He busied himself personally in the execution of these horrible laws, even when judge and hangman slackened.
To the last he denounced all those "who should counsel his Majesty to permit a moderation of the edicts," and warned the King that if he should consent to the least mitigation of their provisions, things would go worse in the provinces than in France.

He was diligent in establishing the reinforced episcopal inquisition side by side with these edicts, and with the papal inquisition already in full operation.

He omitted no occasion of encouraging the industry of all these various branches in the business of persecution.

When at last the loud cry from the oppressed inhabitants of Flanders was uttered in unanimous denunciation by the four estates of that province of the infamous Titelmann, the Cardinal's voice, from the depths of his luxurious solitude, was heard, not in sympathy with the poor innocent wretches, who were daily dragged from their humble homes to perish by sword and fire, but in pity for the inquisitor who was doing the work of hell.

"I deeply regret," he wrote to Viglius, "that the states of Flanders should be pouting at inquisitor Titelmann.