The human support which kept him in authority did not enter into his
calculations. The popular notions of the democracies then was that no
physical force could sever the alliance which existed between God and
monarchs; and there is no evidence that Philip was ever disillusioned.
He regarded his adversaries, especially Hawkins and Drake, in the
light of magicians possessed of devilish spirits that were in conflict
with the wishes of the Deity. His highly placed and best naval
officer, Santa Cruz, took a more realistic view than his master,
though he might have had doubts as to whether the people who were at
war with Spain were not a species of devil. But he expressed the view
which even at this distance of time shows him to have been a man of
sane, practical thought. Philip imagined he could agree with the acts
of assassins (and also support the Holy Office) in their policy of
burning English sailors as heretics. Santa Cruz reflected more deeply,
and advised the King that such acts were positively courting disaster,
because "the British corsairs had teeth, and could use them."

Spain looked upon her naval position as impregnable, but Elizabeth's
pirates contemptuously termed it "a Colossus stuffed with clouts."
Priests, crucifixes, and reliance on supernatural assistance had no
meaning for them. If any suggestion to impose on them by such means
had been made, they would have cast the culprits over the side into
the sea. They were peculiarly religious, but would tolerate no saintly
humbugs who lived on superstition. When they had serious work in hand,
they relied on their own mental and physical powers, and if they
failed in their objective, they reverently remarked, "The reason is
best known to God"--a simple, unadorned final phrase.

Some of the sayings and doings, reliable or unreliable, that have been
handed down to us, are extremely comical, looking at them from our