Soldiers, Priests and the Nation: From Wars of Religion to Wars of National Independence in Spain and New Spain.

Abstract

The Capuchin friar Diego José de Cádiz penned an influential treatise in 1793 during the War Against the Convention (1793-1795) titled The Catholic Soldier, in a War of Religion.  It was reprinted and circulated widely during the War of Independence in Spain (1808-1814), and according to an early twentieth-century friar, it had a profound effect on that “heroic generation” of soldiers who fought against the French.