[3] Several historians consider that Paul and his family belonged to the Szécsi branch of the gens (clan) Balog,[1] based on the 15th-century Pauline friar Gergely Gyöngyösi's Vitae fratrum Eremitarum Ordinis Sancti Pauli Primi Eremitae,[4] but it is not without doubt.

György Györffy argued the "Árma branch" of the gens Hont-Pázmány consisted of Paul and his brothers, but Pál Engel did not connect them to the widely extended kindred in his genealogical work.

[1] According to historian István Hajnal, Paul was identical with that namesake clergyman, who was referred to as royal chaplain and papal vicar in the court of Béla IV of Hungary in 1245.

[10] In 1262 the hermit Eusebius of Esztergom went to Rome with his companions to meet Pope Urban IV to ask him for approval for founding his own order.

Consequently, Vékony claimed the work was completed in the second half of the 13th century, unlike the majority of modern scholars, who argued Anonymus was a notary of Béla III of Hungary (r.

[7] During his tenure as its chancellor, Queen's Chancellery issued a charter for Paul's brother Benedict in 1265, in which the term is included "de genere Turda", referring to the gens Tardos (or Tordos), which owned lands in the same area.

The historian added, similarities between the work and Béla's "Tartar letter" (c. 1248) also proves that Paul belonged to the close retinue of the Hungarian monarch by that time.

During Paul's tenure (perhaps he himself was responsible for its establishment), there was an illustrious cathedral chapter school in Veszprém (but not universitas, as Vékony incorrectly claimed), containing a sizable library and archives.

Also a former chancellor in the queenly court, they had personal conflicts each other, in addition to various lawsuits between the Diocese of Veszprém and the Provostry of Óbuda (where Ákos was provost) over numerous possessions.

Thus, Paul Balog had to wrote his Gesta Hungarorum after Ákos' work, most presumably in 1273, when he was replaced as royal chancellor by Nicholas Kán for a relatively longer time.

Paul's confrontation with his successor (who belonged to the rival baronial group in that time) contributed to that the author of Gesta Hungarorum indicated the gens Kán of "unknown origin" (while magister Ákos derived them from the lineage of gyulas).

While Paul was a partisan of the gens Csák during the 1270s feudal anarchy, Ákos stood with their rival, the Kőszegi family (he possibly intentionally placed their arrival to the age of Grand Prince Géza [r. 972–997], emphasizing its ancient origin, while in fact, they only came to Hungary in the 1140s).

In addition to Ákos, Vékony claimed that Simon of Kéza, author of the Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum knew and used Anonymus' work (against the mainstream position).

To substantiate the claim, Vékony argued Simon attended the chapter school of Veszprém between 1273 and 1276 (where read the Gesta Hungarorum), before moving to a foreign universitas.

[24] In addition, Thoroczkay argued Vékony did not take into account a number of facts which would have contradicted his theory (for instance, that Anonymus had a detailed knowledge of the lands along the upper courses of the river Tisza, in the opposite part of the kingdom from that region, where Paul Balog lived and operated).