Philip was walking in the inner garden of San Lorenzo when he heard the gardener declaring that after so much work done to train the pear trees on the south wall, God simply could not allow the promised fruit to be blighted. Philip called to him in a sterner tone than he commonly used among his monks. ‘Brother Nicholas! Brother Nicholas, mind what you say! It is impiety, and almost blasphemy, to presume to know the will of God. It comes from the sin of pride. Even kings, brother Nicholas,’ he went on more gently, ‘must submit to being used by God’s will without knowing what it is. They must never seek to use it.’

Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish A…, loc. 884