After graduating in Paris he taught at the Collège de Guyenne in Bordeaux, and then at Toulouse, Avignon, Lyon, Cahors, Valence, Grenoble, Turin and Mondovi.

In 1527 he went to study in the University of Paris along with 28 other Portuguese students, who were granted scholarships by King John III of Portugal advised by his uncle Diogo, then rector of Collège Sainte-Barbe.

After returning to the College of Guienne in 1543 he engaged in a defense of Aristoteles against the views of Pierre de la Ramée (Ramus), having published Pro Aristotele responsio aduersus Petri Rami calumnias, which gained him the approval of Francis I of France.

His works dealt mainly with law, but also poetry, fruit of time he spent editing and translating classical sources in search of the original meaning.

Although sympathetic to Lutheranism and once accused of being an atheist by John Calvin, he returned to Catholic orthodoxy.