Menocchio
Topic: Print Culture and the Modern World · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Print Culture and the Modern World"
Meaning
Menocchio was an Italian miller who lived in the 16th century. He read books that were available in his area and explained the Bible and the creation of the world in his own way. The Roman Catholic Church saw this as heresy, meaning beliefs that go against official Church teaching. His story shows that print allowed even ordinary people to think for themselves, and why the Church feared it.
Example
The Inquisition, a Church court that tried heretics, brought Menocchio to trial twice. In the end he was executed.
Don't confuse with
- Martin Luther: a learned monk whose printed Ninety Five Theses of 1517 started the Protestant Reformation. Menocchio was a village miller whose ideas stayed local.