The Edict of Worms of 1521, which committed the Emperor Charles V. to the support of the contentions of the Papacy, and threw the great weight of the Holy Roman Empire against the cause of the Protestant Reformers, marks also an important stage in the history of publishing undertakings in Germany. It announced the beginning of an imperial censorship, a censorship which was confirmed and extended by the Edict of Nuremberg of 1524. The first part of the edict may be summarised as condemning Luther and all his works, while the second, under the head of “regulation of printing” (_Gesetz der Druckerey_), forbids the printing of all writings that have not secured the explicit approval and sanction of the ecclesiastical authorities. In the regions under Lutheran influence, the only effect of the imperial and ecclesiastical prohibition was, as noted, to increase largely the circulation of the writings of the Reformers. In the districts into which the Reform doctrines had only begun to penetrate, the ecclesiastics were able in great part, at least, to stop the further circulation of the pamphlets, by taking prompt and harsh measures against the colporteurs. From this time and until the close of the Thirty Years’ War, Church and State worked together (though not always in harmony) against the freedom of the Press, on the broad ground that such freedom necessarily resulted in heresy and in treason. The first imperial Act in regard to libellous publications appears to have been framed on the assumption that every writing by a Protestant, even if entirely unconnected with theology or with politics, must be libellous. Charles V. had been willing to leave the responsibility for the censorship of the Press in the hands of the Church. During his reign, the printers were busying themselves chiefly with controversial material, and in the effects of this upon the minds of the people the State was interested only indirectly. The Emperor Ferdinand was a more faithful, that is to say, a more bigoted, son of the Church than Charles, but he refused to admit that the control of the Press was a Church matter. He took the ground that censorship was a matter pertaining to the State, that is, to the Crown, and that the Bishops could take part in it only as delegates of the authority of the State. This was the contention asserted and finally secured by Francis I. and his successors in France.