The hostility of the local clergy can be easily explained. As we saw, Menocchio didn't recognize any special authority in the ecclesiastical hierarchy when it came to questions of the faith: "What popes! What prelates! What priests! These words were spoken with contempt. He just did not believe in these people," Domenico Melchiori testified. By haranguing and arguing in the streets and inns, Menocchio must have ended by practically setting himself up against the authority of the priest. But what was Menocchio saying, in fact?