member of the local segneurial family, Orazio di Montereale, had allocated to a ser Giacomo Margnano. The document also lists several pieces of land owned by local or neighboring churches and let out on lease: eight belonged to Santa Maria, one to San Rocco (both of Montereale), and one to Santa Maria of Pordenone. Montereale certainly wasn't an isolated case. At the end of the sixteenth century, the amount of property held by the Church in the Friuli, asin the entire Veneto, was still extensive. And where it had decreased quantitatively, it had increased and improved in quality. All this suffices to explain Menocchio's words, even if he had not personally experienced the oppressive effects of Church ownership of land (which had always been explicitly exempted from the reduction in rents introduced by the Venetian authorities). He had only to open his eves and look around