But this wise and liberal law remained valid for only a few years. It was supplanted by legislation conceived in fear of foreign influences that might threaten the traditions of the nation and the accepted ecclesiastical doctrines. The new law, the law of July the eighth, 1502, was issued to prohibit the publication or sale of a book on any subject whatsoever without royal authorization, or the importation of any book except after submission to a rigorous censorship and on receipt of permission. In September, 1543, Charles V ordered the viceroys, the audiencias, and the governors to prevent the printing, selling, holding, or the bringing into their districts, of books of fiction treating of profane subjects, and to provide that neither Spaniards nor Indians should read them. This legislation was designed to prevent the publication, sale, and reading of the romances of chivalry, which were held to have a demoralizing influence on the spirit of the Spaniards. A law of 1556 provided that the judges and justices “shall not permit any book to be printed or sold which treats of subjects relating to the Indies, without having a special licence issued by the Council of the Indies; and they shall cause to be collected and shall collect and send to that body all the books which they shall find, and no printer may print, hold, or sell them, under penalty of 200,000 maravedis and the loss of his printing office.” Moreover, the sending of manuscripts to Spain to be examined by the Council of the Indies was attended with very great risks; and when an American author had secured the printing of his book in Spain or in any other European country, great difficulties were encountered in his attempts to have copies of it returned to America; for it was provided by law that no printed book treating of American subjects, whether issued in Spain or in a foreign country, could be taken to the Indies until it had been examined and approved by the Council of the Indies.[6] [Sidenote: Sending manuscripts to Spain] [Sidenote: Obstacles to printing]