The name is absent

Lawyers and Church in Renaissance 147
Sforza rule. Educated originally in literature and the arts to
serve the Sforza as a humanist secretary, Decio was attracted
to the profession of the law by the example of his elder
brother. He attended the University of Pavia and had so
successful a career there that he acquired a reputation as a
prodigy and began at a very young age to hold public dispu-
tations which gained for him the admiration of both stu-
dents and faculty. In 1473 he was called to the University of
Pisa at first in a minor capacity but his talents soon won him
an appointment from Lorenzo de Medici to a regular position
in the academic hierarchy. Decio then entered upon a stormy
career in the university marked by rivalries and dissensions
not only with other professors but also with the officials of
the University in Florence. He complained of his salary, of
the hours in which he had to lecture and of the degree of
prestige which was accorded him. In spite of these difficulties
his salary was regularly advanced until he was receiving
more than any other professor. After the French invasion
of 1494 the university entered upon a difficult period and
Decio was willing to listen to invitations from elsewhere. He
accepted a post at Padua in the service of the Venetians in
1501 but left abruptly four years later on the urgent request
of King Louis XII himself to return to the University of
Pavia. When the French king entered into his conflict with
the pope in 1510, the legal advice of Decio was solicited to
support the French dominated Council of Pisa and Decio
was willing to argue for the king that the legal power to
convoke an ecumenical council resided not only in the col-
lege of cardinals as a whole but also in a part thereof or even
in certain circumstances in the cardinals as individuals.
Decio’s advice to the King of France on this occasion was
afterwards published in a consilium which is of interest in

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