Paul first appears in contemporary records around 1177, when he functioned as provost of the
collegiate chapter of
Fehérvár and royal notary. In this capacity, he formulated the
last will and testament of one Kaba in favor of the
Pannonhalma Abbey upon the order of King
Béla III, who issued the charter on a Sunday, while sitting under an oak tree at the palace of
comes Scene in
Esztergom. This document is the last royal sealed diploma, which was issued on behalf of a private individual. In 1178, Paul was styled as royal chancellor. He formulated that royal privilege, in which Béla III ennobled three
royal servants, the ancestors of the Salamon de Milej noble family and donated the village of
Milej in
Zala County to them. However this royal charter later proved to be a non-authentic forgery. He elevated into the position of Bishop of
Transylvania by 1181. Simultaneously, Paul was succeeded as "chancellor" possibly by notary Vaska. Despite that, due to his high literacy, Paul remained occasionally in his former role. He formulated
that famous document in that year, in which Béla III emphasized the importance of written records, ordering that a charter was to be issued for all transactions proceeding in his presence. This decision resulted the establishment of the permanent Royal Chancery and the proliferation of governmental literacy, independently of the ecclesiastical institutions. According to historian László Fejérpataky, Paul acted as an
ad hoc chancellor in this case. The royal document itself was a royal approval of that possession contract, during which Froa, widow of the late provost Marcellus sold the land of Szőllős to
Farkas Gatal,
Palatine of Hungary. There is no record of any further ecclesiastical activity of Paul in
Transylvania. Sometime after the death of the forceful Archbishop
Andrew of Kalocsa in 1186, Paul was elected as his successor. He was still styled as Archbishop-elect of Kalocsa on 6 May 1188, when Béla III transcribed and confirmed his late brother,
Stephen III's donations to the monastery of St. John in
Biograd. A non-authentic charter from 1175 already refers to him as Archbishop of Kalocsa. Historian Attila Zsoldos analyzed the document in detail and revealed the contradictions between archontological data, which still exist despite that historiographical efforts which tried to correct the charter's date to 1183 or 1185. Paul again appears in a forgery, allegedly issued in 1188, but its list of dignitaries is reliable. Paul was succeeded as archbishop by
Peter in 1192 at the latest. According to a non-authentic charter, he already held the dignity in 1190. As Peter's namesake successor in the
Archdiocese of Split already appears in 1191, it implies that he was transferred to the Archbishopric of Kalocsa prior to that, presumably in 1190, which suggests that Paul died in that year. ==Identification theory==