Ginzburg introduces Domenico Scandella who is known as Menocchio, “ The remarkable Menocchio” which his neighbors addressed him by. He was a man who earned his living from many occupations, but mainly from being a miller. However, when asked by authorities he presented himself to be a lower class citizen who was quite poor and lived a negligible life, only serving to provide for his big family. However, that was quite opposite to how he lived his life. He held positions such as mayor for multiple villages and hamlets, and an administrator in a parish church in Montereale.
He held these positions until being denounced to the Holy Office, where he was accused of having said heretical and impious words about Christ. However, Menocchio wasn’t phased to what he was being accused of because he proudly spread his beliefs and opinions. His act of attempting to proselytize the people of his community and outside of it resulted in many people testifying against him that he was guilty of it. Therefore, Menocchio had promised to not meddle with the community’s belief again.
However, Menocchio continued his behavior and was called for a second trial, where people would vouch for him being a good man and respected despite him declaring blasphemy and saying that the teachings of scriptures were false. Menocchio’s …show more content…
His form of the depiction of ideology and culture was too far out from the norm during his time. Menocchio had beliefs that in the beginning, all the world was as a ball of cheese, and out of this cheese arose worms, which became the angels that gave birth to men. As well as believing that the soul is separate from the spirits. The church officials were not prepared to experience all of this from Menocchio, better yet his advanced literacy and education for a peasant. How Menocchio was able to support his arguments were from the multiple books he got his hands on and as well as to build his