Raymond Peraudi
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.[5] 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.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.[11] 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.[14] 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.The papal nuncio, Antonio Flores[17] 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.[19] 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.[22] 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.[23] On 25 May, Trinity Sunday, the Cardinal of Gurk sang the solemn mass in the papal chapel in the presence of the Pope.Pope Alexander VI, however, accepted the claim of Ferdinand's son Alfonso, who was crowned by the Papal Legate on 8 May.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.He was also scandalized about the Pope's dealing with the Turkish government and with King Charles VIII over the person of the Sultan's brother Djem.At Perugia he confided to the Florentine Secretary Alessandro Braccesi (who immediately reported the conversation to his government) that he planned to return to Foligno and wait for the appearance of Charles VIII in Italy, and then confer with him; on no account did he intend to go to Rome.[36] In 1498, Peraudi was in France on papal business, working to put together a league to include the Papacy, the French, and Venice.[53] Cardinal Raymond Peraudi died at Viterbo on 5 September 1505, and was buried in the Augustinian church of Santissima Trinità.