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

Abstract While the stories told about medieval religious dissidents in inquisition trial records have been a perennial topic of debate, their narrative qualities – that is, the way they represent and sequence events – have rarely been specifically studied and never in a manner that encompasses whole registers. Moving beyond the typical focus on exceptionally rich passages, this article analyses the narration of dissidence across the totality of Peter Seila’s register of sentences (1241–2, Languedoc) via computational methods. Studying the representation of crimes and their sequencing across 649 individual summaries of fault (including a formal comparison to the contemporary Narbonne Order of Procedure interrogatory) clarifies how the voices of inquisitor, notary and suspects were woven together and illuminates the process by which dissident narratives were constructed.