Research articles

  • Kaarel Sikk, Reima Välimäki, David Zbíral, How inquisitive was medieval inquisition? A network-analytical approach to information flow in the trials for Brandenburg-Pomeranian Waldensians (late 14th c.), Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 2025;, fqaf138, https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqaf138

Abstract:
In this study, we analyse a medieval inquisitorial campaign by conceptualizing it as an information process. We investigate how investigative decision-making was structured by testimony-driven data gathering. Our case study is Peter Zwicker’s well-documented 1393–4 anti-Waldensian inquisition in Stettin. We explore the reconstruction of the inquisitor’s strategy by examining the sequencing of interrogations and subsequent actions based on suspects’ names appearing in previous testimonies. We assess the extent to which the process was adaptive, with suspects summoned dynamically based on new testimonies versus being guided by pre-existing knowledge. We apply network analysis and temporal visualization to incriminations operationalized as network data and use statistical methods to map the feedback between information retrieval and decision-making. Our analysis follows sequences of interrogations where deponents incriminated others on specific dates. This allows us to identify inquisitorial responses to accumulated data, distinguishing between planned strategies and reactive decisions based on new testimony. The challenge of missing data adds complexity and theoretical engagement. A substantial portion of the depositions is lost, yet we can estimate the original volume, enabling an assessment of the impact of data loss. We employ data imputation simulations to test how missing records might obscure evidence of follow-up strategies. The results indicate that network visualization must be complemented by statistical analysis. Comparisons between deponents’ testimony types reveal an interplay between structured pre-planning and selective incorporation of new intelligence. By conceptualizing inquisitorial work as a dynamic information process, this study proposes a novel methodological framework for analysing historical trial documents.

  • Poznański, A., & Välimäki, R. (2025). A Fifteenth-Century Warning Against the Waldensians: An Anonymous Treatise from the Görlitz Manuscript Mil. II 52. Acta Mediaevalia. Series Nova, 2, 281–302. https://doi.org/10.31743/amsn.18834

Abstract:
Among the manuscripts formerly held in the library of the Görlitz Gymnasium—known as the Milich Library and now housed at the University Library in Wrocław—there is a codex bearing the shelfmark Mil. II 52. In addition to sermons, quaestiones disputatae, and theological treatises, it contains a short anonymous text directed against the Waldensians, which, as far as current research suggests, survives only in this single copy. Although the work may have been composed somewhat earlier, the manuscript as a whole was copied in the 1460s or 1470s. This suggests that, at that time, someone still perceived the Waldensians as a tangible threat. The treatise draws in part on De inquisitione haereticorum, a work attributed to Pseudo-David of Augsburg, but also includes original passages. Our article contains the first edition of this text, accompanied by an introduction and a concise description of the manuscript.

  • Reima Välimäki, ‘Stettin Revised: Redating a Major Medieval Inquisition of Heresy’, Church History, 94.1 (2025), pp. 21–60, doi:10.1017/S0009640725101881.
Abstract:

The article presents a revised dating of a major late medieval inquisition of heresy, challenging the dating of the records established since the 1880s. The inquisitor Petrus Zwicker’s proceedings against Brandenburgian and Pomeranian Waldensians in Stettin did not take place between November 1392 and March 1394, with an 11-month pause between March 1393 and February 1394, as has been the scholarly consensus up till now. Instead, the prosecution was a continuous process that started in November 1393 and lasted till late March 1394. The article discusses the problems of the established dating that is based on now-outdated information about the inquisitor’s itinerary and an ambiguous 15th-century commentary on the register volume. The internal evidence of the register, such as the way different deponents refer to the same events, strongly points towards an uninterrupted process. The revised timeline for the inquisitions solves several contradictions in interpreting the records and proposes new lines of inquiry. A novel reconstruction of the last Waldensian minister’s visit to Stettin and surroundings is provided in the last section of the article. In general, the article addresses the constant need to re-evaluate established interpretations of premodern sources, including those uncontested in the scholarship.

  • Dalheimer, Franziska, Panu Savolainen, Laura Laine, Reima Välimäki, & Tuomas Aakala. Timber Reuse in Mediaeval Churches of Finland. International Journal of Wood Culture, 26 September 2025, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1163/27723194-bja10044.
  • Välimäki, Reima. Miten tutkia vihapuheen vaikutuksia historiassa? In Vihapuhe – syyt, seuraukset ja kontrollointi, edited by Tatu Hyttinen & Jasmin Hannonen. Helsinki: Gaudeamus, 2025. [How to study the effects of hate speech in history] https://kauppa.gaudeamus.fi/sivu/tuote/vihapuhe/5346413

  • Välimäki, Reima, & Aho, Marius. “Was It Augustine After All? Patristic Sources of Medieval Anti-heretical Polemics from the Perspective of Text Reuse Analysis”. I Quaderni Del m.æ.S. – Journal of Mediæ Ætatis Sodalicium, 22(1s), 2024, 67–122. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2533-2325/19116

Abstract:
The article explores the extent to which medieval polemical authors resorted to patristic originals and how much they adopted patristic argumentation. The authors used computational text reuse analysis using BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) to compare 189 classical and medieval texts, mainly from open repositories of digitized texts, to find similarities. The corpus includes classical works, particularly Augustine’s anti-heretical treatises, canon law, inquisition manuals, exempla collections and florilegia, sermons, and theological commentaries. The lack of medieval texts after ca. 1200 in machine-readable format is the greatest hindrance to building a representative medieval corpus. The authors propose that although medieval polemicists saw Augustine and other Church fathers as models of Christian champions fighting heresy, intensive engagement with patristic theology took place in medieval works with limited circulation and influence.

  • Välimäki, Reima & David Zbíral. Analisi delle reti sociali delle communità valdesi germanofone nell’ultimo scorcio del XIV secolo. In Storia dei valdesi 1: Come nuovi apostoli (secc. XII-XV), a cura di Francesca Tasca, 227–46. Torino: Claudiana, 2024.