The Medieval inquisition: scale-free networks and the suppression of heresy

Qualitative evidence suggests that heresy within the medieval Church had many of the characteristics of a scale-free network. From the perspective of the Church, heresy can be seen as an infectious disease. The disease persisted for long periods of time, breaking out again even when the Church believed it to have been eradicated. A principal mechanism of heresy was through a small number of individuals with very large numbers of social contacts.

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Year of publication:	2004
Authors:	Ormerod, Paul ; Roach, Andrew P
Published in:	Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications. - Elsevier, ISSN 0378-4371. - Vol. 339.2004, 3, p. 645-652
Publisher:	Elsevier
Subject:	Networks \| Scale-free \| Heresy \| Inquisition

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Type of publication:	Article
Source:	RePEc - Research Papers in Economics

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