Alonso Gregorio de Escobedo, O.F.M. La Florida [ca. 1590-1610].
Please do not reproduce without permission. The following is a draft translation (and a preliminary one at that!), prepared by Thomas Hallock, in support of The Epic of Florida: Selected Poems by Juan de Castellanos, Bartolomé de Flores, and Alonso Gregorio de Escobedo (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2026).
Canto 31. This Canto contains a sermon that I gave to the faithful and infidels, teaching Christians how to confess their sins in obedience to the confessor, and infidels where idolatry was born.
Sanctified was the pilgrim, and admirable
the betrothal of the divine Jesus,
with the gentle abominable people,
alienated from truth, life and the way;
and his [presence is remembered through]
of Gomez with Hosea,[1] a benign gentleman,
who married her even though she was a whore:
by God’s command, first cause.
Don’t be afraid of what you can lose,
even in the amazing depths of your vice,
for he who is powerful can do anything he wants,
and forgiving sins is his role.
In him, the greatest sinner waits —
for in him, by sinning you exercise
the powers of Christ Jesus, King of Glory,
who brings to whomever the victory.
If, like King David, one works towards
the fruits that are earn one’s penance,
and to God and Lord one faithfully loves,
the painful sorrows of guilt will be healed.
Not only is it right but it is just, that the sinner
redeems his vice, and that he quits indecency
of the occasion by being the one who takes away
Christ the Redeemer, whom he invites.
Because the line of David is at the head
of my Lord Jesus, who was subjected
in his human form to the baseness
of the present sin in deed and name.
For they shall know the greatness of God
and the sinner his vice, no wonder
they put him before old Abraham,
holier than David, courtly king.
Clearly he who imitates Abraham avoids danger,
so long as he is careful, for God
offers the occasion from which flows
come the just in harm’s way.
The infernal nation shines forth
when the sinner is not careful —
even if he confesses, it doesn’t mean
God will let him by, the previous time or the next.
If you make an effort to hear my word,
God is certain to deliver his grace,
he will give the word — which is His — to that person,
opening for him from the glorious narrow door.
If a man is not like stone or dry wood,
and virtue awakens his soul ,
he will hold Jesus always close and heart,
finding, as promised, a faithful friend.
It is what St. Matthew says, that:
“God did not come for the righteous, but
for those who desire to know the Lord.”
God comes for the sinful who have lived in wickedness,
but who have taken the trophy of conversion;
God prides himself more on winning
the sinner alone comes into the world,
the one who had not been just, than
the thousand saints he already has for his own.
God came to he who makes resistance,
not to the person who it should be,
and for that reason He does not heal
your ailment while letting the evil survive.
Take if you come to penance
the parts that this sacrament has,
which is what I’ll say, and if one is missing
don’t make your soul count. [???]
Tell them with pleasure and joy
to all the Spaniards who come here,
and so many came this day.
My tongue will tell you what it knows:
To the Indians I will say in another way
which is more suited to your conversion,
and here I want to say to the soldiers
the order to tell me their sins.
I said, “Penance is a sacrament
to atone for the wrongs committed,
without being in the soul badly tried
to be against the angry Lord.”
So describes the great firmament,
giving hope to whose who are most lost;
those who confess and obey the father
will be redeemed and released from their guilt.
Confess your sins to the priest,
this is called “confesión de boca”;
it is good for the heart to be humbled,
being so forgiving to God provokes
satisfy the ill-gotten gains
of the damage to the honor of others.
Three things you do of divine price
don’t hold your brother in contempt.
If he confessed to negligence,
you cannot be saved; soul, wake up
if you don’t want God for your sentence
close the sky’s sealed door.
If in confession you do diligence,
you’ll enjoy the Lord for sure.
Ask God’s forgiveness for your crime
will give you for being infinite.
This is one of the essential parts,
without the sixteen others I’m talking about here,
that they should be remembered by the most rational
and held out in hopes for God.
The learned call these “integrales,”
and from from first to last, I will give
to the faithful Christian an account of them,
which is now what my pen and hand will say. [104]
It will be the clean and simple confession,
if this faithful memory is not mixed
with some story, recounting stain of sin;
mortal or venial with faithful memory,
giving in being humble, holy chair,
where you will enjoy the King of glory
whoever it was, you saw his grace
and the arrogant one dies in his misfortune.
It will be pure if our faithful make it so,
by achieving forgiveness for the sinful ones,
and not to avoid if it happens
some case that’s left in disguise.
He will be faithful as required
if I’m going to carry the truth in the highest degree.
O heavenly virtue, divine thread,
though your thread may be subtle, it never breaks!
Often enough, the faithful will confess
out of obligation, for fear of punishment,
the naked can be mischievous [?],
apologizing for the sins that have been committed.
When the faithful profess, one must be discreet
that it was not only simply out of fear,
counting in brief their wickedness
for just banishing prolixity [?].
The confession must be made willingly,
for God and no other some respect;
it is shameful if the delinquent soul
doe snot follow the narrow and circumspect
path, the correct path, and be
temperate, fair, sober and straight.
Never lose faith in anyone who
says he lacks faith in God.
[….]
It will be through your confession, Christian,
each of you must confess all that you have done.
It will be through the same true manner,
in that the confession must come from your heart.
It will be tearful, right and true
if your confession comes tearfully.
It will be speedier if it made
when your soul is ready.
It will be strongest if the confessor
recounts his own sins directly;
accusing is not the same as professing sins,
for to confess is not to blame the insolent.
Great good will come to those who confess last,
if those who obey the wise confessor are prudent,
and for those who lack obedience before vice,
there will be even more value in the sacrifice.
Who is the one who has grace? The person who,
without missing a beat, obeys the father hearing confession
To this obedient one, the faithful transcript
of God the father is provided.
He who is not obedient does not deserve
resurrection, but should instead find
himself dead in the sepulcher of eternal
oblivion, by his grace, forgotten.
He is the one who obeyed Jesus, Lord of heaven,
from Joseph and of David, holy ancestors,
and he was a subject of yours on this soil
by the command of God the Almighty.
If you obey, you will enjoy the great solace,
[sitting the at right hand of God],
he who can pardon you of your sins,
through him, you will win God’s everlasting goodness.
Take up Jesucristo as you testament,
for being both God and true man,
he was of such virtue and such talent
that he obeyed, even as a humble carpenter.
Oh, foundation in virtue of virtues!
With you, the meek lamb taught us
that every wretch should humble himself,
and he who does not humbles himself before God does not rise.
Jesus Christ, crowned with thorns,
earned what he received, through obedience,
and the blessing of his sentence will be given
to all who worship him as their servant.
If you want to be healed of your pain
and remain pure, clean and without sin,
take the fruit of to him, otherwise
you will be as a brutish mule.
As our Holy Prophet King says, you do not want
to be like the brutish horse with no sense,
such as the same one that is
intimate with similar beasts. He who does not
imitate those beasts does not hear the song,
that person’s ear does not recognize the reason
of a monk for whom God has mercy, and that person
shows now obedience to his confessor.
It was the singular and heroic case of a pilgrim
who succeeded a wise and prudent man.
His name was that of Juan Garino,[2]
of singular and resplendent virtue
who came to a beautiful hermit lady [?],
a woman more beautiful than the eastern sunlight,
and to whom it gave the Devil gave great displeasure,
for the Devil had chosen to dwell in her soul.
Well, the devil was inside this good lady,
and it was impossible to kick him out of her soul
if the monk could not pray to God for her,
showing himself to be as of service.
Her father was the earl (Conde) and he went with her
with intentions that were peaceful and loving,
and he begged of the holy hermit
to release your daughter from her harm.
Juan Garino was Moved by religious compassion
when he saw the maiden in such a struggle,
he said to the all powerful eternal father:
“Cast out the demon from her, you cruel devil,
that demon deprives her of what is good,
and is the enemy of Adam, finite man.”
And in ending his sacred prayer,
the enraged demon fled from her body.
Now seeing that the Devil had been stripped
from the body where he had been happily lodged,
and with the opportunity to get even,
the monk had a lascivious thought.
He followed the force of his inclinations,
the edifice of his intentions or desired,
deflowering and killing the beautiful lady
with deceitful cunning and deceptive plans.
And after confessing his crime to the pope,
he was ordered to do seven years’ penance
living in the area of that mountain
where his principal sin took place.
And by living amidst that affliction,
he healed himself from the sinful disease,
never failing to invokes God from
either in his soul or with the words in his mouth.
And then, when they sent for the offender,
he was walking around with his hands on the floor,
feeling such terrible guilt as this one,
so that the monk could not expect any consolation.
And when a child suddenly says to him
that God in heaven has forgiven him,
Fray Juan Garin will know for certain
his soul is alive now, when before it was dead.
He living for seven years under his verdict,
his only glory being to eat country grass [?],
until one day, an agile and strong hunter
who had won victorious laurels in the hunt,
shook off the displeasure of having
the memories he himself harbored
of a late daughter who slept
in a cold and humble sepulcher.
There was Juan Garin, who had been taken
to be the figure of a brute —
everyone was looking at him as if he was
the portrait of a man left in the wild.
By great fortune, he was taken from prison
to the royal city of Barcelona,
and there, his life was made miserable,
for they played with him night and day.
He completed the penance for his part,
finding from God, Lord of all heaven,
for forgiveness he made appearances and took steps [?],
following baseless human knowledge.
And its power is a strong bulwark
the shifting sand makes thick cement,
thus eyes were made from mud for a blind man
and the Hebrew people water from a stone.[3]
The powerful father of that mistreated
little girl held a feast for her,
which his injured mother attended
along with many other invited guests.
And after eating, he then agreed
to bring in the beast in chains,
and the tender eyes of the child,
while suckling, fixed her eyes on him.
And he said,: “Stand up straight, Garin,
for God has now forgiven your sin.”
With tears bathing his chest,
now standing, Garin gave thanks to God.
He approached the count, and at his feet,
humbled himself and recounted
how he had killed the daughter,
as a Demon pretending to be a hermit.
The count replied, “I grant my pardon,
for our eternal God grants it to you.
One other thing I beg, if I can,
an agreement between the two needs to be made, [?]
that you show it to me with your right hand.
Without a doubt, he Who buried her
should see the esteemed jewel of my eye
now buried in her sepulcher.”
It was a great comfort for Juan Garin
to be led by the count through the thicket,
to the high, dry and rocky ground,
and where the count opened the humble tomb.
Guided by Jesus, Lord of heaven,
the count and the criminal,
along with other clear-headed and noble people
parted the stone to behold the mystery
that was there at the mountain.
After the ominous site where the lady
had been buried was opened and
the corpse was placed upright,
showing a beautifully adorned face,
The count spoke and she answered [?]
with such rare discretion from heaven
that people could almost not believe it,
how spoke back when when asked a question.
The count was amazed to see her alive,
and wanted to take his daughter to Barcelona.
His daughter showed some reticence,
and her heaped up a thousand pleas,
saying, “I want to be captivated,
and in the field of battle,
win the same crown that Jesus, King of Glory,
won, claiming victory over the Devil.”
The maiden was left with the abbess
of a convent that the count had founded.[4]
The hermit did not feel the weight
because hid himself in the rough mountains,
where he himself up as a penitent,
because it was only fitting,
and through his obedience, he was forgiven
for the atrocious evil of his sin.
How many soldiers today carry out the same
with the Indian infidels? Or what insult,
for those who live as betrothed to God,
respect an Indian’s awkward bulge?
Their padres [fathers] are condemned
for building up the cult of Satan,
leaving God, the great punisher,
deserves who worships the enemy. [??]
It will come to you in such a way
for having fornicated with infidels,
that you will behold the fierce handiwork
that God himself has made.
The Jew denied God, who were hoped
to have confessed to God at Baal of Peor,[5]
being the main cause of their misdeeds:
they were guilty of the original sin.
Listen with care, beyond the punishment,
how twenty-four thousand were struck dead,
how each brought death to another’s precious friend,
one murdering another brother’s brother.
It was the father of the son of the enemy,
and the murderer was also the son of the father,
that her is what God ordered, for being jealous
because a man sought out the wife of another’s husband.
What business do you have, being a Christian,
with the unfaithful Indian who loves false idols,
carved with and ungodly, clumsy hand,
full of falsehood and misfortune?
Oh, drink of our good sovereign God,
He has made all Creation!
I ask, what has the divine law to do
with the thousand errors along the way?
That he who has no show of faith,
be not admired, let that it be agreed.
To sin with unfaithful Indian who offers herself,
to he who has the faith of Jesus in His soul
commits the sin of perdition, if you wish,
she will give it to you do not abstain [?];
let no one commit such a sin,
whoever touches the peace will be stained.
If I were to operate as a Finees of God,
pulling a dagger out of my waistband,
and killing you when you’re in the act [?]
with a no-good unfaithful whore,
you should not go against God,
daring yourself to break his holy divine law,
doing evil by being treacherous and
showing no fear of his rigorous judgment.
If Judas, yes, once himself a murderer,
offended the Lord with his treason,
those that offend you are without measure
for the sake of your vices and passions.
Christian, fear the God who gave you life.
Think about hell, and the imprisonment
that has already been prepared, case in point
for whoever lies dead in torpid sin.
Better to have made payment to Christ
so that your soul is eternally alive;
convert to your God, lost man,
so to free your soul from captivity.
The hard steel hangs onto and seizes you
because the magnet stone carries upwards,
and you do not want to follow your teacher
who wants to make you virtuous.
This God, the upright judge, is the singular instructor,
for he teaches us but does not wreak havoc
for those who carry pain in their hearts,
nor is he arrogant like Simon the Magician.
No one against God will have their case reviewed,
nor will be given the false deal as by a traitorous man,
for being as the one living God,
his life was sacrificed on the cross for the captive sinner.
Slave of the Devil, brother, you deviated,
but now you are with the Lord Jesus;
show courage and strength of purpose to resist,
if you want to enjoy God’s eternal glory.
If you taste God’s happiness you will see,
that he wants to admit you into His friendship.
Enjoy this freedom, take with you
and be redeemed, as by a faithful friend.
With what did he redeem us ? Infinite price,
for the record, our having been guilty,
the finite [man] joined with our God
of pure charity, mixed in the union
about which St. Paul left in writing.[6]
With blood from his wounds of love he paid for us,
before [she?] lacked that love
which once burning, is impossible to extinguish.
You should believe what God tells you:
to flee perdition and eternal damnation;
abandon the old path of sin, which is
full of painful deceitful and deceit;
say I erred, Lord, like a simple sheep,
say like, King David, I am made a stranger,
and without you I do not good,
and that I get what I deserve for my evil.
Oh, how many sins did the wicked people
of Babylon commit, in the beginning
before being deluged by the floods —
those, who as sinners, were made afraid
and were punished by the living God?
In this manner the Lord does not dare
confusing their language in such a way,
and in many extraordinary ways, he translates.
The person who asked for lime was given
other very different materials,
and among them confusion reigned —
as if they were brute animals,
because they could not understand one other,
at this time when the officers
and all the people who run the world
ran from the strong tower. [???]
Men with souls dedicated to Satan,
who were on insolent terms [?]
and from many regions of the West
constructed this tower.
These lacked a Noah, a wise man,
who would show them how they shut out God,
and were being wicked, sober teachers
who brought them you to righteousness.
This was the inheritance of our forbearers,
those who have taken shelter under this awning,
and clearly it shows in you, that you are traitors
without God and law, without faith and sacrament.
Fix your thoughts on God, you worshippers
of these false gods that shift with the wind.
You are like them, like shifting weather vanes,
trusting only your own baseness.
Why is it that you choose to worship vermin
and the moon and the sun and the stars?
These are not thing that are everlasting or fixed,
nor can save yourself with these things.
Robe yourself instead in the clothing of reason,
unfold, and put on the mantle of the Creator,
He who is the invisible King of Kings
and universal Lord of all things visible.
To those all together, I say clearly,
from those who come with God the almighty,
to anyone who would like to be his friend
in those remote regions of the West?
The beggar is shown enviable mercy
if he would leave his gods suddenly,
and worship instead my infinite God,
the one who has made the finite, Spanish man.
Infidel, if you wish to please God,
and see exquisite garment of his omnipotence,
be faithfully and and steadfast in the belief
of all that my tongue declares to you;
and if you do rejoice in the Christian faith,
the baptism that you receive will repair
not only your current and clumsy sin,
but the original sin you already had.
I want to talk about idolatry,
of the errors that proceed from deception.
You must know that ignorance was the guide
and the inventor of most serious damage,
before the world, with its monarchy,
was flooded under the estranging deluge.
Our people were to worship only one God
and not a hundred thousand, like in the West.
When a young and broken man died,
someone who was the son in law
of a rich Seraphim and Lord of Egypt,
it drove the father to great lament,
and he had a portrait of the son made,
transferring on the image of the deceased,
and it was sent all around the district
and it was worshipped as if it were a god.
The Idol was given the name “Idomedin,”
which in the Greek tongue means
“painful image of renown,”
and it was a brutal killer of souls —
it was astonishing how this idolatry
managed to stick like a fish,
how it did the the service that is done
to the image that will most likely defer. [???]
I am saying: not only did people love the idol
but the popular people who came to see it
offered it the wealthiest sacrifices,
being full of error and torpid sin.
The Demon depicted in this portrait spoke,
deceiving the people through a simple trick,
and in this way, the whole world
came to worship the talking portrait.
As it is happened , the same occurred
with glorious King and mighty father
of the greatly valued son of man,
a courageous, willing and brilliant child.
Paternal love for his son nourishes
a desire that everyone worships
the dead father, who was revered,
and with him the wicked one took shelter.
And so it happened, according to my story,
with the handsome, the powerful King
who was the father of the valued boy,
a quick and brave and astute son.
Paternal love for the child nourishes
a desire that everyone worship the father
along with the son, who was revered,
and so the wicked took solace in him.
With great obeisance the child proclaims King,
and holds immunity so close, to the point
that no one dare go to where the deceased
person is, for fear of giving offense.
He swears upon his death and blazes,
to give everything to his kingdom,
if his father is not given the respect
as if he were God’s object of the object. [???]
To the child it seemed to be of such importance
that sacrifices were ordered to honor him,
across the empire, in full arrogance,
all were to fall on their knees and worship him,
and the entire kingdom as such
was to come and God worship him,
showing to the King their respects for him,
and worshipping him as the eternal God.
And so they came to him in different languages,
Bello, Bel, Bahalim — they spoke to him as God,
and the people of Judea, with their people,
worshipped him as God and knew
others as they were related to him.
The people of Ba’al-peor had great respects for him,
they they gave to other the name of Baal-zebub,[7]
a name that was renowned and and sweet on the tongue.
Throughout Syria, the Child-King became the object
of worship, adored as a God with veneration
by people who left the straight and narrow
path of the perfect God for the imperfect.
In various tongues, many the most perfect,
they followed him as a circumspect cult [?]
in madness, error and in blunder,
he was worshipped as if he were a divine God.
And so it came about that Nosor[8] hit a snag
being the one who was before referred to,
and going against his inclination he took the risk
that it would be better to complete
what had been first conceived in evil,
and he ordered that this portrait
be worshiped and respected as God himself.
In exaltation, the crescent of a fire
was built that was forty-nine cubits high,
and the man who was not to worship
the God on his knees was then threatened.
And in imitating this false idol, the heart
was poisoned by the blind man’s ambition
to become the supreme emperor,
the tyrant and god-like Roman king. [??]
And thus, the humble creature
who considers himself worthy
to be worshipped as if he were a God
is nothing but garbage, it being against
God’s will to desire to be worshipped.
And he will will be given the sepulcher
that I have above here described.
And the Indian and Spanish will get
another song, which I cannot continue in this one.
***
[1] Ruy Gómez de Silva, prince of Eboli, and maternal grandfather of Manuel Domingo Francsico de Paula Pérez, to whom La Florida was dedicated. Gómez’ wife was Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda, who was also lover of the King and the King’s secretary.
[2] Juan Garino: possibly a Spanish hermit, under Philip II??
[3] John 6-7; next to the “water from stone reference,” amarginal notes reads Num. 22,” although this passage actually refers to Balaam.
[4] Note: Is this the point of the story? That one funds sins?
[5] Reference to Numbers 25. Extended reference to this chapter.
[6] Written in margin, Corinthians 6.
[7] Beezlebub, God of Ecron (2 Kings 1:4).
[8] [See story of Nebucanezer [?] spelling in Daniel.