Writings (1416–1432)

Pawel Wlodkowic and his Tractatus de potestae papae et imperatoris respectu infidelium (Treatise on the Power of the Pope and Emperor Respecting Infidels) presented during the Council of Constance (1414-1418) is a symbol of fundamental importance for shaping Polish political and social thought focused on human rights, their natural inclinations to forming communities subjected to natural law and the law of nations. At the same time, the context of the announcement of his dissertation evokes the greatest diplomatic victory of Poland in Europe at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, connected with events pivotal for the peaceful functioning of Central Europe, i.e., the conflict of the Polish-Lithuanian union with the Teutonic Order, whose representatives sought to convert the gentiles by force, which in practice often amounted to exterminating them.

In the linguistic and scholastic manner proper for that period, the treatise considers questions that were fundamental and universal for political and religious communities, such as: What is the boundary between just and unjust use of force? What is the significance of the national right to freedom, existence and self-determination for international peace? Today, we can consider Pawel Wlodkowic’s thought from the perspective that allows us to appreciate that this way of thinking eventually created conditions for the emergence of the modern concept of human rights and religious tolerance.

Reinforcing the pragmatic and specific political goals that Włodkowic has faced with the original humanist-Christian approach, supported by the highest (in that historical period) scientific and intellectual standards, has resulted in presenting the whole of Europe with such ideas that today can be appraised as Polish contribution to development European thought in the fifteenth century and that preceded Francis of Vittoria, one of the fathers of international law, by one century.