Raymond PeraudiRaimund or Raimondo; Perauldi, Péraud, Perrault, or Pérault. (1435–1505) was a French Augustinian, papal legate, and Cardinal. He was a perpetual traveler, engaging in diplomatic negotiations at various times for the pope, the emperor and the king of France. He was an effective administrator of territories belonging to the Roman Church. In his various assignments to preach indulgences for a Crusade or for the Jubilee of 1500, he became an early point of controversy in the dispute over the efficacy of indulgences, and the right of the pope to grant them.
Education Raymond Peraudi was born in 1435 in the small village of Saint-Germain-de-Marencennes, some three miles southwest of Surgères, in the Aunis in western France. He was placed in the Augustinian cloister of Saint Aegidius in Surgères, from which he was sent to study in Paris, where he became a bursary member of the Collège de Navarre.Arcerès, p. 296. Arcerès states that Raymond taught school children at Surgères and at La Rochelle before going to Paris. He obtained the degree of doctor of theology.Schneider, p. 2 with note 2. He returned to Surgères and was elected or appointed Prior of Saint-Aegidius. In 1472 and 1473 King Louis XI stayed in Surgères, where he was campaigning, and it is conjectured that it was at that time that the King came to know Peraudi, whom he appointed one of his Aumoniers.Louis Audiat, in a review of Schneider in:
Early career
Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484) was concerned about the deteriorated condition of a number of French cathedrals. His attention to the situation at Saintes in particular was drawn by King Louis XI. On 3 August 1476 the Pope confirmed the plenary indulgences previously granted to the cathedral, but now on the condition that persons seeking the indulgence actually visit the church and contribute a sum of money for the repair of the fabric, either to the Chapter or to the local papal collector of revenues. He extended the indulgence to the benefit of souls in Purgatory designated by the persons making the offering.The text of the bull is given in: Louis Audiat, "Évêché et chapitre de Saintes," The bull refers (p. 62) to Raymond Peraudi as Sacrae Paginae professori, ac dictae ecclesiae canonico, ac collectori nostro. This action raised protests from monks and preachers, including Jean de Fabrica and the Rector of the University of Poitiers Nicolas Richard, who argued that the pope did not have jurisdiction over souls in Purgatory; and that the system favored the rich over the poor. To make the attacks stop, Pope Sixtus issued a letter of explanation on 27 November 1477, which did nothing to calm the criticism. Finally, at the demand of Louis XI, he issued another letter, dated 26 April 1482 and addressed to Raymond Peraud, Archdeacon of Aunis;Peraud was Apostolic Collector for the Provinces of Auch and Bordeaux: it declared that the indulgences in effect before his bull of 1476 were still in effect with their original force, hoping thereby to remove the irritant to the locals. The controversy continued however, and in due course was taken up by Martin Luther."Catalogue raisonné de livres... en vente à la librairie de J. Techener (Avril-Mai 1861),"
In 1481 King Louis XI sent an embassy to the Pope, intending to stir up enthusiasm in Italy for a crusade against the Turks, but also to show that he did not intend to allow Ferdinand I of Naples to be a dominant power in Italy. The third member of the embassy was Raymond Peraud. They arrived in Rome on Ash Wednesday, and turned over to the papal treasury 300,000 ducats which had been collected in France for the crusade.Audiat (1885), p.93. Audiat believed that the title of Protonotary came after the death of Louis XI on 30 August 1483. On April 1 the Pope awarded Louis XI the Golden Rose. It was during this embassy that Peraudi was awarded the title of Protonotary Apostolic. In June 1482 Sixtus IV sent Peraudi as nuncio to France.Richard, p. 123, with note 2.
In 1486 Peraudi was sent on an embassy to the Emperor Frederick III, in order to win him over to papal policies. Peraudi took part in the Diet of Speyer and the Diet of Nuremberg. After the Diet of Nuremberg the Emperor sent Peraudi to Rome to obtain the condemnation of a criminous clerk from the Pope; his request was granted. On 20 April 1487, Pope Innocent VIII made yet another appeal against the Turks and imposed a tax of a tenth of the annual income of ecclesiastics. Protests were loud, especially in Germany. Peraudi was immediately sent back to Germany to proclaim the indulgence being granted for the crusade. On 22 March 1488, as Orator, Nuntius and Commissarius, he published the decree of indulgences at Mainz.Audiat (1882), pp. 77-78. Schneider, pp. 8-16. In 1489, one of the sub-Collectors on Peraudi's staff, Antonius Mast, was sent to Sweden, and in October began to preach the crusade against the Turks in Stockholm.Jensen, pp. 123, 138. In 1490 he published the same indulgences in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Livonia, Prussia and Russia.Audiat (1882), pp. 78-81. In 1490 Peraudi also termed himself Referendarius Domesticus in one of his decrees.
In 1488 Raymond Peraudi was certainly a Protonotary Apostolic.Audiat (1882), p. 77. Burchard, Diarium (ed. Thuasne), I, p. 39. He was still Archdeacon of Aunis in the Church of Saintes when he was sent as nuncio to Germany in 1490 by Pope Innocent VIII to collect money for a crusade against the Turks.Joannes Trithemius, Annales Hirsaugienses Vol. II, 536.
In February 1490 he was at Linz, and writing to Albert of Bavaria.Schneider, p. 120. In June he was in Tours, having been sent by the Emperor and the King of the Romans to assist in peace negotiations with Brittany. The papal nuncio, Antonio FloresA priest of Seville, Flores was a Doctor of Canon and Civil Law, and was a Papal Referendary. He was appointed Bishop of Stabiae in 1496, and Archbishop of Avignon in 1503. Eubel, II, p. 241. wrote to Pope Innocent, "Peraud seems a worthy but loquacious and vain man; his participation in this embassy is merely nominal and ceremonial; but he maintains a multitude of couriers, and sends them off with the earliest news, to gain personal importance." On 19 June 1490, King Charles VIII wrote to the cardinals in Rome to convince the Pope to keep nostre amé et feal conseillier Raymond Peyraud in his position as Legate to the Emperor and King of the Romans. On 13 September he wrote to the Pope, asking that Peyraud not be recalled to Rome but to be allowed to continue in his German legation.
He was approved as bishop of Gurk in Consistory by Pope Innocent VIII on 21 February 1491, and, unusually, was allowed to retain the diocese when he became a cardinal in 1493. He finally resigned the diocese on 6 October 1501.Eubel, II, p. 162 with note 5.
Cardinal Bishop Peraldi was recommended for a red hat both by Maximilian, King of the Romans, and by King Charles VIII of France. He was named a cardinal on 20 September 1493 by Pope Alexander VI, and was granted the Deaconry of Santa Maria in Cosmedin on 23 September.Eubel, II, p. 22 no. 10, with note 1. He finally appeared in Rome on 22 April 1494, having returned from his German legation, and was received in Consistory the next day by Pope Alexander and given his red hat.Eubel, II, p. 51, no. 554. On 25 May, Trinity Sunday, the Cardinal of Gurk sang the solemn mass in the papal chapel in the presence of the Pope.Burchard, Diarium, II, pp. 177-179. He was promoted a Cardinal priest by 17 October 1494,Burchard, Diarium, II, p. 193, though Eubel (II, p. 65) says he was Cardinal Priest of San Vitale circa 1496. On 6 March 1499, however, Burchard (p. 512) has him seated at a ceremony at the Minerva among the cardinal-priests, with two cardinal priests seated below him in rank, one of whom was Cardinal Juan de Castro, created a cardinal-priest on 19 February 1496 (Eubel, II, p. 23 no. 19). and assigned the titular church of San Vitale, Rome.
War Unfortunately for the peace of the Italian peninsula, King Ferdinand I of Naples died on 25 January 1494. This gave King Charles VIII of France the pretext he needed to assert his right to the throne of Naples, however weak it was. Pope Alexander VI, however, accepted the claim of Ferdinand's son Alfonso, who was crowned by the Papal Legate on 8 May. The Pope, who was the feudal overlord of Naples, also had ambitions to carve out a principality for at least one of his sons. King Charles immediately launched his campaign, crossing into Italy with 25,000 troops in September. Milan fell to his troops, and he installed his ally Ludovico Sforza as Duke rather than Regent. Charles was in Pavia on 21 October, and in Pisa on 8 November. The foolish behavior of Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici brought about a revolution in Florence. Pope Alexander was frantic as the French army moved through Tuscany as far as Nepi; he was in a state of terror when French troops seized Ostia.Michael Mallett, Christine Shaw (2012), The Italian Wars: 1494–1559, Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited, pp. 19-22. Pastor, V, pp. 434-449. Pope Alexander had no ready cash and fewer than 2,000 troops, mostly Spanish. He could barely expect to defend the Castel Sant'Angelo. On 6 October, he attempted to send a Legate, Cardinal Francesco Tedeschini-Piccolomini, to negotiate with King Charles. He found the King at Lucca on 8 October, but Charles would not even receive him.Pastor, V, pp. 436-438.
On 31 October 1494, Cardinal Peraudi informed Joannes Burchard that he intended to resign the diocese of Gurk, under certain conditions related to pensions, and that he had decided on Burchard as his successor. Burchard protested his unworthiness and asked for time to consider the offer. Next day the Cardinal celebrated the solemn Mass for the Feast of All Saints in St. Peter's Basilica in the presence of the Pope.Burchard, Diarium, II, pp. 193-194. Nothing came of the intention to resign. Perhaps the incident was only Peraudi's nervous reaction to an increasingly difficult personal situation.