PERRAUD (Adolphe Louis Albert) - Lot 127

PERRAUD (Adolphe Louis Albert) Lyon, February 7, 1828 - Autun, February 10, 1906. Oratorian, bishop of Autun, cardinal, ecclesiastical historian and member of the Académie française. Long L.A.S. "A. Perraud", Autun, June 24, 1882, to a friend; 4 pages in-8 on embossed paper with his coat of arms. Important, warm letter concerning the Académie française, intellectual and religious vocation, and Catholic higher education. Perraud thanks his correspondent for the congratulations on his election to the Académie française: "I was well assured that you would not be among the last to warmly greet the election of your old master to the Académie". He recalls with emotion the loyalty of his former disciples: "This fidelity of memory, across the distance of years, has touched me deeply". The letter then takes a more personal and philosophical turn. The cardinal returns to "the suffrage of so many honest people" and the moral responsibility attached to this new distinction. Above all, he insists on the idea of a Christian intellectual apostolate: "Like the episcopate, this new honor has come to me in the relative obscurity of a life entirely devoted to a work whose reward the apostle does not ask of men". A very interesting reflection on the relationship between faith and knowledge, Perraud recalls the words of the Gospel: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the rest shall be added unto you". The prelate also points out that he remains "the only normalien" in his class to have achieved such a distinction, finely evoking the connection between his recent academic reception and the success of a former student in the concours général. This letter is a remarkable testimony to the reception of the academic election of a great ecclesiastic under the Third Republic, as well as to the place of intellectual Catholicism in France in the 1880s. Beautiful and ample "A. Perraud". Some foxing and old traces of dried flower; very good overall condition.