PERRON. 
on the Death of Louis XIV. and from his manufcripts 
were printed, at Liege, in 1768, 4 vols. of Sermons, 121110. 
Gen. Biog. 
PERRI'TIO, a river of Naples, which runs into the 
Crate in the province of Calabria Citra. 
PER'RON, /! in architecture, a ftaircafe lying open, or 
withoutfide the building: properly, the fteps before the 
front of the building, which lead into the firft ftory when 
railed a little above the level of the ground. 
PER'RON (James Davy du), a learned and celebrated 
cardinal, was defcended from two ancient and noble fa¬ 
milies of Lower Normandy, which, on account of their 
adherence to the Proteftant faith, had found it neceflary 
to feek an afylum in Swifferland, and fettled in the can¬ 
ton of Berne, where the fubjeft of this article was born 
in the year 1556. Till he was ten years of age, his father, 
who poffeffed confiderable learning and abilities, under¬ 
took the office of his tutor, and initiated him in the ma¬ 
thematics and the Latin language. At this period of his 
life his parents returned with their family into Norman¬ 
dy ; but were for fome years afterwards driven from place 
to place by perfecution and the civil wars, till the Pro- 
teftants obtained peace from Charles IX. During this 
time young Du Perron applied diligently to his (Indies, 
and with fuch fuccefs, that he taught himfelf the Greek 
language, and philofophy, commencing the fcience laft 
mentioned with the logic of Ariftotle. He then em¬ 
ployed himfelf in ftudying the orators and poets; and af¬ 
terwards cultivated an acquaintance with the Hebrew 
language, and became fuch a proficient in it, that he could 
read it with facility without the points, and was able to 
deliver leisures upon it before the Proteftant minifters. 
In the year 1576, M. de Lancofme carried him to the 
court of Henry III. which was then at Blois, where the 
(fates were affembled, and introduced him to the king, as 
a young man of extraordinary abilities and acquirements. 
Here he afforded evidence of his talents and learning in 
■public leftures upon the mathematics and philofophy; and 
obtained fuch celebrity as a difputant, that he was foon 
left without an opponent who would venture to enter the 
lifts with him. Upon the breaking-up of the (fates he 
went to Paris, where he mounted the roftrum in the great 
hall of the Auguftines, in the habit of a cavalier, and 
held public conferences upon the fciences. 
Pie now' feems to have entertained a difpofition to¬ 
wards a change in his religious fentiments. This was 
ffrengthened by his perufal of the “ Summa” of Aquinas, 
and by the intimate friend (hip which he cultivated with 
Philip Defportes, abbot of Tiron, who made him his fub- 
ftitute in the office of reader to the king, flenry III. 
From the perufal of Aquinas’s Summa, M. du Perron was 
led to the (fudy of the fathers, particularly of the works 
of St. Auguftine; and at length he determined to em¬ 
brace the Catholic creed. Having taken this refolution, 
he entered himfelf minutely into all the controverted 
points at iffue between the two communions, and then 
formally made his abjuration. No fooner had he thus 
becomeaconvert to the Catholic church, than, with a zeal 
not unufual in new profelytes, he laboured affiduoufly 
for the converfion of others ; and this even before he had 
embraced the ecclefiaftical profeffion, in a conference with 
the chaplain of the Englifti ambaflador, and on, feveral 
other occafions. 
In the year 1586, he was felefted to pronounce the fu¬ 
neral oration for the celebrated poet Ronlard; and in the 
following year, the king appointed him to pay a fimilar 
tribute of refpect to the memory of Mary queen of Scots. 
Afterwards he wrote, by his majefty’s command, “ A 
Comparifon of moral and theological Virtues ;” and two 
“ Difcourfes,” one concerning the foul, and the other 
upon felf-knowledge, which he pronounced before that 
prince. He was in attendance upon the king when his 
majefty afterwards affembled the Hates of the kingdom at 
Blois; and after the murder of Henry III. he went to re- 
fide with cardinal Bourbon. 
641 
He now laboured more affiduoufly than ever in making 
converts from the reformed, and is faid to have been the 
means of reftoring great numbers of them to the Catholic 
fold. Among others, he converted Henry Sponde, after¬ 
wards bifliop of Pamiez, as that prelate acknowledged, in 
a dedicatory letter prefixed to his Abridgment of Baro- 
nius’s Annals. His Catholic biographers alfo claim for 
him the honour of having had a principal (hare in the 
converfion of king Henry IV. It is certain that, when 
the king had come to a determination to avow himfelf a 
Catholic, and exprefied his willingnefs to receive inftruc- 
tion on the fubjeft of religion, M. du Perron waited on 
him while he was engaged in the liege of Rouen, and fol¬ 
lowed him to Mante, where he maintained a famous dif- 
pute with four Proteftant divines. Afterwards, when tire 
king was refolved to hold a conference about religion 
with the principal prelates of the kingdom, he fent for 
du Perron to aflift in it; and, as he was then only a lav- 
man, the king nominated him to the vacant fee of Ev- 
reux, that he might be qualified to take his place among 
them. This conference was held at St. Dennis, and 
was followed by the king’s.abjuration of the Proteftant 
faith. 
After this facrifice of his religion to views of (late po¬ 
licy, Henry fent M. du Perron, together with M. d’Offar, 
to Rome, for the purpofe of negociating his reconcilia¬ 
tion with that fee; in which objeft they fucceeded, when 
pope Clement VIII. found that the king was firmly fixed 
upon his throne, and might be tempted to follow the ex¬ 
ample of Henry VIII. of England, were his holinefs to 
prove much longer implacable. While M. du Perron 
continued at Rome, in the year 1595, he was confecrated 
bifliop of Evreux. After his return to France, he la¬ 
boured ineffeftually to convert fome of the leading Pro- 
teftants to the Romifti faith, and frequently preached and 
wrote upon the points in controverly between them and 
the Catholics. Having read M. du Pleffis-Mornay’s 
treatife “ On the Eucharift,” he pretended that he had 
difcovered in it more than five hundred errors and falfe 
quotations; which proved the occalion of a conference 
between our prelate and that gentleman at Fontainbieau, 
in the prefence of the king, when the honours of vic¬ 
tory were rewarded to each of the opponents by their re- 
fpeftive parties. Afterwards the king made M. du Per¬ 
ron grand almoner of France, and in 1604. tranflated him 
from the fee of Evreux to the archbifliopric of Sens. In 
the fame year, in confequence of a letter written by the 
king to pope Clement VIII. that pontiff conferred on the 
archbifhop the dignity of Cardinal, with Angular marks 
of efteem. The indifpolition of Clement foon afterwards 
having determined the king to fend the French cardinals 
to Rome, that they might be on the fpot when the next 
conclave (hould be affembled, cardinal du Perron on his 
arrival was immediately employed by the pope in the 
moll important councils and congregations. He fup- 
ported the eleftions of Leo XI. and Paul V. and aififted 
at the congregation de auxiliis; and it was faid to be chiefly' 
owing to his advice, that the pope la ft mentioned difmifled 
the controverfy between the Jefuits and Dominicans con¬ 
cerning grace, in fuch a manner as we havefeen under his 
article, at p. 411 of this volume. Upon his return to 
France, at the requeft of the king, he wrote a Reply to 
King James t>f England’s Letter concerning Differences- 
in Religion, which that prince fent to Henry ; and he 
was alfo employed by his majefty in various other affairs. 
Some time afterwards he was fent a third time to Rome, 
together with the cardinal de Joyeufe, for the purpofe of 
bringing the differences between Paul V. and the repub¬ 
lic of Venice to an amicable termination ; and their en¬ 
deavours were not ineffeftual. Such weight had his ad¬ 
vice with that pontiff, that he once faid to thofe about 
him, “We ought to pray to God that he w'ould infpire 
cardinal du Perron, for he will perfuade us to do what¬ 
ever he pleafes.” 
It was the king’s wifli that the cardinal-archbifnop 
fhould 
