Paweł Włodkowic 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) are the symbols of fundamental for shaping Polish political and social thought focused on the rights of people, 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 the pivotal for the peaceful functioning of Central Europe conflict of the Polish-Lithuanian union with the Teutonic Order, whose representatives sought to convert the gentiles by force, and in practice often exterminate them.
