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Nos Hercules et Achilles non sumus, sed imbelles et minime ad bella nati.
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(We are not Hercules or Achilles, but un-warlike and by no means born for war.)
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Antonio de Ferraris (Antonius Galateus, fl. late 15th–early 16th) saw his city of Otranto fall in 1480 to the Turks. In the 1520s, Algeria falls to the famed pirate Redbeard and under the rule of the Turkish sultan. Rhodes follows suit, after centuries of being governed and defended by the Knights of St. John.
Feeling no particular sympathy for the Spanish, De Ferraris nonetheless sees that Italy has very few options left. It is rich and too close to the Turks. It either falls to the Turks - which means slavery and degradation, or it allows itself to be defended by those willing to do so - the Spanish. The peninsula is divided politically and not ready for war.