PERRAUD, ADOLPHE-LOUIS. – Apologist and Oratorian cardinal, born on 7 February 1828, died at Autun on 10 February 1906.
A student at the École normale supérieure, he became an agrégé in history in 1850 and was immediately appointed professor at the Lycée of Angers. In 1852 he was one of the first five members of the French Oratory, restored by Gratry; ordained a priest in 1855, he obtained his doctorate in 1865 at the Sorbonne, where he was appointed professor of ecclesiastical history. Military chaplain to the army of the Ardennes in 1870, bishop of Autun in 1874, member of the Académie française in 1882; from 1884 to 1902 (the year in which he resigned) he was Superior General of the Oratory of France.
He recounted the history of his religious institute in L’Oratoire de France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris 1865) and traced the spiritual profile of its master in Le p. Gratry. Sa vie et ses oeuvres (ibid. 1900). Also worth recalling are the historical work Etudes sur l’Irlande contemporaine (2 vols., ibid. 1862) and the profile Le card. de Richelieu (ibid. 1882).
A fine apologist, he attacked the errors of Renan: A propos de la mort et des funérailles de M. E. Renan (ibid. 1893), and of Loisy: Les erreurs de M. l’abbé Loisy condamnées par le St-Siège (ibid. 1904), always displaying his loyal fidelity to the Apostolic See. Leo XIII, appreciating his many gifts, overcame the opposition of the French government and created him cardinal in pectore in 1893, making the appointment public in 1895. His eloquence is reflected in the Parables de l’heure présente (ibid. 1877) and in the Oeuvres pastorales et oratoires (4 vols., ibid. 1893-96); noteworthy for ecclesiastical history is the posthumous work Mes relations personnelles avec le deux derniers papes: Pie IX et Léon XIII. Souvenirs, lettres, notes (1856-1903), edited by Msgr. Gauthey, archbishop of Besançon (Paris 1917).