But immediately afterward, changing the subject, he began to speakin what seemed to be a distracted way of a book that Nlcola owned. Nicola had been called in turn before the Holy Office but was released immediately following favorable testimony as to his character given by two ecclesiastics of Porca. In the second trial,however, evidence emerged concerning the influence on Menocchio's heterodox opinions by an unknown person. During the interrogation of the 19th of July 1599 the inquisitors asked him how long he had believed-on the basis of a novella from the Decameron, as we shall see--that every man could be saved through his own religion, and accordingly, that a Turk was right to remain a Turk and not be converted to Christianity