Narratives of religious dissidence in medieval inquisition records: computing the representation and sequencing of crimes in Peter Seila's register of sentences (1241–2)

This paper presents the first computational analysis of narrativity across an entire medieval inquisitorial register, examining how crimes were represented and sequenced in Peter Seila's register of sentences (1241–2, Southern France) using Computer-Assisted Semantic Text Modelling (CASTEMO). The analysis reveals how inquisitorial questioning, suspect testimony, and notarial organization interacted to produce increasingly standardized summary narratives of religious dissidence. This conference presentation is derived from recently published research by the same authors: Robert L. J. Shaw, Tomáš Hampejs, David Zbíral, 'Narratives of religious dissidence in medieval inquisition records: computing the representation and sequencing of crimes in Peter Seila's register of sentences (1241–2)', Historical Research, 2025; https://doi.org/10.1093/hisres/htaf030.