Born in the diocese of Sens, he studied Arts at the Collège de Montaigu of the University of Paris. Beginning in 1508, Jacques Almain studied theology with John Mair at the College of Navarre in Paris. The University chose Almain to reply to a polemical tract by Cardinal Thomas Cajetan, the Pope"s most eminent apologist.
He served as Rector of the University in 1507. He received his license in Theology in January 1512 and his doctorate in the same subject in March of that year. When King Louis XII of France decided to support the 1511 Council of Pisa (or conciliabulum, as it was called dismissively) against Pope Julius II, the University was told to support this assembly.
Almain wrote a trenchant critique of that tract by Cajetan, but did not live to answer the Apologia the Pope"s defender wrote in response.
Nor did Almain comment directly on the Fifth Lateran Council called by Pope Julius to counter the assembly in Pisa.
