Dr. Callum Jamieson, MA (Hons), MLitt.

Biography

Dr Jamieson is a Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher at the Forschungsstelle für ius commune in Theorie und Praxis (2025-2027), funded by the Leverhulme Trust’s Study Abroad Studentship. Before arriving at the Forschunsstelle, Dr Jamieson was a Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Glasgow (2024-2025). He holds an MA (Hons) in History and Theology and Religious Studies from the University of Glasgow (2017), an MLitt in Medieval History from the University of St Andrews (2018), and a PhD in History from the University of Glasgow (2024) that was funded by the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities-Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership.

Dr Jamieson’s PhD thesis was entitled ‘Papal Judges-Delegate in England, c. 1130-1216’, and he will be continuing to develop aspects of his thesis here at the Forschungsstelle (see Projects). In 2024, Dr Jamieson was awarded the highly prestigious Marjorie Chibnall Prize by the Allen Brown Memorial Trust for an unpublished scholarly paper based upon original research relating to the study of the Anglo-Norman world (c. 850 and c. 1250). He presented his essay, entitled ‘Papal Judges-Delegate in the Reign of King Stephen (1135-1154)’, at the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies in Durham in July 2024. It has subsequently been published in Anglo-Norman Studies.

Dr Jamieson’s research interests lie primarily in the Anglo-Norman world between 1066 and 1216, with a focus on ecclesiastical life, law, and governance, and the history of the medieval papacy. A fundamental part of his research centres on papal representation in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in particular how papal agents acted within an English context and contributed to the European-wide formation of canon law. The reign of King Stephen of England (1135-1154) is another research area that Dr Jamieson retains a articular fondness for.

Projects

The Formation of the Office of Papal Judge-Delegate in Twelfth-Century Europe.

Funded by the Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Studentship

Twelfth-century Europe witnessed a renewed interest in legal learning, jurisdictional demarcation, and an ever-increasing demand for litigation before the highest legal authorities. As a result of these intertwined phenomena, vast numbers of litigants from across Europe brought localised legal disputes to the papal court for resolution. Overwhelmed by the demand for its justice, twelfth- and early thirteenth-century popes returned many legal suits to the areas of Europe from which they came for resolution, endowing regional ecclesiastics with full, yet temporary, papal authority. These men – papal judges-delegate – were one of the most common ways that churchmen, ecclesiastical institutions, and, on occasion, the laity from across Europe interacted with papal judicial authority in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Despite increasing papal utilisation of this judicial office over the twelfth century, and papal judges-delegate’s fundamental importance to popes’ ability to exercise its jurisdiction throughout Europe, at no point did the papacy issue an official, comprehensive definition of their delegates’ jurisdiction. In lieu of a formal papal definition of the office, commissioned papal judges-delegate engaged in a process of clarification with the papacy, seeking answers on the nature and scope of their authority. My project investigates the instrumental part that twelfth-century papal judges-delegate played in the formation of a comprehensible definition of their own office and its transmission across Europe. It will add further understanding to the responsive nature of papal government in this period, as well
as the importance of papal representatives, rather than the papacy, in shaping an institution that ensured papal jurisdiction was felt throughout Europe.

The importance of papal judges-delegate to the exercise of twelfth-century papal government has been demonstrated by regional studies on the outcomes of delegated cases, typified by Jane Sayers’ study of papal judges-delegate in the thirteenth-century province of Canterbury, Harald Müller’s work on Normandy, and John Ott’s examination of the province of Reims. The formation of ecclesiastical law (canon law) in the twelfth century via consultation with the papacy is also well-established. The way in which papal judges-delegate used this collaborative process to gain a fuller understanding of their office and refine procedural aspects of their role is yet to be fully explored. My project, therefore, will extend the understanding and analysis of this highly creative period for canon law more generally to the intellectual formation of one of the institutions essential for the effective exercise of papal government. My transregional approach (as outlined below) pushes the analysis of papal delegation beyond a regional focus on practical outcomes to pay closer attention to the normative development of a crucial judicial institution that was shaped by its practitioners.

My project will consist of three interlinking research avenues. First, I will establish the types of questions submitted by European papal judges-delegate to the papacy on the jurisdiction and authority of the office. Examination of the fifty or so legal compendiums (known as decretal collections that were made for future consultation and study) containing papal letters responding to written queries will shed light on the areas of judges’ jurisdiction that required clarification and refinement upon their experiences of legal praxis. This feeds into the second avenue, where I will trace the continental reception (and omission) of papal letters on the office of papal judgedelegate addressed to English prelates, as well as the addition of letters sent to European addressees, through established methodologies on the networks of the circulation of decretal collections. New decretal collections were made throughout Europe by a process of transmission, selection, and filtration of papal replies issued to other areas contained within archetypal compilations. As part of this process, additional papal letters were added demonstrating the creativity and fluidity of this endeavour. English clerics are understood to have created some of the earliest archetypal decretal collections (for example, the Wigorniensis altera in Worcester in the late 1170s or early 1180s) and to have been prominent in the initial process of consultation, compilation, and circulation of this legal material throughout Europe. This transregional approach will tell us how active judges understood the nature of the office. It will also address whether or not aspects of the office were considered to be a collective standard or if regionally distinctive elements existed before the culmination of the circulation process in the compilation of the first standard European decretal collection, Bernard of Pavia’s Brevarium extravagentium (commonly known as the Compilatio prima and seen as the start of ‘mainstream’ canon law) in the 1190s. It will also assess whether the role played by English clerics in the formation of canon law more generally can be applied to this European-wide establishment of a definition of the office of papal judge-delegate. Third, I will examine the materiality of European decretal collections, especially the use of titles to categorise papal replies (‘systematic’ decretal collections) at a later period of development in the twelfth century. The order in which the office was included amongst other ecclesiastical institutions and subjects within canon law will be evaluated to determine what this can tell us about contemporary perceptions of the office of papal judge-delegate within the exercise of papal government and more generally within canon law.

Publications

Journal Articles

• Callum A. Jamieson, ‘Papal Judges-Delegate in the Reign of King Stephen (1135-1154)’, in Anglo-Norman Studies, XLVII: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2024, ed. Mark Hagger (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2025), pp. 118-37.

Chapters in Books

• Callum A. Jamieson, ‘The Crossing of Borders: The Legations of John of Crema, 1124-1125’, in Borders and the Norman World: Frontiers and Boundaries in Medieval Europe, eds. Dan Armstrong, Áron Kecskés, Charles C. Rozier, and Leonie V. Hicks (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2023), pp. 215-41.

Reviews

• Callum A. Jamieson, review of D. L. d’Avray, The Power of Protocol: Diplomatics and the Dynamics of Papal Government, c. 400–c. 1600 (2023), The Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture, 11.1 (2025), pp. 115-18.

Professional Memberships

• Ecclesiastical History Society
• Iuris Canonici Medii Aevi Consociatio (International Society of Medieval Canon Law)
• Member, Royal Historical Society