How do trial records tell stories of heresy?: A computational analysis of narrative in Peter Seila's 1241-42 inquisition register

Inquisition trial records contain many stories of how heresy suspects became involved in religious dissidence. Debate has raged over the extent to which these tales represent an accurate portrayal of dissident life or rather an imposed “construction” of their persecutors. Yet such discussions have inevitably focused on select, often exceptional, testimonies. By contrast, a new DISSINET study of narrative components and sequencing in Peter Seila’s register of sentences (1241–2, Languedoc) uses computation to systematically analyse hundreds of crime summaries. The patterns uncovered reveal traces of how the voices of inquisitor, notary and suspects were interwoven and illuminate the process by which dissident narratives were – in the most neutral sense of the term – constructed.