PERRAUD, ADOLPHE-LOUIS. - Oratorian apologist and cardinal, b. 7 Feb. 1828, d. at Autun 10 Feb. 1906.

A pupil of the École normale supérieure, agrégé in history in 1850, he was immediately appointed professor at the Lycée of Angers. In 1852 he was one of the first 5 members of the French Oratory, restored by Gratry; a priest in 1855, he received his doctorate in 1865 at the Sorbonne, where he was admitted as professor of ecclesiastical history. Military chaplain of the Army of the Ardennes in 1870, in 1874 bishop of Autun, in 1882 a member of the Académie française; from 1884 to 1902 (the year in which he resigned) Superior General of the Oratory of France.

He narrated the vicissitudes of his religious Institute in the Oratoire de France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris 1865) and traced the spiritual physiognomy of the master in Le p. Gratry. Sa vie et ses oeuvres (ibid. 1900). Also to be remembered is 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 showing his loyal fidelity to the Apostolic See. Leo XIII, appreciating his many gifts, having overcome the opposition of the French government, created him cardinal in pectore in 1893, publishing him 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).

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: A. Baudrillart, Le card. P., Paris 1906; G. Longhaye, Le XIXe siècle, V, ibid. 1908, pp. 48-61; D. Ferrata, Mémoires, II, Rome 1920, p. 229 f.; H. Lecanuet, Les premières années du pontifical de Léon XIII, 2nd ed., ibid. 1931 (see index); Ch. Fiel, Lettres inédit, de mer P. à l'occasion de son élévation au cardinalat, ibid. 1933; J. Brougerette, Le prêtre français et la société contemporaine, II, ibid. 1935 (see index); F. Cayré, Patrol. et hist. de la théologie, III, ibid. 1944, pp. 488.

Antonio Piolanti

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Perraud, Adolphe-Louis

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