During this period, official policy toward prostitution was regulation rather than either criminalization or decriminalization. This regulation system was embodied in the Cavour law of 1860, the Crispi law of 1988, and the Nicotera law of 1891 and required prostitutes to register with police, undergo biweekly vaginal examinations, and enter a hospital if diagnosed with venereal disease. The laws also specified many rules concerning prostitutes' daily lives which resulted in continual arrests, fines, and incarceration of even legally registered prostitutes. Regulation was mainly promoted by moderates who were opposed to absolute monarchy and feudalism. They were middle-class men, usually high government officials police officers, public physicians, and the criminal anthropologists of the 1890's. Other elites aimed at abolishing prostitution included leftist men and feminist women. By the 1890's, government physicians also supported abolition. During the entire period, the Catholic Church had an ambiguous role, not officially favoring but doing nothing to advance the abolitionist cause. 26 reference notes