While the evidence was accumulating, Menocchio sensed that something was shaping up against him. So he had gone to the vicar of Polcenigo, Giovanni Daniele Melchiori, a childhood friend who urged him to present himself voluntarily to the Holy office, or at least to obey immediately if he should be called. He warned Menocchio: "Tell them what they want to know, and try not to talk too much; do not go out of your way to discuss these things. Answer only their questions." Even Alessandro Poliereto, an ex-lawyer who Menocchio the home of a friend, a lumber merchant had advised him to present before the judges and admit his guilt, but also to declare that he had never believed his own heretical statements. AndsoMenocchiowent to Maniago in response tothesummonsoftheecdesiasticalcourt. Butthe next day, 4 February, the inquisitor himself, the Franciscan Fra Felice da Montefalco, who had followed the course of the inquest, ordered him arrested and"conducted in handcuffs" to the prison ofthe Holy office in Concordia. On 7 February 1584 Menocchio faced his first interrogation. Despite the advice he had received, Menocchio immediately proved quite ready totalk.althoughhetriedtoputhimselfinaalmore favorable light than suggested by the testimony of the witnesses. While admitting that two or three years earlier he had had some doubts on the virginity of Mary and had expressed these doubts to several individuals, including a priest at Barcis, he observed:"tistrue thatIsaid these things to various people, but I was not telling them they should believe all this. On the contrary, Iurged many of them: Would you like me to teach you the true way? Try to do good and walk in the path of my ancestors and follow what Holy Mother Church commands But I uttered those other words because I was tempted to believe them and teach them toothers. It was the evil spirit who made me believe those things and who also persuaded me to say them to others." With these very words, Menocchio unwittingly confirmed the suspicion that in the town he had taken upon himself the role of teacher ofdoctrineand behavior("Would you likeme to teach you the true way?'). It was impossible to doubt the heretical nature of this kind of preaching especially when Menocchio explained his singular cosmogony. A confused echo of it had reached the Holy office: "I have said that, in my opinion, all was chaos, that is earth, air,