MENOCCHIO, Domenico Scandella (1532–1599),  a miller from Montereale, Italy, delated, probably by his parish priest to the Inquisition.  He surprised and scandalized residents of his village by frequently proclaiming his unusual beliefs.   First tried for heresy in 1583, he abjured his statements in 1584, but spent another 20 months in prison in Concordia. Released in 1586, he claimed to have reformed. He continued to be in house arrest and had to wear a sign of a burning cross on his garments as a visible sign of his crimes. In 1598, he was arrested again as a lapsed heretic, having continued to speak to many people about his beliefs. In 1599, he was burnt at the stake for heresy in 1599. His life and beliefs are known from the Inquisition records, and has been the subject of the book The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg

During his trial, he argued that the only sin was to harm one’s neighbor and that to blaspheme caused no harm to anyone but the blasphemer. He went so far as to say that Jesus was born of man and Mary was not a virgin, that the Pope had no power given to him from God but simply exemplified the qualities of a good man, and that Christ had not died to redeem humanity

Menocchio said:

“I have said that, in my opinion, all was chaos, that is, earth, air, water, and fire were mixed together; and out of that bulk a mass formed – just as cheese is made out of milk – and worms appeared in it, and these were the angels. The most holy majesty decreed that these should be God and the angels, and among that number of angels there was also God, he too having been created out of that mass at the same time, and he was named lord with four captains, Lucifer, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. That Lucifer sought to make himself lord equal to the king, who was the majesty of God, and for this arrogance God ordered him driven out of heaven with all his host and his company; and this God later created Adam and Eve and people in great number to take the places of the angels who had been expelled. And as this multitude did not follow God’s commandments, he sent his Son, whom the Jews seized, and he was crucified.”

During his trial testimony he referred to more than a dozen books he had read and shared with others, including:

the Bible,

Boccaccio’s Decameron

 Mandeville’s Travels,

Jacopo da Voragine, The Golden Legend
and possibly the Koran

Benandanti

Two persons who claimed to be benandanti were interrogated and sentenced for heresy by the Roman Inquisition between 1575 and 1582. These two figures, Paulo Gaspurotto of the village of Iassaco and Battista Moduco of the town of Cividale, first came under investigation from the priest Don Bartolomeo Sgabarizza in 1575. Although Sgabarizza later abandoned his investigations, in 1580 the case was re-opened by the Inquisitor Fra Felice da Montefalco, who interrogated both Gaspurotto and Moduco until they admitted that they had been deceived by the Devil into going on their nocturnal spirit journeys. In 1581 they were sentenced to six months imprisonment for heresy, a punishment that was later remitted.

Unrest in Germany
The closing years of the fifteenth century were, as has been seen, a period of religious betterment in Spain. No such corresponding revival of interest in religion is to be traced in France or England; but Germany was undergoing a real and pervasive religious quickening in the decades immediately preceding the Reformation. Its fundamental motive seems to have been fear. Much in the popular life of Germany tended to increase the sense of apprehension. The witchcraft delusion, though by no means new, was rapidly spreading. A bull of Pope Innocent VIII in 1484 declared Germany full of witches, and the German inquisitors, Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, published their painfully celebrated Malleus Maleficarum in 1489. It was a superstition that added terror to popular life, and was to be shared by the reformers no less than by their Roman opponents. The years from 1490 to 1503 were a period of famine in Germany. The Turkish peril was becoming threatening. The general social unrest has already been noted (ante, p. 325). All these elements contributed to the development of a sense of the reality and nearness of divine judgments, and the need of propitiating an angry God. Luther’s early religious experiences were congenial to the spirit of this pervasive religious movement.
 

CANON EPISCOPI

The beginning of the text of book 10 of the Decretum Burchardi (ca. 1012), in Dombibliothek Codex 119 (Dom Hs. 119) at Cologne (foll. 91v-92r), dated c. 1020. The passage shown here is the so-called Canon Episcopi, an older (9th to 10th century) text condemning belief in shapeshifting. This text was later taken as an early description of the "witches' sabbath" topos, and its condemnation of the belief in such events used by opponents of the witch-trials of the 16th century.

The passage as edited by Migne (PL 140) reads:

Ut episcopi eorumque ministri omnibus viribus elaborare studeant, ut perniciosam et a diabolo inventam sortilegam et maleficam artem penitus ex parochiis suis eradicent: et si aliquem virum aut feminam hujuscemodi sceleris sectatorem invenerint, turpiter dehonestatum de parochiis suis ejiciant. Ait enim Apostolus: Haereticum post unam et secundam admonitionem devita, sciens quia subversus est, qui ejusmodi est. Subversi sunt, et a diabolo capti tenentur, qui, derelicto creatore suo, a diabolo suffragia quaerunt, et ideo a tali peste mundari debet sancta Ecclesia. Illud etiam non omittendum, quod quaedam sceleratae mulieres retro post Satanam conversae, daemonum illusionibus, et phantasmatibus seductae, credunt se et profitentur nocturnis horis, cum Diana paganorum dea, vel cum Herodiade et innumera multitudine mulierum equitare super quasdam bestias, et multa terrarum spatia intempestae noctis silentio pertransire ejusque jussionibus velut dominae obedire et certis noctibus ad ejus servitium evocari. Sed utinam hae solae in perfidia sua perissent, et non multos secum in infidelitatis interitum pertraxissent. Nam innumera multitudo hac falsa opinione decepta haec vera esse credit, et credendo a recta fide deviat, et in errore paganorum revolvitur, cum aliquid divinitatis, aut numinis extra unum Deum esse arbitratur. Quapropter sacerdotes per Ecclesias sibi commissas populo omni instantia praedicare debent, ut noverint haec omnimodis falsa esse, et non a divino, sed a maligno spiritu talia phantasmata mentibus infidelium irrogari. Siquidem ipse Satanas, qui transfigurat se in angelum lucis, cum mentem cujuscunque mulierculae ceperit, et hanc sibi per infidelitatem et incredulitatem subjugaverit, illico transformat se in diversarum personarum species atque similitudines, et mentem quam captivam tenet in somnis deludens, modo laeta, modo tristia, modo cognitas, modo incognitas personas, ostendens, per devia quaeque deducit. Et cum solus spiritus hoc patitur, infidelis mens haec non in animo, sed in corpore evenire opinatur. Quis enim non in somnis et nocturnis visionibus extra seipsum educitur, et multa videt dormiendo, quae nunquam viderat vigilando? Quis vero tam stultus et hebes sit, qui haec omnia quae in solo spiritu fiunt, etiam in corpore accidere arbitretur? Cum Ezechiel propheta visiones Domini in spiritu non in corpore vidit. Et Joannes apostolus Apocalypsis sacramenta in spiritu non in corpore vidit, et audivit sicut ipse dicit: Statim, inquit, fui in spiritu. Et Paulus non audet se dicere raptum in corpore. Omnibus itaque publice annuntiandum est, quod qui talia et his similia credit, fidem perdit, et qui fidem rectam in Deo non habet, hic non est ejus, sed illius in quem credit, id est diaboli. Nam de Domino nostro scriptum est: Omnia per ipsum facta sunt. Quisquis ergo aliquid credit posse fieri, aut aliquam creaturam in melius aut in deterius immutari, aut transformari in aliam speciem, vel similitudinem, nisi ab ipso Creatore qui omnia fecit et per quem omnia facta sunt, procul dubio infidelis est et pagano deterior.

The quote "Hæreticum post unam et secundam admonitionem devita, sciens quia subversus est, qui ejusmodi est" is from Titus 3:10-11. Note that this departs somewhat from the standard Vulgate text, which has Hæreticum hominem post unam et secundam correptionem devita.
Date circa 1020
Source ceec.uni-koeln.de
Author Burchard of Worms

This condemnation the "pernicious art of divination and magic" (magicam being changed by Gratian from maleficam) is justified by a reference to Titus 3:10-11 on heresy. Then follows a description of the errors of "certain wicked women" (quaedam sceleratae mulieres), who deceived by Satan believe themselves to join the train of the pagan goddess Diana (to which Burchardus added: vel cum Herodiade "or with Herodias") during the hours of the night, and to cover great distances within a multitude of women riding on beasts, and during certain nights to be called to the service of their mistress. Those holding such beliefs are then condemned by the text in no uncertain terms ("that they would only perish in their perfidy without drawing others with them"), deploring the great number of people who "relapse into pagan error" by holding such beliefs. Because of this, the text instructs that all priests should teach at every possible instant that such beliefs are phantasms inspired by an evil spirit.

The following paragraph presents an account of the means by which Satan takes possession of the minds of these women by appearing to them in numerous forms, and how once he holds captive their minds, deludes them by means of dreams (transformat se in diversarum personarum species atque similitudines, et mentem quam captivam tenet in somnis deludens, modo laeta, modo tristia, modo cognitas, modo incognitas personas, ostendens, per devia quaeque deducit).

The text emphasizes that the heretical belief is to hold that these transformations occur in the body, while they are in reality dream visions inspired in the mind (Et cum solus spiritus hoc patitur, infidelis mens haec non in animo, sed in corpore evenire opinatur). The text proposes that it is perfectly normal to have nightly visions in which one sees things that are never seen while awake, but that it is a great stupidity to believe that the events experienced in the dream vision have taken place in the body. Examples are adduced, of Ezechiel having his prophetic visions in spirit, not in body, of the Apocalypse of John which was seen in spirit, not in body, and of Paul of Tarsus, who describes the events at Damascus as a vision, not as a bodily encounter.

The text concludes by repeating that it should be publicly preached that all those holding such beliefs have lost their faith, believing not in God but in the devil, and whosoever believes that it is possible to transform themselves into a different kind of creature, is far more wavering (in his faith) than an infidel (procul dubio infidelis; to which Burchard added: "and worse than a pagan", et pagano deterior).

The incipit of Gratian's text, which gave rise to the title of "canon Episcopi" reads:

Episcopi, eorumque ministri omnibus modis elaborare studeant, ut perniciosam et a diabolo inventam sortilegam et magicam artem ex parochiis suis penitus eradicent, et si aliquem virum aut mulierem hujuscemodi sceleris sectatorem invenerint, turpiter dehonestatum de parochiis suis ejiciant.
"The bishops and their ministers should by all means make great effort so that they may thoroughly eradicate the pernicious art of divination and magic, invented by the devil, from their parishes, and if they find any man or woman adhering to such a crime, they should eject them, turpidly dishonoured, from their parishes."

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