Juan de Rojas y Ausa

(Buenache de Alarcón, Cuenca, 1620 - León, Nicaragua, c. 1685)

To date very little has been published on the Mercedarian priest, fray Juan de Rojas y Ausa (1622-1685). While we have a few articles on him by Miguel Herrero García, Santiago Sebastián, Catherine Swietlicki, Germán García and Elías Gómez, only part of his production, and in particular the Representaciones de la Verdad Vestida, has merited but a cursory mention by scholars of spiritual or emblematic literature such as Elías Gómez, León Tajuelo, Emilio Orozco, Eulogio de la Virgen del Carmen, Isaías Rodríguez, Rafael García Mahíques, Evangelina Rodríguez, Aurora Egido, Melquíades Andrés, Fernando R. de la Flor, Emilio Blanco or Giuseppina Ledda. Diego González Ruiz, to whom we are indebted for a great deal of the information that we offer here, is finishing a doctoral thesis on this author, which will doubtless become the authoritative word on the life and works of Rojas y Ausa. It is quite curious that the Representaciones de la Verdad Vestida – which contains, among other things, an extensive “plastic exegesis” of Saint Teresa’s Moradas and which was published on the occasion of the first centenary of the initial printing (1577-1677) of the Castillo interior – has not captured the attention of critics interested in Spanish mysticism. As for the life of Juan de Rojas, very few first-hand biographical accounts exist. Fortunately, copies of all of his published works have survived, although a critical review of his extensive production of sermons in manuscript remains to be undertaken. An updated bibliography on this author can be found on the web at www.studiolum.com/en/biblio.htm, by entering into the database the search word “rojas”.

Biographical Information

There is unanimous agreement on the place of birth of Juan de Rojas: Buenache de Alarcón, in the Cuenca diocese, around the year 1622. His parents were Domingo de Alvarado de Rojas and Josefa Auza (or Ausa). He joined the Mercedarian order in Cuenca and professed in Toledo. It was there, in the Order’s convent, that he studied philosophy and theology. He finished his theological studies at the University of Salamanca from 1641-1643 and was ordained a priest in 1644.

Between 1644-1645 he was a Lector at the Mercedarian College of Vera Cruz de Salamanca. He spent several years in Toledo and Valladolid, teaching philosophy, until 1654, when he returned to Salamanca again as Lector in its University for the academic years (1654-1655). He continued as a schoolteacher (Maestro) in Guadalajara. At that point we believe that there was a parenthesis – or perhaps even a retirement from – his pedagogical and scholarly activities, since he seems to have disappeared from the classroom only to resurface in the governance of convents in the capacity of “Comendador”, dedicating himself at the same time to his abundant work as a preacher and proponent of the spiritual movement called “School of Christ” [Escuela de Cristo]. Beginning in 1657, after his brief stay in Salamanca and his stint as teacher in Guadalajara, fray Juan was in charge of the Convent of Cuenca.

In 1665 we find the preacher (with some of his works already published), “Presentado” in Sacred Theology and “Chair of Justice”, [according to the Diccionario de Autoridades, “presentado” refers to the “Título que se da en algunas Religiones al Theólogo, que  ha seguido su carrera, y acabadas sus lecturas está esperando el  grado de Maestro” (title given in some religions to the theologian who has pursued his career, and who has completed his readings and is awaiting the degree of Master)]. At the same time he was “Comendador” of the Convent of Segovia, although he had already held this same position twice in the Convent of Cuenca. It would be in Segovia, in the cathedral itself, where Rojas would undertake the founding of the local Escuela de Cristo and where he would begin to publish some of his sermons, compiled later, in part, in the Oratoria Sagrada Complutense y Quaresma Complutense. Rojas was well aware of having retarded his development as a writer by dedicating so much effort to sacred oratory, in his own words, to the “study of preaching, to which I have dedicated so many years” (“Prologue” to the Catecismo Real, 1672).

Rojas probably spent very little time as “Comendador” of the convent of Segovia, where he had not yet received the degree of “Maestro”, since in 1670, when his work La Verdad Vestida appeared, the title-page of his book states that “ha sido [comendador] de los Conventos de Cuenca, Segovia y Madrid” [“he has been (comendador) of the Convents of Cuenca, Segovia and Madrid”], and the degree of “Maestro” has been conferred on him. With his departure from Segovia, Rojas was to some extent relieved of his labors in the pulpit, and that allowed him to concentrate on the production of other genres. His Relox con despertador (1668) came out shortly thereafter, the first fruit of his stay in the capital. He would not abandon Madrid until he set sail for America from Seville in April of 1683.

In order to place Rojas in his proper context, it is important to mention the personal and literary admiration he professed for Bishop D. Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, and the acknowledged stylistic influences that the latter had on the Mercedarian. It appears to have been proven that both men were adherents of the Escuela de Cristo spiritual movement. And both were fervent defenders of Saint Teresa in “tiempos recios” [hard times]. As early as 1670 in the prologue dedicated to “The studious and Christian Reader” of the Verdad Vestida, in order to justify the license taken in the narrative allegorization, he sought support by invoking Palafox. And in his dedication “To the pious reader” of the Compás de Perfectos (1681) he would also base his “African style” on the model of the Varón de Deseos of Juan de Palafox, and confess that the said style was the one best suited to his own talents.

Rojas y Ausa most likely headed the Madrid convent, in his first assignment, from the end of 1666 until 1669. It appears that by 1674, he had still not been entrusted his second assignment, since in that year his presence was recorded as a simple man of the cloth accompanying the Order’s Superior (Maestro General) in one of the examinations and identifications of the cadaver of the Mercedarian theologian and ascetic fray Juan Falcón, who died in 1638, in the wake of rumors that the corpse had been robbed in order to carve it up in numerous relics: Rojas signed the official document of identification of the cadaver, dated November 23rd, 1674.

In 1679 we find Rojas exercising his second assignment fulfilling his duties as “synodal examiner” for the Toledo Archbishopric y “definidor” of his Order (a member who composes a chapter or assembly to govern the order). In 1681 he appears again as a simple priest, preparing the edition of his La Torre de David con el Relox de la Muerte. Shortly thereafter he was nominated to be a Bishop. According to fray Pedro Nolasco Pérez, in June of 1682, Fray Juan de Rojas was proposed to king Charles II by the Council of the Indies to be Bishop of León, the Episcopal see of Nicaragua. Although his name was last on the shortlist of three finalists, he was accepted and chosen by the monarch. After his election as Bishop, at the age of 61 by Pope Innocent XI on March 8th 1683, he was probably ordained that same year in the Cathedral of León in Nicaragua (cf. Pedro Nolasco Pérez, Los obispos de la Orden de la Merced en América. Santiago de Chile, 1927, pp. 262 et seq.).

His stay in America and disastrous end are summarized by Pérez: “He governed his diocese a few months longer than two years, since he was granted a license to travel to America on April 10th, 1683 aboard the ship Santísima Trinidad, and he died rather suddenly on November 25th, 1685 in the town of S. Pedro de Metapa, during the course of a pastoral visit, and due to a mortal accident caused by having walked a long distance at a very quick pace in order to avoid being taken prisoner by some English pirates who had invaded that province” (ibid.). The diocese was virtually destroyed, according to the documentation provided by Oviedo, who narrates the final moments of Rojas in a letter dated February 9th,  1685 that was addressed to Charles II by the Archbishop of Guatemala and Rojas’s predecessor in Nicaragua, his fellow Mercedarian Fr. Andrés Navas: “he passed away on the 25th of November of the year past, 1685, fleeing from the enemy pirates, in the town of S. Pedro de Metapa, thirty leagues from León, in a humble straw hut, and he died without the succor of the holy sacraments” (cf Carlos Oviedo Cavada, Los Obispos Mercedarios, Santiago de Chile: Ed. Salesianos, 1981, pp. 191-193). Bishop Rojas was buried in his cathedral in León, Nicaragua.

Works

Fray Juan de Rojas did not begin to publish until a relatively advanced age, coinciding with his definitive establishment in the Mercedarian convent in Madrid. His first work, not counting his first published sermon (1665), appeared in 1668. It is the Relox con despertador. Rojas was 46 years old. His last publications are dated 1683, consisting of the second printing of Compás de Perfectos (1683) and La Torre de David, con el Relox de la Muerte (1683), where he incorporates the first edition of his Relox. He was then 61 and the Bishop elect of Nicaragua.

Rojas cultivated practically all of the genres dedicated to spiritual literature: sacred oratory, catechism, political history or the treatise on the “education of princes”, hagiography, religious poetry – with an ascetic-mystical orientation –, not to mention his dimension as an emblematist. We will review here his production, grouping his works according to their type. Complete titles and other bibliographical information can be found at the end of this entry.

The published sermonistic corpus produced by Rojas consists of three sermons: Bona Lucina Maria Virgo, Homo exterior Christum in Eucharistia sumens and Manu Diaboli, also known as El Demonio mudo. In this last work, Rojas structures the body of the discourse in five sections, corresponding to the five fingers (quinque digiti), each one of which covers the mouth of the sinner so that he will not confess his culpabilities, and thus preventing him from achieving grace. The device of the hand is well-known in the arts of memory: Primus digitus est pudor (directed at ladies and modest maidens, principally); Secundus digitus est timor (“rustic, ignorant, pusillanimous subjects, of limited capability”); Tertius digitus est: amor ad peccatum (“[the devil] uses this finger with all worldly sinners, lovers of the beauty that they adore, of the ill-gotten goods that they possess, and of the delights, that are pursued by… lovers, misers, the sensual, the carnal…”); Quartus digitus est vanagloria (“with this finger he closes the mouth of hypocrites…” y Quintus digitus est consuetudo mala (“with this infernal finger he shuts the mouth of obstinate subjects  who are hardened in culpability… the habit of sinning turned their vices into second nature…”). In this book anagrams, emblems, sentences, hieroglyphs, exempla, a brief poem… everything, in short, is structured around the techniques of artificial memory.

In addition to the three sermons documented above, Hardá-Arqués y Jover references many others: “et alia hujusmodi concionatoria. Compluti in lucem prodie […] anno 1665 et in aliis temporibus varie, et sparsim reproducta sunt”. Garí points out that Rojas left many sermons in manuscript form: “dejó muchos sermones MS [manuscritos]” (cf. our Bibliography at www.studiolum.com/en/biblio.htm).

An eminently catechestic work is that made up of two thick volumes (more than 900 pages in 40), with the title of Cadena de ejemplos, where Rojas offers a scrupulous explication of Christian doctrine: dogma, sacraments, traditions and liturgy. All of this is based on examples, miracles and ecclesiastical declarations, with four intentions clearly defined by the author himself: “glorious adornment of the Faithful, confusion of the Infidels, inspiration for the Just, and a warning for Sinners”.

Juan de Rojas dedicated two volumes to political history. The Mercedarian’s original intent was to dedicate his Catecismo Real y Alfabeto Coronado to the young king Charles II, but in the end he dedicated it to his teacher D. Francisco Ramos del Manzano. To his bibliographical description of the work Nicolás Antonio added the comment “sive de Regibus virtute praestantibus”. Thus, our author was trying his hand at a treatise on “the education of princes”. His censor and fellow countryman, the Jesuit Diego J. de Tebar,  saw it the same way, when he wrote: “I have seen this book… which is the same thing as giving to the world a Prince perfectly instructed for his success”. It seems that this book was a decisive consideration in the bestowing of his future bishopric.

Another area cultivated by Fray Juan is that of the “lives of saints”. He dedicated more than 500 pages, in 4º, to the life of his admired superior Fray Juan Falconi, the Mercedarian mystic who died in 1638. It is El Candelero del Templo..., Madrid, 1674. In the opinion of the censor, Rojas established in this book a new hagiographic method, a “new school of writing the lives of men illustrious in virtue”, but the work is flawed by an undeniable excess of amplification.

The majority of the works produced by Rojas are in the realm of ascetic and mystical literature. A very early work (1668) is his little book Relox con despertador. In spite of the fact that the Relox appears in all bibliographical repertories beginning with Nicolás Antonio, we have been unable to consult or locate a copy of the first two printings. The text appears “corrected and augmented” in the volume La Torre de David con el Relox de la muerte (Madrid, 1683). Curiously, it seems that the book was already very hard to find in the author’s lifetime, since he relates in his Prologue to the Reader of this latter work that “the book was so short, and it has been so widely used, that in spite of having been issued in two abundant printings, it can no longer be found, even by those who look for it with great diligence: in the first place, because they sold out of it in the Bookstores; and in the second place, because those who purchased it, treating it like their own jewel, have it stashed away, and hidden in their pockets, to make certain that it is theirs alone… What happens to this little book is the same as what occurs to watches and small clocks, that are hidden away and of service only to their owners …”. Cardinal Fray Pedro de Salazar (1630-1706) in his censure places the work on the same level as the Reloj de Príncipes by Fray Antonio de Guevara. As we have said, it was republished as part of one single work with La Torre de David: a volume of 337 pages in 8º where, in the face of death, Desengaño [Disillusionment] unmasks Engaño [Deceit].

In the Compás de Perfectos (Madrid 1681 and 1683), a volume of 546 pages in 4º, “its Author regulates himself according to all the laws of an Ascetic Writer” according to the censor. His words are endowed with “sweet colors” in their exhortation towards the path of Christian perfection, sowing “so many flowers in metric consonances” so that the thorns inherent on such a journey do not impede it. The harmonizing quest for combining the “sweet  and useful” is an explicit constant in the work of our Mercedarian.

This aspect was also detected by Nicolás Antonio with reference to the more interesting Verdad Vestida (Madrid, 1670): “jucunditate simul & utilitate conditum opus juxta illud Horatii Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci”. We find ourselves now facing the first and second stages of an allegorical journing in the course of which the pugna animi unfolds by means of the labyrinths of the World, Flesh and Devil, the exits to which can only be found by following the paths of the Virtues. This work earned Rojas the title of “new Mercury of the Church and our religion”, thanks to the wise mastery with which he directs the pilgrim, in the opinion of the censor Morales, towards the Mount of perfection. Rojas’s purpose is clear. He hoped that even the most austere reader, beneath the diversions provided by such a spiritual farce, “would find grave considerations”, and to that end, as the aformentioned censor discovered, he followed the advice of Gracián in his Agudeza y arte de ingenio, where at the insistence of Agudeza (Wit) “Truth opened her eyes, she began from then on to walk with artifice, to make use of inventions, to itroduce herself with circumlocutions…” (Discurso LV, “De la agudeza compuesta, fingida en común”).

La Verdad Vestida contains the first and second (ascetic) parts of a trilogy of more than 900 pages in 4º that is crowned with the Representaciones de la Verdad Vestida (Madrid, 1677 and 1679 – the second printing adds four tables or indices: Tabla de las moradas, representaciones y capítulos deste libro; Tabla de las poesías, y versos sacros deste libro; Tabla de las cosas notables, contenidas en este libro and Tabla de las obras impressas del Avtor de este libro, que se escriue por si quisieren sus devotos tenerlas todas –). The somewhat boastful dedication of the 1679 edition, to D. Fray Juan Assensio, Bishop of Ávila, refers to the reprinting of books in general, and in particular of his Representaciones, using the analogy of the phoenix:

De esta excelencia tan notoria, puede blasonar éste [libro] mío, pues aun no aviendo llegado a decrépito, en poco más de vn año, se ha visto dos vezes en las entrañas de la prensa su madre, y repite su oriente segundo, para gozar los aplausos que ha logrado en el primero [...]. Dióle alma mi entendimiento; cuerpo, el molde, y de las entrañas de éste, renace, emulando

In the Representaciones de la Verdad Vestida, the culmination of the mystical peregrinatio, the seven Mansions or Moradas of Saint Teresa are visited. In anticipating the reader’s doubt as to why he based his book on the Moradas, Rojas protests that on matters of mystical theology, “me hallo con poca, o ninguna experiencia” [n. p.] Rojas undertakes for the first time, although not in any systematic way, the comparative study of the doctrines of Saint Teresa and the “doctrinas y versos sacros” of the Noche obscura by Saint John of the Cross (San Juan de la Cruz). A true labor of confrontation, the concordance was also underscored by the Carmelite censor Fray Lucas de la Concepción: “A lucid work… fitting some stones to others, comparing doctrine to doctrine, and spiritual teaching to teaching, combining together the teachings of these two mystical Writers; an effort fully worthy of all praise and estimation”.

Poetic texts run throughout a considerable part of the Representaciones. Rojas reveals himself to be a notable mystic poet, as Miguel Herrero has observed. Although he never published a book dedicated solely to verse, he mastered a great number of meters that covered a broad spectrum of stanzaic forms (tercerillas, redondillas, quintillas, sextillas, octavas reales, romances, sonetos, décimas, ovillejos, liras, etc.). His mastery of these forms was not merely technical.

The 511 paginated pages of the 1679 text are accompanied by 16 complex and highly original emblematic copperplate engravings: 1 on the title-page and 15 others that Miguel Herrero characterizes as a “plastic exegesis” of Saint Teresa’s Moradas. There are two emblem plates for each morada and three for the seventh. The intent of these illustrations is made explicit on the title-page. The Representations are: “Ilustradas con versos sacros, varios jeroglíficos, emblemas, y empresas, para mayor inteligencia de la Doctrina de la Seráfica Doctora” [n. p.]. The emblematic illustration at the beginning of the work portrays Saint Teresa to the right, wearing a habit and with her head surrounded by a halo. In her left hand she holds a book [her Moradas?], and with her right hand she points to the left at an immense tower or castle, divided into seven mansions or moradas, each with its symbols in varying sizes (suns, birds, serpents, etc.), culminating at the top in God’s Glory. Each one of the moradas is also accompanied by a biblical quote in Latin. The remaining emblems are quite complex in their structure, with numerous motifs in juxtaposition. Although many of these motifs are taken from the natural world, Rojas also likes to depict abstractions, especially Prayer as a young girl. The mottoes are all biblical, with most coming from the Old Testament (Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job, Song of Songs), but the New Testament is also represented (Luke, Paul, Matthew).

Bishop Díez de Aux in the aprobación (s.p.) of La Torre de David provides us with a summary of all of Rojas’s activity as a writer, from the Relox con Despertador (the first version), up to La Torre de David con el Relox de la muerte (the last work and a prelude to the death of Rojas himself, which would befall him a short time later), as if his entire production was one single work:

He brought out first to the public gaze the Relox Despertador, in order to awaken the sleeping to virtue; he continued with the Candelero de el Templo, in order to enlighten them, once they were awake [and walking down the path of that peregrinatio initiated in the two stages of La Verdad Vestida passing through the labyrinths of the World, the Devil and the Flesh, we may add] he proposed and wrote two volumes of exempla [he is referring to the Cadena de Exemplos], in order to incite them to follow the path of perfection; he then pointed out dwellings (moradas) where the soul could live and inhabit… and now he places before us the Tower,  where the soul can be safe, since the Tower of David, is founded on Mount Zion… Whoever should read this Torre, and sees the disillusionments it teaches, the illustrations that it proposes, the doctrines that it writes, the defenses that it prepares, and the means of which it warns, will be enlightened by Heaven and defended from the world.

Relation and Description of the Works of Juan de Rojas

• Oración Evangélica, y Discursos Panegíricos, en la Solemne Fiesta de María Santíssima, día de la piadosa Visitación a su prima Santa Isabel. Descubierto el Santíssimo Sacramento. Glorias desta Soberana Reina de los Angeles, en su milagrosa Imagen del Buen Alumbramiento, publicadas en esta solemnidad, por las Nobilísimas señoras de la Ciudad de Segovia, sus esclavas, en el Convento de N. S. de la Merced Redención de Cautivos.Imprímela el P. Fr. Ioseph de Alentor, devoto cordialíssimo desta Sagrada Imagen y hijo afectuosíssimo deste Convento; y la dedica a N. Reveredis. P.M. Fr. Ioseph Sanchís, señor de las Baronías de Algar, y Escales, en el Reyno de Valencia, Maestro General de dicho Orden, y Calificador de la Suprema Inquisición. Predicóla El R. P. F. Iuan de Roxas, Presentado en Santa Theología, y Comendador que ha sido dos vezes del Convento de Cuenca, y aora deste de Segovia del mismo Orden: dia 2 de Iulio deste año de 1665. Con Licencia en Madrid. Por Diego Díaz de la Carrera, año de 1665.

Description: [8], 16 h.; 4º.

Hardá refers to this sermon with the name Bona Lucina Maria Virgo.

• La Torre de David, con el Relox de la Muerte, invectivas de el desengaño, contra el engaño de la humana vida, poniéndole a la vista la última hora. Año 1683. Compuesta por el Ilustríssimo, y Reverendíssimo señor D. Fr. Iuan de Roxas y Auxa, Obispo electo de Nicaragua, del Consejo de su Magestad, del Real Orden de N. S. de la Merced, Redempción de Cautivos, natural de la Villa de Buenache de Alarcón, Comendador que fue de Cuenca, de Segovia, y dos vezes de Madrid, Difinidor General por su Provincia de Castilla, y Examinador Synodal del Obispado de Cuenca, y Arzobispado de Toledo. Que la consagra, y dedica al mayor aprovechamiento espiritual, y bien de las almas, que desea logren todos los que la leyeren. Con Privilegio: En Madrid. Por Julián de Paredes, véndese en su casa en la Plaçuela del Angel.

Description: [16], 337, [1] p.; 8º.

Although this book by Rojas is the final one published (1683), it occupies first place in the list of works by the author, since included in it, from page 221 to 321, is the work titled Relox con despertador, mostrador Christiano de avisos, y desengaños (en lo que más importa) para el alma. In addition, it has a title-page (p. 221) with the following title: “El Relox de la muerte, despertador, y mostrador christiano de avisos, y desengaños para salvarse las almas. Año 1683. Madrid, Por Iulián de Paredes”, and a note indicates: “It is now published augmented, corrected (by its Author) and improved in this third printing, following those done in Madrid, and Zaragoça”. At the end of the volume are the censures and approbations of the 1668 edetion (pp. 323-337). As we have already mentioned, in spite of the fact that the Relox appears in all bibliographical repertories from Nicolás Antonio on, we have not seen nor located any copies of the first two printings, Rojas himself, in the tables of works that accompany his Representaciones and Compás, tells us the respective places and dates of the printings of his first work: “Impresso en Madrid año de 1668 y en Zaragoça este mismo año, por Tomás Cabeças, Mercader de libros. [y] Madrid, a costa de Antonio de Ribero, mercader de libros, 1668, y en Zaragoza, en el mismo año.”

• La Verdad Vestida. Laberintos de Mundo, Carne, y Demonio, por donde anda el hombre perdido por el pecado, hasta que le saca la Penitencia. Caminos Opuestos que le enseñan las Virtudes, por quien deve caminar, si no quiere bolverse a perder. Primera y Segunda Parte. Trátase en este Libro de algunos especiales días de concurso que tiene esta Corte, como son el del Sotillo, San Blas, y Ángel. Y en la segunda parte se satisface a las dudas que pueden quedar de la primera. Puede ser muy útil a los que predican. Compuesto por el M. Fr. Iuan de Roxas, Comendador que ha sido de los Conventos de Cuenca, Segovia, y Madrid, en el Orden de N. S. de la Merced, Redención de Cautivos. Dedícalo al Muy Noble, y Muy Ilustre Señor D. Francisco Ruiz de Vergara y Álava, Cavallero del Ábito de Santiago del Consejo de su Magestad en el Real de Castilla, y Santa, y general Inquisición. Con Privilegio. En Madrid: Por Bernardo de VillaDiego, Año de M.DC.LXX. A costa de la viuda de Iuan de Valdés.Véndese en su casa enfrente del Colegio de Santo Thomás.

Description: [40], 401[i.e.403], [13]; 4º.

It appears that this work was never actually printed in France nor in Italy, although Rojas insinuates it (“dizen”) in the table of printed works that he added to the second printing of the Representaciones, and Placer does not refute it. Rojas himself in the last table (Compás) no longer mentions these rumors.

• «El Hombre exterior comulgando. Para el Domingo Infraoctavo de la Solemnidad del Corpus. Hecho Por El Rmo. P. M. Fr. Iuan de Roxas, de el Real Orden de N. Señora de la Merced Redempción de Cautivos, Comendador que ha sido de los Conventos, Cuenca, Segovia, y Madrid» en Oratoria Sagrada Complutense. Ilustrada con todos los adornos, y colores de humana, y divina eloquencia, compuesta por sus más doctos, y eruditos oradores en varios sermones evangélicos. Alcalá, por Francisco García Fernández y a su costa. 1671. pp. 228-256. This is sermon number XII.

Description: [12], 434, [34], 4º

It is the work with the title Homo exterior Christum in Eucharistia sumens, in Hardá-Arqués y Jover. In Garí it appears as El hombre exterior comulgado.

• Catecismo Real, y Alfabeto Coronado, Historial, Político y Moral.Para leer dichos, y hechos de Reyes, y aprender escarmientos y virtudes en todas edades. Tomo Primero. Haze (en varias partes) memoria de Don Felipe Quarto, El Grande, Rey de las Españas, con algunas observaciones de las felicidades que pueden esperarse en el Reynado de su Augusto hijo, y Sucesor Don Carlos Segundo. Escrívele el Maestro Fr. Iuan de Roxas, Comendador que ha sido de los Conventos de Cuenca, Segovia, y Madrid, del Real, y Militar Orden de N. S. de la Merced, Redempción de Cautivos. Y le dedica al Muy Noble, y Muy Ilustre Señor Don Francisco Ramos del Mançano, Maestro de su Magestad, de su Consejo Real, y Cámara de Castilla, etc. Puede ser muy útil para los que predican, especialmente en las Capillas Reales, y lleva tablas necessarias al fin, y al principio. Con Privilegio. En Madrid: Por Andrés García.1672: A costa de Francisco Serrano de Figueroa, Familiar, y Notario del Santo Oficio, Mercader de Libros, en la Calle Mayor.

Description: [32], 358, [i.e. 360], [48] p.; 4º

• Catecismo Real, y Alfabeto Coronado, Historial, Político y Moral.Para leer dichos, y hechos de Reyes, y aprender escarmientos y virtudes en todas edades. Tomo Segundo. Haze (en varias partes) memoria de Don Felipe Quarto, El Grande, Rey de las Españas, con algunas observaciones de las felicidades que pueden esperarse en el Reynado de su Augusto hijo, y Sucesor Don Carlos Segundo. Escrívele el Maestro Fr. Iuan de Roxas, Comendador que ha sido de los Conventos de Cuenca, Segovia, y Madrid, del Real, y Militar Orden de N. S. de la Merced, Redempción de Cautivos. Y le dedica al Muy Noble, y Muy Ilustre Señor Don Francisco Ramos del Mançano, Maestro de su Magestad, de su Consejo Real, y Cámara de Castilla, etc. Puede ser muy útil para los que predican, especialmente en las Capillas Reales, y lleva tablas necessarias al fin, y al principio. Con Privilegio. En Madrid: Por Andrés García.1672: A costa de Francisco Serrano de Figueroa, Familiar, y Notario del Santo Ofici, Mercader de Libros, en la Calle Mayor.

Description: [20], 360, [48] p.; 4º

• «Sermón Dézimo. Para la Dominica Tercera de Quaresma. El Demonio Mudo. Del M. R. P. M. Fr. Iuan de Roxas, predicole en el Convento de N. S. de la Merçed, Redención de Cautivos, de Madrid, donde fue Comendador.» en Quaresma Complutense, que contiene todas sus dominicas, ferias principales y Semana Santa, en morales, eloquentes y sentenciosos sermones, en que hallará el predicador evangélico christiana, piadosa y cathólica enseñanza para la corrección de las costumbres, escrita por sus más doctos y sabios oradores, en Alcalá, en la imprenta de la Universidad, a costa de Francisco García Fernández, mercader de libros, véndese en su casa, Segunda impressión, 1677. Págs.173-194.

Description: [12] 518, [30] p.; 4º.

This sermon appears in the two tables of works by Rojas with the title La Mano del Demonio. Hardá-Arqués y Jover cites it as Manu Diaboli, and Garí translates the title as La mano del demonio. The text of Quaresma that contains it gives it the title El Demonio mudo.

• El Candelero del Templo sombra con luzes de la vida ecstática, obras, y virtudes heroicas, del Venerable Padre Presentado Fr. Iuan Falconi, Siervo de Dios, del Real Orden de N. S. de la Merced, Redempción de Cautivos. Guía de almas en la Corte de los Reyes Católicos. Compuesto por el Maestro Fray Iuan de Roxas, indigno hijo, y Religioso del mismo Orden, Comendador que ha sido de los Conventos de Cuenca, Segovia, y Madrid. Dedicado a la Excelentíssima Señora D. Mariana Engracia de Toledo y Portugal, Marquesa de los Vélez, y Aya del Rey nuestro señor Don Carlos Segundo. Año de 1674. Con Privilegio: En Madrid: Por Andrés García de la Iglesia. A costa de Gabriel de León, Mercader de Libros. Véndese en su casa en la Puerta del Sol.

Description: [40], 500, [36] p.; [1] h. de grabado; 4º.

• Cadena de Exemplos y Milagros, Créditos de Nuestra Santa Fe Católica. Labrada, y esmaltada con una Explicación de la Doctrina Christiana, y Declaración de los Misterios sobrenaturales, Sacramentos Divinos, laudables Costumbres, y venerables Ceremonias de la Iglesia. Lleva por remate su celestial joya, que es María Santíssima, guarnecida de las Piedras preciosas Mercenarias, para glorioso adorno de los Fieles, confusión de los Infieles, aliento de Iustos, y escarmiento de Pecadores. Por El Padre Maestro Fray Iuan de Roxas, Comendador que ha sido de los Conventos de Cuenca, Segovia, y Madrid, en el Real, Militar Orden de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Redención de Cautivos. Tomo Primero. Dedicado. Al muy noble, y muy ilustre señor Don Pedro Ruiz de Alarcón Rodriguez de Ledesma y Guzmán, Marqués de Palacios, etc. Con privilegio. En Madrid, por Roque Rico de Miranda, Año de M.DC.LXXV. A costa de Iuan de Triviño, Mercader de Libros.Véndese en su casa, en la Puerta del Sol.

Description: [36], 433 [i.e. 435], [32] p.; 4º.

• Cadena de Exemplos y Milagros, créditos de nuestra santa Fe Católica, Labrada, y esmaltada con una explicación de la Doctrina Christiana, y declaración de los Myterios sobrenaturales, Sacramentos divinos, laudables costumbres, y venerables ceremonias de la Iglesia Católica. Lleva por remate su celestial joya, que es María Santíssima, guarnecida de las Piedras preciosas Mercenarias, para glorioso adorno de los Fieles, Confusión de los Infieles, aliento de Iustos, y escarmiento de pecadores. Tomo Segundo. Dedicado A la Exma. Señora D. Blanca Alvarez de Toledo, Marquesa de Palacios, etc. Señora de Higares, y de la Villa de Buenache, de donde es natural el Autor. Por el Padre Maestro Fray Iuan de Roxas, Comendador que ha sido de los Conventos de Cuenca, Segovia, y Madrid, en el Real, y Militar Orden de N. Señora de la Merced, Redención de Cautivos. En Madrid. A costa de Iuan de Triviño, Mercader de Libros. Véndese en su casa en la Puerta del Sol.

Description: [16], 469, [18] p.; 4º

We are unable to confirm the date and printer of the second volume, since the only available copy we have at our disposition, due to deterioration, is illegible for these data. The preliminary materials are from 1676. Placer's catalogue entry asserts the date as 1676 and the printer as Antonio González de Reyes. Valencia's catalogue entry attributes the printing of the first volume to Roque Rico de Miranda, without providing a date of publication.

• Representaciones de la Verdad Vestida, Místicas, Morales, y Alegóricas, sobre las Siete Moradas de Santa Teresa de Iesús, Reformadora del Carmen y Maestra de la Primitiva Observancia. Careadas con la Noche Obscura del B. P. S. Iuan de la Cruz, primer Carmelita Descalzo, manifestando la consonancia, que estas dos celestiales plumas guardaron al enseñar a las almas el camino del Cielo. Ilustradas con versos sacros, varios geroglíficos, emblemas, y Empresas, estampadas para mayor inteligencia de la Doctrina de la Seráfica Doctora. Compuestas. Por el M. R. P. M. Fr. Iuan de Roxas, Comendador que ha sido de los Conventos de Cuenca, Segovia, y Madrid, en el Real, y Militar Orden de nuestra Señora de la Merced, Redención de Cautivos. Y dedicadas A la Excelentíssima Señora Doña Mariana Iosepha de Cárdenas, y Chaves, etc. Con Tres Tablas a lo último, una de los Capítulos, otra de los Versos, y otra de las cosas Notables. Con Privilegio. En Madrid: Por Antonio Gonçález de Reyes. Año de 1677.

Description: [24], 512, [24] p.; illustrated; 4º.

• Representaciones de La Verdad Vestida, Místicas, Morales, y Alegóricas, sobre las Siete Moradas de Santa Teresa de Jesús, Gloria del Carmelo, y Maestra de la Primitiva Observancia. Careadas con la Noche Obscura del B. P. Fray Juan de la Cruz, primer Carmelita Descalço manifestando la consonancia, que estas dos celestiales plumas guardaron al enseñar a las almas el camino del Cielo. Ilustradas con Versos Sacros, varios Geroglíficos, Emblemas, y Empresas, estampadas para mayor inteligencia de la Doctrina de la Seráfica Doctora. Compuestas, Por el M. R. P. M. Fr. Juan de Rojas y Ausa, Comendador que fue dos vezes del Convento de Cuenca, y Examinador Sinodal de su Obispado: una del de Segovia, y aora segunda vez del de Madrid, y Difinidor General por su Provincia de Castilla, del Real, y Militar Orden de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Redención de Cautivos, Natural de la Villa de Buenache de Alarcón. Y Dedicadas Al Ilustríssimo y Reverendíssimo Señor D. F. Juan Assensio, Obispo antes de Lugo, aora de Ávila, del Consejo de su Magestad, General que fue del dicho Orden, etc. Segunda Impressión. Con quatro Tablas a lo último, una de los Capítulos, otra de los Versos, y otra de las Cosas Notables, y otra de las obras impressas del Autor. Con Privilegio. En Madrid. Por Antonio Gonçález de Reyes. Año de 1679. A costa de Gabriel de León, Mercader de libros.Véndese en su casa en la Puerta del Sol.

Description: [24], 511, [24] p., illustrated, 4º

Some of the changes introduced in the title of the title-page of the second printing are rather curious. Among others: Saint Teresa does not have the title of “Reformadora del Carmen”, but rather simply “Gloria del Carmelo”. And the B. P. San Juan de la Cruz, becomes “B. P. Fray Juan de la Cruz”. Rather significant transformative elements given the polemical mystical theology of those times. Rojas adds a fourth table with his works.

• Sangría Metaphórica. Sermón para la Natividad de nuestra Señora.

Rojas cites the title of this sermon which “is ready to be printed in Alcalá”, in the table of his second edition of the Representaciones, but in the table of his Compás (1683), only the three known sermons by Fray Juan appear, with no mention of the Sangría. We have not been able to locate it and we believe that it remained forever in manuscript, along with “the most select of much that he has preached”.

In addition to Juan de Rojas's sacred speeches left in manuscript to which Garí refers, his sermonistic work in print that we have referenced is limited to the three sermons previously mentioned: Bona Lucina Maria Virgo, Homo exterior Christum in Eucharistia sumens and Manu Diaboli, also known as El Demonio mudo.

• Compás de Perfectos, Christo Crucificado. Medida para compassarse, y medirse (en todos estados) como para salvarse conviene. Compuesto. En Tres Libros, Prologético, Metódico, y Misceláneo, Por el Maestro Fray Iuan de Rojas y Ausa, natural de la Villa de Buenache de Alarcón, Comendador que fue dos veces del Convento de Cuenca, una del de Segovia, y otras dos del de Madrid, y Difinidor General en el Real, y Militar Orden de nuestra Señora de la Merced, Redempción de Cautivos. En el Segundo Libro Metódico (después de las Meditaciones) se ponen los Afectos de Amor, y Agradecimiento, que de ellas saca el alma, escritos en estilo Africano, y en todos tres hallarán los Oradores Evangélicos mucho de que poder aprovecharse en el Púlpito. Dedicado al Ilustríssimo, y Reverendíssimo Señor Don Fray Francisco Domonte, Obispo de Hipona, Auxiliar de Sevilla, del Consejo de su Magestad, del dicho Real Orden. Con tres Tablas. Una al principio de las obras del Autor, y dos a lo último del Libro. Con Privilegio. En Madrid: En la Imprenta de Atanasio Abad. Año de 1681.

Description: [16], 546 [i.e. 544], [14] p.; 4º

• Compás de Perfectos, Christo Crucificado. Medida para compassarse, y medirse (en todos estados) como para salvarse conviene. Compuesto En tres Libros, Prologético, Metódico, y Misceláneo. En el Segundo Libro Metódico (después de las Meditaciones) se ponen los Afectos de Amor, y Agradecimiento, que de ellos saca el alma, escritos en estilo Africano; y en todos tres hallarán los Oradores Evangélicos mucho de que poder aprovecharse en el Púlpito. Con tres Tablas. Una al principio de las Obras del Autor, y dos a lo último del Libro. Por el Ilustmo. y Rmo. Señor Don Fray Iuan de Roxas y Ausa, Obispo Electo de Nicaragua, del Sacro, Militar Orden de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Redempción de Cautivos. Dedicado Al Reverendíssimo Padre Maestro Fr. Thomás de Argüello y Alarcón, Monge de la Sagrada Religión de San Bernardo, Calificador del Consejo de la Santa, y General Inquisición, y Predicador de su Magestad, etc. Con Privilegio. En Madrid: En la Oficina de Melchor Álvarez. Año de 1683. A costa de Iusto Antonio de Logroño, Librero.

Description: [16], 546, [14] p.; 4º

The dedication of this work, to Fray Tomás Argüello, does not belong to Fray Juan de Rojas, but is rather the initiative of Justo Antonio de Logroño, who also bore the costs. Rojas wrote only the Al Pío Lector, with the same text as that found in the 1681 edition. The dedication of this work by Rojas is to Fray Francisco Domonte, Auxillary Bishop of Seville and it appears in the printing of 1681.