He does not seem to have become involved in any scientific controversies, even though there is evidence that the cordial "abbot"(as he was called in Coimbra) did not spare his words when the honourability of historical research (among some other topics) was at stake. This would have been the case of António Nogueira Gonçalves's attack on his study on the Sé Velha [Old Cathedral] of Coimbra, or the position he adopted towards some of Rodrigues Lapa's theses in Lições de Literatura Portuguesa. Época Medieval [Lessons on Portuguese Literature. The Medieval Period], re-edited at the time.

More is guessed than proven about Pierre David's political profile, but he was without any doubt much more than an erudite ecclesiastic living apart from the world and the complexity of life's options. Pierre Hourcade claims he had two allegiances: the Church and France. Based on this, the little we do know comes from the years following 1939. Despite the post Pierre David received from the Vichy government mentioned above, Pierre Hourcade tells us that from June 1940 on his position as a patriot and an Allied sympathizer, which he never abdicated from, was well known. In fact, the periodical Le Dauphiné Libéré calls him "one of the most noble figures of the Resistance". As said above, Pierre David was therefore a strong candidate for being sent to a concentration camp and so he came to Portugal as if seeking political asylum. Here, and until the end of the war, he used all his prudence and good sense to manage the precarious balance of antagonistic disputes, giving good advice to those members of the French community who asked him for it, avoiding conflicts and respecting the hospitality of the Portuguese government. Even though maintaining a certain discretion, he seems to have been part of the Coimbra elites connected to the Estado Novo, becoming part of this institution's scientific renewal in the post-war years. In the PIDE/DGS [Secret Police] Archive in the Torre do Tombo there is no file on Pierre David.

He belonged to various cultural and academic associations: Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Letters (1934); Knight and Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Order Odrodzenie Polski, 1932); Member of the Academy of the Dauphiné (Académie du Dauphiné) and the Humbert II Society for the History of the Dauphiné (Société Humbert II pour l’histoire du Dauphiné); Knight and Officer of the Légion d’honneur (1934 and 1951 respectively); Officier de l'Instruction Publique (Golden Palms) (France, January 1927); Correspondent Member of the Institute of Coimbra (1946).

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