PERSECUTIO's aim is to study causal dependencies and relations between polemical texts against Christianity's religious enemies— heretics, Muslims, Jews and witches—and concrete acts of persecution against those deemed to be representatives of such groups in late medieval Europe between 1300–1500. Despite intense research on medieval religious conflicts, this fundamental question has not been addressed with sufficient theoretical and methodological rigour. The hypothesis of this research is that there are multiple causal mechanisms between the production of polemical texts and acts of persecution and that these mechanisms can be observed empirically, explored quantitatively and tested with statistical modelling. With this focus, the project enhances our understanding of a topic that is simultaneously scientifically contested and societally relevant: how hostile words lead to hostile actions.

2023

2027