whispered to him: “Have you ever been to Spain during Holy Week, mon ami?”
“Why do you ask?” Jean-Luc asked him suspiciously. “Do they have white-capped men in longwhite robes like these?”
“For many generations, the people of Spain have walked through the main streets of their cities wearing them,” Jacques Duvalier stated. “They walk with bare feet dragging chains attached to manacles and shackles. It is a spiritual sacrifice that they are making, and the robes and pointy caps shield their identities. They are simply called ‘The Penitent Brotherhood.’ They were practicing a type of folk Catholicism that was reborn in the southwestern states of America before Mexico declared independence from Spain.”
“How are they related to Las Gorras Blancas?” Jean-Luc asked Duvalier.
“When the early settlers in the lower Mississippi area saw them,” Duvalier responded, “they frightened the people and positively terrified their slaves. Their strange attire was imitated by men who wanted to slow down the rapid efforts to free the slaves. They added more rituals to solidify their power over the slaves, such as by burning crosses in secret during the nighttime. Soon, their pointedcapped robes became symbols of oppression and fear, completely different from the intent of The Penitent Brothers.”
Duvalier paused, and Jean-Luc Duval held his breath, waiting to hear more. Jacques Duvalier continued: “The world of the latemedieval Roman Catholic Church was one from which the 16thcentury reformers emerged. Over the centuries, the Catholic Church had become deeply involved in the political life of Western Europe.