The Pope was the supreme authority over the entire hierarchy, and he exercised this authority directly. The position of the Pope is often described as 'Papal Monarchy’. Systematic efforts were made to extend the authority of the Church over everyone, high or low. Making an oral confession of his sins to a priest at least once a year and suffer punishment imposed, was made obligatory for everyone. The recalcitrant were ex-communicated. A person who was ex-communicated was supposed to have been temporarily consigned to hell. If he died, his body could not be buried with the prescribed rituals. Other Christians were forbidden from associating with him. The rule of celibacy of the priests and the belief in purgatory was also implemented. By the thirteenth century, the Church, which had been founded for the purpose of saving souls, had become a vast and efficient engineer of control and exploitation. Any opinion or doctrine contrary to the Church dogma was considered heretical and was punished. The Church had established a vast machine to suppress heresy. Inquisition or a tribunal or a tribunal had been instituted for the discovery and punishment of heresy. All deviation and dissent from dogma and protest against the abuses of the Church was sought to be suppressed and heretics began to be burnt at the stake. Two orders of nuns, the Franciscan and the Dominican, had been founded in the early thirteenth century. The wandering monks of these orders soon degenerated into a system of espionage and blackmail. The inquisitor, who wore black garments and a black cowl over the head, would enter a village or town with his staff and summon the inhabitants to report any heretics or any person they suspected of heresy. Some people settled old scores and made false accusations.