Menocchio himself seems to provide the first clue: "Everything belongs to the Church and to the priests andthey oppress the poor, who, if they work two rented fields, these will be fields that belong to the Church, to some bishop or cardinal." As we've said, we don't know if this was also the case with Menocchio himself From an assessment made in 1596-twelve years after these statements- it appears that one of the fields presumably leased to Menocchio bordered a tract of land that a 165