Res Publica: Polish Commonwealth According to the Legacy of Master Wincenty

The Institute of World Politics

About the Lecture: 800 years have passed since the death of Master Wincenty (ca. 1150–1223), called Kadłubek, the first Polish jurist known to us. In his outstanding literary work, the Chronicle of the Poles he told us about Poland forever. The success of Wincenty's political narrative was made possible by the fact that his Chronicle of the Poles was a history textbook until the 19th century, rewritten and interpreted by historians. The cultural code written there was thus introduced into the bloodstream of Poles. However, his work was also a rhetoric textbook at the Krakow Academy since the 15th century. Why? Wincenty told us about Poland using legal categories and this left its mark on our identity and mentality. Freedom and law, justice and mercy, solidarity and loyalty play in the Polish soul to this day. Wincenty is the first to apply the concept of a republic (res publica) to the Polish state. He treated the need to renew the spirit and introduce reforms seriously, but he knew that not everything that came from the West was Christian, and the rational customs of the ancestors should be respected. Two wings: faith and reason are the basis of his actions. He had an open mind, but also a practical sense and knew the Polish soul and its flaws well. To understand Poland and its political and cultural context even today, you have to understand Master Wincenty. About the Speakers: Dr. Grzegorz Blicharz is the Director of the Centre for Law Religious Freedom and Assistant Professor at the Department of Roman Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration of Jagiellonian University in Kraków. His work focuses on Roman law in comparative perspective, on comparative freedom of religion and freedom of speech, and especially on the impact of religious freedom on the development of private law and legal doctrine. He has held visiting appointments at the Institute of European and Comparative Law at the University of Oxford (2020) and at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University (2021). Professor Franciszek Longchamps de Bérier is a professor law and the Head of the Department of Roman Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration of Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He also teaches at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw. He has an LL.M. from Georgetown University. He is a Catholic priest and an expert on bioethics for the Polish Episcopal Conference as well as a member of the COMECE Legal Affairs Commission. For the past 20 years, he has also lectured and conducted research on U.S. freedom of speech and religion.