ABSTRACT
Considered the father of Polish culture, Wincenty Kadłubek was a Catholic prelate, a jurist and author of the Chronicle of the Poles. As bishop of Kraków (1208–18), he was a local legislator for his diocese, one who diligently implemented the resolutions and reforms of the Fourth Lateran Council; he was also an ally of the archbishop of Gniezno, Henryk Kietlicz, in his reformation of the church in Poland. Earlier, as a notary and adviser at the court of Duke Casimir the Just, Wincenty was responsible for the creation of numerous acts of law and a number of political decisions. In the Chronicle and other documents, he left behind his profound knowledge of Roman and canon law. As probably the first Polish graduate of the schools of Paris and Bologna, Wincenty shows that even if Poland seemed at the time to be on the periphery of great politics, it certainly did not become a backwater intellectually. In him, as in a vital, originating spark, the light of the later history of Poland was already contained.
