Just as Worms Come from Cheese, the Angels Come from God's Creation of Earth

First of all the title of the book was pretty intriguing. As I read on I was surprised how much I was enjoying its contents as well. I’ve never been interested in reading history books for fun. This book was trying at times, but mostly quite enjoyable, especially because it is a true study and account of this man’s trials. (During the Inquisition there were “court reporters” to transcribe every word, every movement, every deep sigh, every look and every scream of agony from trial to hanging of a convicted and condemned church offender.) Horrible!

The best way for me blog about this one is to tie it up in a nutshell first then pull out my favorite parts afterwards. So…in a nutshell the book digs into the trial of a 16th Century miller who has created his own views of the church’s role in society and the existence and truth of God. Several teams of Italian inquisitors attempt to understand this relatively uneducated man’s philosophies and decide whether or not he should die for his “betrayal of faith and God”. That said much of the book was a recount of exactly what transcribed during the two separate trials and because they didn’t have video, cell phones, hand held recorders and email in those days there was a lot of testimony for or against Menocchio, the miller, via personal interviews and he said, she said conversations. When I think about people recalling exactly was someone said to them two years ago on a random summer afternoon my first thought is that they were probably lying or mistaken. However, I thought about what the content of the conversations were and why they might, in fact, be extremely memorable to the common folk. It would be like a local man in a small town talking to everyone about aliens and how influential they have been on our culture and the world. I would defiantly remember such a conversation, especially if the facts and content were presented in such a way to make me change my own beliefs on the subject.

Menocchio was a miller unlike any other. Although he truly believed in God, he constantly questioned his societies interpretation of God’s will. He thought confession was made up by the priests who claimed to be closer to God than all others. While reading few books of other’s travels to distant countries he questioned why God would create societies elsewhere who practiced His love in different rituals and customs than the Italians. Menocchio was a man who had so many questions and no one to answer them. He sought his answers and his ideals in the FEW books he could find…one of which was the Koran that he said was a “beautiful book”. One of the chapters listed every single book the Inquisitors had confiscated from Menocchio’s home. They interrogated him relentlessly to call out the names of the people who sold or loaned him these books so that they may be summoned for questioning as well.

At the core of the two trials the same big question remained for the Inquisitors, Where did Menocchio get these ideals and opinions? If the church did not talk of it how did he come up with anything other than what they presented to him and the rest of the community as truth? I believe Menocchio’s self-created opinions scared the Inquisitors and the church more than any notion that Menocchio worshipped the Devil. If one uneducated man could have such contradicting ideas against the church, what would happen if more people began to think the same way? In my opinion the church was worried about losing control of their oh so faithful flock of needy peasants and commoners. Menocchio was imprisoned for a few years after the first trial, then released after a plea then sentenced back to prison after the second trial. He lost his job, his family, his need to read and wonder and died. I can’t remember how or where he died, but I think after his spirit was broken during the second trial he just couldn’t hold out any longer.

As a whole the book was really great. It was out of the usual genre I read and I really liked the stimulation it provided for my own ideals of the church and God and how it related to my life. The everlasting belief Menocchio has is that we should love thy neighbor more than we love God, because in the end God had disguised himself as our neighbor.

~Kelly