**BOURDEILLES, Hélie.** - Francesco, cardinal, b. at the castle of Bourdeilles (Périgueux) between 1410-15, d. at the castle of Artennes (Tours) on 5 July 1484. Elected bishop of Périgueux (1437) by the cathedral chapter, promoted (1468) to archbishop of Tours, he was created cardinal by Sixtus IV in 1483.
**Austere and zealous, he devoted himself not only to the reform of the two dioceses, but also vigorously defended the rights and freedom of the Church, first in 1452 by protesting against the reapplication of the "Pragmatic Sanction" by Charles VII; then by pleading before Louis XI, of whom he was confessor, the cause of Cardinal La Balue and the bishop of Verdun, guilty but condemned and imprisoned in violation of ecclesiastical immunities; as a member of the commission for the revision of the trial of St. Joan of Arc, he wrote one of the best defenses of her cause.**
**His profound piety, his great charity toward the poor, and some extraordinary events occurring at his tomb led to his being proclaimed blessed; and in 1526 the process of canonization was introduced. In the *Martyrologium Franci-sacrum* (ed. I. Beschin-J. Palazzolo, Rome 1938) his feast is celebrated, as that of a blessed, on 5 July (op. cit., p. 249).**
**Principal works:** *Pro pragmaticae sanctionis abrogatione* (Rome 1486); *Defensio concordatorum* (Paris 1520); *Consideration sur la Pucelle de France*, appended to the rehabilitation process.
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