Heretical books could be presented to the Holy Office by denunciations submitted without signature. If the court held that there was ground for prosecution, the charges were formulated and the accused was directed to appear for his defence within eight days from the publication of the summons. The writers and the printers of heretical books appear to have been considered about equally guilty, while the offence of keeping such books for sale (even though ignorance of their contents could be shown) was also a very grave one. In the great majority of cases, the accused allowed judgment to go by default. =The Index and the Book-Trade.=--It is in connection with the _Index Expurgatorius_ of Pope Clement and the _Concordat_ that the history of publishing in Venice comes for the first time into touch with general history. The claim of the Church to the supervision of all publications soon became involved in the larger question of the relation between Venice and Rome. Paolo Sarpi, who became the champion of the cause of the independence of the State against ecclesiastical domination, comes into the history of literature as the upholder of the rights of authors and of publishers against the crushing censorship of the Inquisition. The problem presented to the Venetian Government was: whether the Venetian Press, supported in its liberty by the Government, should continue to maintain its character as the freest Press in Europe (and therefore one with the most active production); or whether it should be permitted, for want of the support of the Government, to fall under the repressive influence of the Inquisition and the _Index_. The earliest instance of a censorial order on the subject of books in Venetian territory, and also in Italy, is the order issued in 1491 by Franco, Bishop of Treviso and Papal Legate. This decree prohibited anyone from printing, or from causing or permitting to be printed, any books treating of the Catholic faith or of matters ecclesiastical, without the express permission of the Bishop or Vicar-General of the diocese. The Legate proceeded at once to name two works, Rosselli’s _Monarchia_ and Mirandola’s _Theses_, which were absolutely prohibited, and all existing copies of which were to be burned in the cathedral or in the parish churches within fifteen days from the publication of the decree.[153] There was no charge that these works were in any way immoral or scandalous. They were condemned simply on the ground of the unsoundness of their doctrine. The contention raised in this order on behalf of the Church was far-reaching. If it were heretical to discuss, in a sense at all hostile to the Curia, the relative powers of the Pope and the Emperor, there would be an implied right in the Church to censure and to condemn any political writings in which the authority of the Pope or the responsibilities of the Emperor were referred to.