Speaking quite frankly, there seems very little doubt that in the two
countries mentioned the influence of religion died in the birth
struggles of the Republics. In the course of the innumerable civil wars
which tortured these lands for half a century and more afterwards,
religious emblems were from time to time employed, and priests were
occasionally attached to one faction or the other; but the records of
these latter are such as to show that they had entirely lost to sight
their sacred calling, and a number, such as Felix Aldao, became
politicians and leaders of these bands, and executed and drank with the
wildest of their men. On a few occasions a religious pretext was
actually seized upon by one or two _caudillos_, who in the most
barefaced fashion endeavoured to make this cloak serve their ends.
A notable instance of this was afforded by the famous Argentine
chieftain Quiroga. This worthy was altogether one of the wildest of his
kind. Indeed, at one period he stood self-confessed as a land pirate by
the ensign which he adopted--a black flag, with a skull and cross-bones.
On one occasion, however, when a religious dispute had broken out among
his more intellectual neighbours, Quiroga determined to intervene on
behalf of religion.
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