Author
Paweł Włodkowic 1370?-po 1435

He was born in Brudzeń on the Skrwa River in the Dobrzyń region. Initially, he received his education in his home land, and then went to study in Prague, where he obtained a baccalaureate in 1385, and a master’s degree in liberal arts in 1393. In the years 1396-1397, he lectured at the arts faculty of the university. He returned to Poland in 1398, becoming a scholaster in Poznań, and in 1400 – a canon in Płock. In 1404, he went on to study law in Padua, where he received baccalaureate in Canon Law in 1408. After returning to Poland once again, he became the custodian and canon of the Kraków cathedral. Having obtained a doctorate in law, he took lectures at the Kraków Academy, and was its rector in the years 1414 and 1415. He became famous for representing Poland in legal disputes with the Teutonic Order. He took part in the deliberations of the Council of Constance (from 1415 until the end of the Council in May 1418). At the time, he became famous for his polemics with the negotiator of the Teutonic Knights, Johannes Falkenberg, in which the Pole propagated the then progressive ideas of tolerance towards infidels. In 1420, Włodkowic participated in the Emperor’s Court in Wrocław, and in 1421 and 1424 in papal courts in Rome. After returning from Rome in 1424, he discontinued his activity as a diplomat. He became the parish priest of the Church of St. Giles in Kraków. In the years 1425-1427, he lived in the diocese of Poznań to settle in Kraków again in 1427. He died on 2 March 1436 in Kraków. Paweł Włodkowic’s writings: Magistri Pauli Vladimiri Tractatus de potestate papae et imperatoris respectu infidelium (Treatise on the Power of the Pope and the Emperor Respecting Infidels), [in:] Rerum publicarum scientiae quae saeculo XV in Polonia viguit monumenta litteraria, ed. curavit Michael Bobrzyński, Cracoviae, Acad. Litterarum 1878, series “Starodawne Prawa Polskiego Pomniki”, v. V, p. I; Magistri Pauli Vladimiri, decretorum doctoris “Scriptum denunciatorium errorum Satyrae Ioannis Falkenberg, ed. S.F. Bełch, (Roma 1955) Bełch S.F., Paulus Vladimiri and his Doctrine concerning International Law and Politics, v. 2, The Hague 1965; Pisma wybrane Pawła Włodkowica (Selected Writings of Paweł Włodkowic), 3 volumes, ed. L. Ehrlich, (Warszawa 1966-69).

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