Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners...
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners...
Good day.
You are in a church.
Forgive me.
What is your name?
Pietro Ionima.
And where are you from?
Montereale.
Do you know Domenico Scandella, known as Menocchio?
Yea, I know him very well.
And have you heard him
speak heretically about matters of faith?
Yea, I heard him with my own ears. And more than once.
What did you hear him say?
He denies
the power
that Christ himself gave the Church
and he condemns its actions.
He says that
the Church should live not in pomp
as it does now.
It should be poorer.
And I'm sure...
he possesses cursed books.
And he tries to indoctrinate other people.
I know.
I saw them enter the mill at night!
Names and surnames of those people?
I don't know.
Did you speak with the priest about this heretic?
I have mentioned it,
and he listened to me.
What is going on here?
I can say that the miller has spread certain ideas...
and these ideas...
have filtered through
into the minds of many brothers of mine.
Priest Vorai...
You are telling that
a semi-illiterate miller
has been able to set against you
the entire community?
This miller
has a strong mind...
A mind...
able
to make evil nestle
outside of himself.
Oreste! Open up!
Domenico Scandella of Montereale.
Suspected of heresy.
Follow me.
From 8 in the morning till 8 in the evening
I will leave the hatch open
to let the air go round.
You may not do any kind of noise.
You may not speak,
whistle,
cry, shout
or moan.
You may not read, write
or draw.
Cough or spit.
I left you a candle.
The expenses will be on you
and your family.
Follow me.
Tell your name.
Domenico Scandella.
Have you a nickname?
They call me Menocchio.
And where were you born?
In Montereale.
Your father's name?
I remember it not.
Reply to the question.
Joseph.
And your mother? What was her name?
Mary!
Look at us when you speak.
Can you read?
Yea.
Can you even write?
Yea.
Do you also know the Creed?
Yea, I know the Creed.
And what is your belief regarding the passage
"I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
"only son of God,
"who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
"born of the Virgin Mary?"
I brought up children,
and my wife was not a virgin afterwards.
This is one of the churches dogmas,
the virginity of Mary.
I don't think a vergin can give birth to
a human being.
The Holy Virgin, Menocchio, is not just a woman,
but the mother of Jesus.
Who is Jesus for you?
A man.
Ah, is he not the son of God?
These thoughts...
whence do they come?
From my head.
Mock us not, Menocchio.
We want the truth.
Only from your head?
Only from my head.
Have you ever spoken to others about these things?
I have spoken to no one about them.
That is untrue, we have accounts of what you go round saying.
We have witnesses.
Do you want to go back to prison
and no longer see your children and family?
Who told you these things?
Maybe...
the Devil...
Miller...
Go, and consider how to better speak the truth.
Who is this man?
This man so...
arrogant towards you.
Where does he come from?
Why has he lived freely for thirty years?
From your words it transpires that we are negligent.
Brother, the Republic of Venice
is the crossing point of world trade.
People arrive here with different ideologies.
Checking is much more complicated.
You come from Rome to accuse us?
Of course,
His Excellency was not
in the village of an isolated valley in the mountains.
We did not welcome you here to accuse us,
but to accuse Menocchio.
He has been preaching for a lifetime,
and none of your priests noticed...
that he was the true priest of that village.
Brothers...
only the demon could succeed in putting such ideas into his head.
Like couch grass,
this man must be extirpated.
In this way we defeat not the demon.
The demon
we can defeat
by grabbing back that conscience.
We want the miller alive.
That is the only way
to defeat
these ideas completely
and show
the true face
of the Church of Rome.
Your hat.
Your name?
Juliano, son of the late Pietro
Where do you come from?
Montereale
Do you know Domenico Scandella, known as Menocchio?
Certainly, I do.
How?
Because
the mill where he grinds his flour is mine.
Priest Daniele Melchiorri
From?
Polcenigo,
I am the parson of Polcenigo.
For how long?
Two years.
Where were you before?
San Vito, Tolmezzo,
Erto.
Do you know one Domenico Scandella, known as Menocchio?
I certainly do.
We spent our childhood together.
We would play in a house not far from here.
Have you ever heard him talk about his ideas
in matters of faith.
No, never.
We were children.
How could I?
We have a drink in the evening
after I help him chop the wood.
He always helped me
when I had nothing, he would give me flour.
And we helped each other, like with other villagers.
Like two friends.
Yea, in truth...
he is also...
a friend.
Do you know that he says things against the Church?
No, I would just fetch the flour and leave.
I never heard anything.
Have you ever heard him say that the air is God,
or that Holy Mary cannot be a virgin?
Well, I once heard him say Holy Mary cannot be a virgin,
but nought interests me.
Have you ever heard him say that the air is God?
I heard Menocchio say that everything is God,
that all things belongs to God,
that all the beauty around is God's work.
Have you heard him say that
you should confess to the trees, not to the priests?
I never heard him say that.
So, you believe not in what Domenico Scandella says?
No, no.
Have you heard him say that
God cares not about the things of this world?
Yea, I heard him say that.
Or perhaps even that
religion... is of no use.
Yea,
I heard him.
Why did you not report him?
Oh, I don't know. He was always speaking with the priest,
I believed they were in agreement, and knew what they were saying.
He never
spoke ill of the Holy Virgin,
he only said she was a woman like any other
and that Jesus was a child like any other.
I know Domenico says we should respect God,
for the justice of God is fair and merciful,
and we should not fear men, for the justice of men is unfair.
Because not always do men understand what God says.
And you found out from people close to him?
The witnesses recount the same words.
The people of the village?
This is most serious.
When will they call me?
I want to know when I shall be called.
When the time comes.
What is your name?
Here I am!
Here! I am here!
Start pulling, come on!
Come on, it is coming.
Pull, turn the beech, come on!
There it goes!
Away, away from there!
Come on,
clean the trunk.
Pile up the brushwood.
Get rid of the knots on those branches!
I do not want to see you standing still!
Work!
Drag along, lift!
Drag along,
come on!
Quick!
Come on!
Place your hand near mine.
Tell me, dear girl.
What thoughts brought you to me?
A doubt troubles me.
If I may call it like that.
The Virgin Mary...
How can it be...
How could she conceive Jesus Christ
without committing sin.
She is still a woman.
How is it...
Daughter,
your doubts are very grave.
Come with me.
Pull!
Come on, push!
To redeem your sins!
Come on, keep going!
Quick with these stones!
We need bigger stones!
Bring the stones with the sign of faith!
With these stones
we will build the temple of God.
Go in peace.
God speed you, son.
I came to cleanse your soul.
Confess your sins.
I listen to you.
What brings you here?
I am afraid, Menocchio.
Afraid of what?
I am not convinced anymore.
And what...
what am I supposed to do?
Let it be.
And all the things I have said,
all the things we spoke of together?
We believed in it,
it has to stay in our thoughts.
The monks have come to the village.
They are not leaving.
What do they say?
That you are to blame.
No one goes to your mill now.
People are afraid, Menocchio.
They shall kill us, and all fears shall end.
And if they kill us, it means that they are more afraid than us.
But do you wish to die?
No.
Well?
Let it be, Menocchio.
Let it be.
Domenico...
you must realize one thing...
for them you are a match in a haystack.
So, before the things they say are reduced to ashes,
they will reduce you to ash,
you, me,
Palota, Daniele...
they shall burn us all!
If you believe in what we have always said,
you would face the trial with me,
not leave me in prison alone,
you would ask to be put inside too.
If you pretend to repent,
they are obliged to pardon you.
Obliged!
But saving your skin with falsity, with lies,
what improvement is there then?
The improvement is that I go home and you go to prison.
Is this the end you want?
Think about everything you have preached so far.
All your thoughts shall come to nothing.
Absolute nothing.
Well? Where is then the value of what you think, of what you say?
He thinks his reasons are right, and that is all.
Yes, but with his reasons the priest will tear him to shreds.
You recognize not that their power
and cunning is stronger than ours.
When they burn you,
because they shall place you on the public square and burn you,
all the poor folk outside of here,
apart from us, who are bolder and shall speak,
the others shall all stand to attention,
they shall talk no longer.
Listen to me.
Go there and tell them you repent;
no witnesses, no troubles.
I pray you, Menocchio.
Otherwise they shall grab us all.
Let's go, mum.
Zanutto, come on.
Oh, it is you here, dear.
I came
to see you and your family
in these painful times.
I have loved you so much in this time...
Out.
Daughter...
Get out of here.
Get out of here!
Here it is ascertained
that you said that God
is air, water, fire and soil.
Is that true?
I think God is
in all things of this earth.
Also in us humans.
So, death is God, too?
Why is this not right?
Death no longer exists,
it was defeated by Jesus,
He redeemed us dying on the cross.
And hence for us,
after this mortal life, a new life opens up for us,
fuller, truer and finer.
Do you not believe we all have a soul?
Our body dies,
our soul does not.
And where does the soul go?
Do you believe in Heaven,
Hell and Purgatory?
Do you believe we shall be judged one day?
'Tis hard for me to believe this.
You pay heed to the voice of the devil.
Why did you not ask for help
to expel him?
Who should I ask this for?
To a priest!
But perhaps the devil is more cunning than God.
Do you not realize what you are saying?
Well, maybe
I should have asked a priest.
Only they
know the devil well.
So, we have the miller's wife.
Tell me, what kind of man is he?
Is he a good husband?
Is he fond of his family?
Yea,
Yet this is not
his reputation.
Perhaps 'tis not entirely your husband's fault,
perhaps he met a foreigner,
someone from outside.
I know not,
I cannot remember.
You...
seem to be most fond of him,
you seem sincerely anguished and grief stricken
about his fate.
But in him I found not such concern.
He seems willing to sacrifice his friends.
He seems willing to sacrifice you
and his children,
but refuses to say from whom he learnt his ideas.
If you
could tell us
who the people with whom he talks about God are,
perhaps
you could help him.
Do you swear to speak the truth?
I swear.
Who does your father meet?
Friends.
Do you remember the names?
Answer!
I know not.
Do you believe the Pope to be the Vicar of God on Earth?
Yea.
Your father does not.
Do you believe your father is a heretic?
Nay.
Either you reject your father,
or I shall have you tortured.
What do you choose?
Well
Notary, note
that he repudiates
both the person and ideas of his father.
Do you know why your father is in prison?
Nay.
Do you speak to your father?
Seldom.
He is often at the mill or away from home...
and I do not see him much.
Do you confess from time to time?
Yea.
To your parson or to the trees?
To my parson.
Your parson is taking care of your soul?
You have to ask him.
But you know... your parson says that
your father is an evil man,
overpowering.
Is that so?
Nay.
Then your parson is lying.
You allowed this heretic
to spread his ideas among the people.
Why did you not report him before?
I have known Menocchio and his family for a long time,
and, in my mercy,
I tried
to give this miller a chance
to convert, to mend his ways.
Mercy
or collusion with the heretic?
No, your excellency,
I acted as the Church
always should:
with mercy.
Granting mercy and trying
to save souls from damnation.
On your knees!
What kind of priest are you?
Have you
or have you not been condemned for heresy before?
How did things really go?
When did this story really begin?
Perhaps it was not Menocchio
who gave birth to this world.
Perhaps it was someone
he met.
Who taught him these things?
Silence shall not save you.
I shall do as you wish.
Meanwhile, you shall prepare a list of the people
contaminated by this miller's ideas.
I shall.
Come on...!
With humbleness and sacrifice!
You have to build this holy temple!
Let's go!
Leave it down there!
Down!
In this sign shalt thou conquer!
Leave it down there. Down there!
Pull!
Come on!
Humility and work!
Come on, come on, up!
The priest has stopped yelling too now...
Who did you speak to, Menocchio?
To no one.
Think about your soul, Menocchio.
Your soul!
Tell us who taught you your blasphemies.
Consider. You could go back to your children,
your home, your occupation.
Tell us the name!
Your deeds and opinions...
lead you to the stake!
Sincerity, Menocchio! Sincerity!
Perhaps you care not about the pain of the body.
But remember, you may end up in a place where
this pain...
has no end.
An eternal pain that never heals, Menocchio...
that never stops,
An endless pain, Menocchio.
I leave you alone.
Who is him?
Father...
I am here.
Look at me.
I am here.
Look at me, please.
They killed me.
No...
No. They did not kill you.
Father,
What did they do?
Choose to live.
They wanted to kill me.
Father, rescue yourself.
Live, father.
I cannot see you die
not now,
not at the hands
of the priests.
Give me the knife.
I promise
you shall return home.
You shall return home,
I promise you.
Stay still.
I told you to just stay!
All stand.
Having heard, ratified
confirmed and approved
what was established in the previous sessions,
the here present Domenico Scandella
confirms and ratifies
in loud and intelligible speech
what he already declared.
Say "I confirm and I ratify."
I confirm
and I ratify.
He is admonished...
that the truth must be spoken,
swear to speak the truth.
Say...
"I swear to speak the truth."
I swear...
to speak the truth
Miller, you are an illiterate peasant.
Who taught you these lies,
They come from my fancy,
watching nature.
You are professing heresy.
Someone must have inspired you.
The evil one?
Other heretics?
Who?
No one I know
can give me answers.
I speak
to the wind,
to the light...
Ah, a dreamer.
Does the wind answer you?
Mark that for thirty years
you have been preaching these things.
You persuade
fragile weak minds.
It is what you do!
Who you think you are? A god?
Look, the ultimate punishment
is being burnt alive
and condemned to eternal fire.
So, it is your God,
it is this God that suggests to you
that my children
must
see my blood.
Is it what He suggests?
Is it true that before the Pope,
you would have spoken, even if it would cost you your life?
Did you say it?
Yes.
Very well.
Here you have...
notables, bishops, prelates.
You have us, who refer directly to the Pope.
If you wish to be listened to at last,
then speak.
Tell us what you think.
Repeat for the Pope
your ideas and thoughts.
I am listening.
What do you wish to know
from the confession of a person
who has nothing?
What else should he tell you?
What do you hope to find in such a confession?
The sins you have
devised yourselves.
The guilt of having done who knows what.
Against whom?
Against you,
not against God.
And money, coins, jewels?
Therein lies the devil. And they are things you possess.
All those things you possess in your churches.
There is a God of riches.
Is there one of poverty?
Where is the God of the poor? Is it the same? Is it yours?
Does God want the poor?
Does he want them to be forever poor?
Does he want a world of rich and poor?
Your Excellency, what are we doing here
listening to the raves of an illiterate man?
Who can read by magic.
Must I, who studied at Oxford, Bologna, Padua and Paris
listen to these things?
Of course you must, priest.
Of course you must,
and repeat them also to your Pope,
whom you have dressed and coloured
and carry around
as if he were God on this Earth.
Tell the Pope that Menocchio is in Montereale.
May he make the allowance
of coming to my mill
to see how people live in the village.
They dream of paradise,
and you have stolen it from them,
you have made it your own,
as if you had invented paradise.
You even place it after death.
One must live a life of labour
and find themselves in paradise only after it?
One is born in paradise.
Paradise...
cannot be invented.
It is here.
It is what we breathe every day.
When we see children running,
when a freezing wind blows
and when the sun shines.
That is what it is.
But in this creation of yours,
where is God?
What role plays He?
God?
He has escaped.
He has hidden.
Perhaps He is ashamed of what he did
by creating man.
This religion shall not save the world.
Enough! I am bored with this speech.
The accused is an impenitent heretic.
I defer to the judgement of my colleagues.
For I see not another path...
but that which leads the end.
You must abjure your words,
if you wish not to be burnt.
You said there is no need for religions
to achieve peace.
But you want it not, you are like them.
You want war.
You have one day time to decide
whether to live or die.
Menocchio!
Mea Culpa!
Menocchio!
Are you still alive, Menocchio?
Are you alive?
Or are you dead, Menocchio?
Menocchio is alive!
Menocchio is not dead!
Do you really believe that God cares not for the things?
Error! Error!
We shall lead you to your church, Menocchio.
Your own church!
Mea culpa! Tua culpa!
Error, Menocchio. Error!
Abjure!
Menocchio Pope and Emperor!
Pope! Pope!
Abjure, Menocchio!
Menocchio is tired!
Are you afraid to abjure?
Abjure, Menocchio! Abjure!
God is in all things, hey Menocchio?
In the water,
the sky,
the flowers,
in your children, in your wife.
The tree priest. Shall you confess?
The tree priest!
Tell us, Menocchio,
is loving your fellow man more important
than loving God?
Do you love us, Menocchio?
We love you
and we built you a church.
It's all for you!
Your own church!
The chaos!
From which the world was built!
Do you like it?
The chaos...
of which God is made!
Look the chaos! Look!
We are the chaos, Menocchio.
Mary, Menocchio...
Who is Mary?
A virgin?
A sinner?
Paramour?
Adulteress?
Loved?
Raped?
How did she make the Christ, Menocchio?
How did she make the Christ?
Did she make him by herself? Did she make him by herself, Menocchio?
Menocchio speaks no more! He has no tongue!
Look how we love you, Menocchio!
Menocchio speaks no more!
Come on...
On your knees.
Read your abjuration, son.
So the people may hear
and learn from your mistakes.
Begin!
I,
Domenico Scandella,
known as Menocchio from Montereale.
Louder!
..diocese of Concordia..
swear to believe
with my own heart
and to confess with my own words
the Holy Catholic
and Apostolic Faith
which the Holy Roman Church believes in.
I subsequently abjure all heresies,
of any sort and from any sect,
against the Holy Catholic
and Apostolic Roman Church.
I also
swear with my own heart and confess with my own words
that true authority lies with the Supreme Pontiff and his prelates,
that they know God better than I,
that superior authority than mine is held by the Supreme Pontiff...
Louder!
..and his prelates.
That the statutes,
commands and laws of the Church are true;
that they are not commodities;
that the aforesaid Church is born and governed by the Holy Spirit.
That being heard in confession by a priest is not equal to
being heard in confession by a tree.
That original sin is contracted in the maternal womb.
That baptism is no human invention.
That being blasphemous is no art.
That when the body dies, the soul does not die with it.
That the precept of loving God
is superior to that of loving one's neighbour.
Likewise,
saying that all men shall be saved -
Turks, Jews,
heathens,
Christians,
heretics and infidels -
is an error.
To say
that the Blessed Virgin did not give birth to Christ
without committing sin
is an error.
To say that the Blessed Virgin was adulterous is an error.
To say
that the air and all we see is God,
is an error.
To say that God cares not for the things of the earth, is an error.
I consequently abjure, recant, detest
and renounce the heresy condemned by the Holy Catholic,
Apostolic and Roman Church,
which falsely and mendaciously...
Louder!
X
...and mendaciously affirms that
the authority of the Supreme Pontiff is untrue,
Read loudly!
That the Saints must not be worshipped,
that Baptism is a human invention.
The precept of loving one's neighbour
is better than that of loving God.
The blessing of common men
is as valuable as that of priests.
Blaspheming is an art.
The soul is mortal.
The world came from chaos,
and from that chaos a substance arose as in cheese
and God cares not for the things of this world.
For abjuring his ideas, Menocchio's life was spared,
but he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment.
Two years later, because of his health conditions,
he was allowed to be confined in Montereale.
After 15 years, in 1599, he was again tried for heresy
and sentenced to burn on the stake for his recidivism.