During his childhood Caesar probably lived with Adriana Mila, his father’s cousin. A granddaughter of Catalina, sister of Calixtus III., she had married Ludovico Orsini, Lord of Bassanello, who died some time before 1488. She dwelt in the Orsini palace in Rome. Lucretia Borgia also was placed under her care. Adriana Mila was more than Rodrigo Borgia’s kinswoman, she was his confidante up to the day of his death. Her son it was who married the beautiful Giulia Farnese, and Adriana was the complaisant witness of the adulterous relations of his wife, “Christ’s Bride,” as the satirists called her, with her cousin, St. Peter’s successor. The dedication--already mentioned--of Paolo Pompilio’s treatise on rhetoric to Caesar in 1488 is the first public notice we have of him. The following year he was a student of canon law at the Sapienza of Perugia, where he also had a special preceptor, Juan Vera of Valencia. At the university he had a number of intimate friends and companions--all young Spaniards--who were closely associated with his subsequent fortunes. The most famous of these young men was Francesco Romolino of Lerida, one of the commissioners sent to Florence in 1498 by Alexander VI. to secure the conviction of Savonarola, and who remarked to his host, Pandolfo della Luna: “We shall make a fine bonfire; I bear the sentence with me already prepared.”[13] From Perugia, where Caesar spent about two years, he went to Pisa--in 1491--to attend the lectures of Filippo Decio, one of the most famous professors of canon law of that day, and he was still there September 12, 1491, on which date Innocent VIII. conferred the bishopric of Pamplona on him. Five days later Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, in his capacity of Vice-Chancellor of the Church, informed the Chapter of Pamplona, and the alcaldes and counsellors of the city, of the appointment; and on the same day Caesar, the dignified bishop of fifteen years, also brought the fact to the notice of these various personages and sent them as his representative the venerable Martin Zapata, Canon-Treasurer of Toledo, provided with a power of attorney, and the bulls and letters naming him administrator of the province. The original documents are in the archives of Pamplona. In the first letter, which is written by Caesar’s father, in Spanish, he is described as a _persona muy a nos conjunta_--“a person very closely connected with us.” The cardinal adds: “The Holy Father has decided to appoint to this bishopric the prothonotary Don Caesar de Borgia, distinguished for his virtues and his learning.” Caesar’s letter, written at Soriano, is as follows:--