[1] After receiving the basic education, he went to Naples, where he studied law under the guidance of his uncle Gennaro and Basilio Giannelli.

[4] At that time, Marcello was influenced by the ideas of his uncle (who was both against the Jesuits and the Spanish rule) and by the Neapolitan cultural environment of that period.

He was influenced by the Congregazione dei padri pii operai and their leader father Torres (an enlightened clergyman), in 1709 he decided to start an ecclesiastical career, animated by the desire to renew the Church, and on 10 June 1713 he became priest.

He developed works of reform of the clergy and, above all, he had the idea of establishing a university of studies in the city, using the revenues of the so-called Monte a Moltiplico.

[6] Cusani's idea was to use the savings of Monte a Moltiplico in order to establish a university and guarantee a public and royal (not led by the church) education.

The idea pleased the then king of Naples, Charles III of Spain, who was interested in limiting the dominance of the Church in the education of the youths.

Moreover, from a purely cultural point of view, he reformed juridical and philosophical studies in order to reduce the dominance of the Jesuits and, in addition, he contributed to spread the ideas of John Locke.

[1] Marcello Papiniano Cusani had two notable relatives, his granduncle,[1] Biagio Cusano, poet and professor of Canoni della mattina.