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Andrej Cvinček was a politically active priest. His involvement in politics was also noticed by the episcopate, especially by his superiors, the bishops of Nitra, who were authorised to control and approve his political activity in the light of canon law and the doctrine of the Church. In the present paper we want to analyse both Cvinček’s relations with the bishops and the influence of the episcopate on his views and actions in politics. For the sake of comparison, we have chosen three periods of Cvinček’s life that had different parameters in his political and ecclesiastical position. Before 1918, Cvincek was a young enthusiast of popular politics, but also a poor chaplain interspersed among Slovak village parishes. In the interwar period he became a canon, but found himself in the minority in Slovak political Catholicism. After the Second World War, Cvinček experienced a remarkable return to politics, in which he achieved a much more important position than in previous periods, and so his political importance also increased in the eyes of Slovak bishops. The aim of this paper is thus to examine Cvinček’s political career in the light of the fact that he was a Catholic clergyman. The priestly component of Andrej Cvinček’s personality is as essential to our research as the political one. Against this background, we can also observe the development of the ideas that were promoted in the ecclesiastical milieu. Therefore, our study intends to be a contribution not only to the knowledge of Cvincek in the light of political changes, but also to place his personality in the context of ecclesiastical development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]