_1550._ _Ghislieri, Inquisitor at Como_ (who became Pope as Pius V) excommunicated the vicar and chapter because they had taken part with certain book-dealers of whose stock twelve bales of books, classed as heretical, had been confiscated. By direction of the vicar and chapter of Como, the books had been returned to the importers. Como was at that time being used as a port of entry for Northern Italy for books from Germany and Switzerland. The sympathies of the town were with the book-dealers and the Inquisition was said to have escaped with difficulty the vengeance of the injured parties.[102] _1563._ _Pius IV_ issues a Bull giving authority to the Inquisition to proceed, in regard to heresy, against prelates as well as laymen. The action of the Roman Inquisition was as a rule much less severe than that of the Spanish organisation, and there was, therefore fierce and effective opposition when Spanish monarchs, in connection with their control of Italian territory, attempted from time to time to introduce the Spanish regulations into Naples and Milan. _1595._ _Decrees of the Roman Inquisition_ order the inquisitors, or in their absence the bishop, to make search for heretical books in the cargoes of all incoming ships. The books found are to be confiscated and burned. In the Inquisition of Rome, as also in the Congregation of the Index, the Dominicans had from the beginning exercised a very large influence, and were in fact for the greater part of the time in full control. From the beginning of the 16th century, this Order had taken the leading part in the work of extirpating heresy. It was at the instance of Cardinal Caraffa that a Dominican was associated with the six cardinals as “Commissary” and became the actual executive of the board. Many of the edicts and orders, and particularly those in regard to books, soon came to be issued on the sole responsibility of the “Commissary.”[103] In the selection of the authors to be condemned and of the phases of doctrine to be brought into disrepute, the old-time antagonism of the Dominicans against the Franciscans and the Jesuits speedily became apparent. The generals of the Franciscans emphasised with the popes the evil that was caused to the influence of the Church by confiding to ignorant and prejudiced monks the supervision of literature and the determination of heresies. It is not clear, however, that the management of the Inquisition became more judicious or the supervision of the censorship more discriminating at the times (comparatively infrequent) when the control of the Dominicans was replaced by that of the more scholarly, but no less bitter and partisan, influence of the Jesuits.