‘We are bound to give praise to God for all things which He is pleased to do. Now I give thanks to Him for the mercy He has shown. In the storms through which the Armada sailed, it might have suffered a worse fate, and that its ill-fortune was no greater must be credited to the prayers for its good success, so devoutly and continuously offered.’ And he tells the bishops gently that the prayers may be discontinued. No more ships were likely to come home. As early as this, then, the defeat of the Armada began to be ascribed in Spain to the winds of God.

Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish A…, loc. 878