It is to be borne in mind, says Dejob, that this letter comes not from a Protestant, denouncing the unintelligent tyranny of the Papists, but from a dignitary of the Spanish Church, who had been charged by the Vatican with special responsibilities; while the Cardinal to whom his application was addressed was himself the chief director of the work of the Congregation of the Index. It is the conclusion of Valverde that, as a necessary result of the existing conditions, the work of censorship must, in large part at least, be placed in the hands of men who are ignorant of the subjects confided to them. These men, charged by the Pope with an enormous responsibility and with an authority for which there is no supervision, are expected to do this work without pay, and they may be said to give to the Church the equivalent of their compensation.[142] The nephew of the Cardinal, Marcello, who was his successor in the Diocese of Squillace, was apparently in favour of a strenuous application of censorship. Marcello, writing to the Cardinal under date of November 2, 1570, says: “It seems to me essential that in affairs like this, having to do with heresy, one should proceed with full rigour rather than with too close attention to equity, for these matters concern the honour of God and that of the whole Catholic Church. As a Father of the Church has said, ‘_in hac re summa pietas esset, fuisse crudelem_.’ It is the perfection of piety to be ‘cruel’; that is to say, to be forcible in punishment.” The examiners of the Congregation of the Index and those delegated to consider the special subjects referred to the inquisitors found themselves swamped by the mass of material submitted for their consideration. The task of examining and of reporting upon the literature of Europe, or even upon that portion of literature with which the interests of the Church were directly concerned, was beyond the powers of the men to whom it had been delegated. The authors whose works were under consideration found themselves obliged to retain a solicitor or a representative to watch over their interests and to do what might prove practicable to hasten a favourable decision. Abbe Alessandro Archirota writes to Sirleto, under date of February 23, 1572, complaining that a treatise of his which had been passed upon with approval by Pirrotano, has rested in the hands of the Master of the Palace for no less than fifteen months. The unfortunate author had been obliged under the terms of his contract to make payment to his printer some months back, but was still unable to secure the necessary permission for the production of his edition. Through the intervention of Sirleto, the first sheets of the work were secured from the Master of the Palace and the printing of these sheets was permitted to proceed.[143]