On 7 July 1503, he was appointed during the papacy of
Pope Alexander VI as
Bishop of Sulcis in
Sardinia. On 9 January 1514, he was appointed during the papacy of
Pope Leo X as
Archbishop of Cagliari in Sardinia. He served as until his death in 1521. In the 16th century Sardinia belonged to
Habsburg Spain. Presumably Juan Pilars descended from the Spanish Pilars family from
Zaragoza. Another theory indicates that he was from
Bohemia, also part of Habsburg Empire. ==References==