In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the Southern Netherlands were an important multilingual printing and translation centre. Thanks to their integration in the Hispanic monarchy, they were a node of exchange in all areas of culture, and specifically were catholic spirituality is concerned. Many Spanish religious writers were translated, not only into the vernacular languages (Dutch, French, and less frequently English), but also into Latin. Starting from four translations of the work of a Spanish Franciscan author, Alonso de Madrid, into Latin, French and Dutch, we try to discover the self-image projected by the authors of the peritexts and to determine how their ethos is related to the target language. When we analyze the dedicatory epistles written by the translators, we find that the position occupied by the translators and their target public in the intellectual and political hierarchy corresponds with a hierarchy of languages and that the choice of a vernacular such as Dutch may cause a reorientation in the translation skopos.