The rule of Alexander VI (Borgia), 1492–1503, coincided with the beginning of the active work of the printing-presses in Venice, Florence, and in Rome. The influence of the Pope was, however, promptly brought to bear to discourage the undertakings of the printer-publishers. Venice was practically outside of his control, while even in Florence the printers were not prepared to accept dictation from the papal representatives. In Rome, however, the subjection of the press to ecclesiastical censorship, for the initiation of which the responsibility rested with Alexander, proved at once a serious limitation to its activities. It was undoubtedly this restriction which gave to the printers of Venice their great advantage over their early competitors in Rome. Venice was the leader among the cities of Italy in resisting the censorship of the Church, although even in Venice the Church succeeded in the end in gaining the more important of its contentions. In Spain, the control over the printing-presses on the part of the censors of the Church was hardly questioned, but these censors represented the authority not of Rome but of the local Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition was, for the longer period of its existence under the direction of the Dominicans, and it was frequently the case that the decisions of the Spanish inquisitors, in regard both to the literature to be condemned and to that to be approved, were in direct opposition to the conclusions of the Papacy. In France, after a century of contest, the ecclesiastical control of the printing-press became practically merged in the censorship exercised by the Crown, a censorship which was in itself as much as the publishing trade could bear and continue to exist. In Austria and in South Germany, after the crushing out of the various Reformation movements, the Church and the State worked in practical accord in maintaining a close supervision of the printing-presses. In North Germany, on the other hand, the ecclesiastical censorship never became important. The evils produced by it were, however, serious and long-enduring over a large portion of the territory of Europe, and the papal Borgia, although by no means a considerable personage, must be held responsible for bringing into existence an evil which assumed enormous proportions in the intellectual history of Europe.