He was early distinguished for his talents.

He studied at Dole, Padua, Paris, and Louvain.

At, the age of twenty he spoke seven languages with perfect facility, while his acquaintance with civil and ecclesiastical laws was considered prodigious.

At the age of twenty-three he became a canon of Liege Cathedral.

The necessary eight quarters of gentility produced upon that occasion have accordingly been displayed by his panegyrists in triumphant refutation of that theory which gave him a blacksmith for his grandfather.