William Perault

William Perault, (c. 1190 – 1271), also spelled Perauld; Latinized Peraldus or Peraltus, was a Dominican writer and preacher.

He studied at the Sorbonne University of Paris, and there, being drawn to the religious life by the preaching perhaps of Jordan of Saxony, he was received into the Dominican Order.

It is thought that Perault was somewhat advanced in years when he embraced the religious state, although the precise date of his entrance into it is also unknown.

At Lyons, where he passed his life, at once contemplative and active, he rendered service to the Church by the brilliancy of his writings and preaching and by the charm and splendour of his virtues.

Authors such as Gerson, Noël Alexandre, Jacques Échard, and Hurter say that William Perault was never Archbishop of Lyons, as the Gallia christiana asserts, Louis Ellies du Pin is not justified in saying that he was never more than a religious of the Order of Preachers (cf.

Elaborate illustration to a 13th-century manuscript of his Summa de virtutibus et vitiis or Summa vitiorum , showing a symbolic knight protected by the Shield of the Trinity preparing to do battle with the Seven Deadly Sins .