When Great Britain took over Malta in 1813, it inherited a country in which censorship was the rule, and the rule had no exceptions. The Order of Malta was generally a benign but wholly autocratic sovereign which exercised total control over anything the people were authorised to know and repeat. The ruler only allowed the public to know what the state believed it should be allowed to. Within Malta, the Order achieved this by licensing only one printing press, and permitting this to print solely what the Grand Master, the Bishop and the Inquisitor jointly certified to be harmless and printable.