The Church and the Holy Roman Emperor finally took the ground that every writing that came from the pen of a Protestant author, even though it had nothing whatsoever to do with religion or politics, must be classed as libellous. In 1548, the Emperor issued a new series of most strenuous laws for the control of the press. The penalties were brought to bear at one point or another with full severity, but it proved to be impracticable to secure in the Germany of the time any uniformity of obedience. In Austria and in Bavaria, the penalties included the use of the rack for authors, printers, and sellers of publications that came under condemnation. In 1567, a _Flugschrift_ was printed in Frankfort under the title of _Nachtigall_, which was at once interpreted as a libel on the Emperor. Fourteen hundred copies were sold within a few hours of its issue and there were various reprints within the next few weeks. The Emperor ordered the punishment not only of the printer, but of the magistrates of Frankfort. The former was placed in prison for two years and the magistrates were fined thirty thousand gulden, an enormous sum for those days.[58] 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 maintained, in France by Francis I and his successors. In an official document of 1580, occurs the phrase, “The regulation of books (_das Bücher-regal_) which has for many years been within the control of the emperor.” Schurmann is of opinion that the authority for the regulation of books was derived from, or connected with, the rights reserved to the imperial authority under the Golden Bull. A century after the issue of the Golden Bull, at the time namely of the invention of printing, the reserved powers (_Reserva-rechte_) of the empire had become materially weakened, and were being in large part exercised by the local authorities, and the attempt of the emperor to enforce control over literary production and distribution was from the outset met by antagonism and protest on the part of princes and of the municipal magistrates, and was also opposed by the contention of the Church that such supervision properly belonged to her. The question was raised as to whether the decrees of the imperial Diet contained any references to the imperial control of book publishing. The omission was explained on the ground that such control was exercised as a personal right of the emperor. It was under such imperial authority, for instance, that an approval or privilege was given to the _Germania_ of Aeneas Sylvius (afterwards Pius II), originally issued in Italy in 1464 and printed in Germany in 1515.