Louis, a celebrated preacher among the Jesuits, and one of the greatest orators that France has ever produced, was born at Bourges on the 20th of August 1632. At the age of sixteen he entered the Society of Jesus, of which he was destined to become one of the greatest ornaments, and there completed his studies. His able masters, who early distinguished his talents, successively confided to him the chairs of humanity, of rhetoric, of philosophy, and of moral theology; and it was only after passing through these different probationary employments that he arrived at the eminent post which was designed for him, and was deemed qualified for mounting the pulpit.

In order to form an idea of the difficulties which he had to surmount, and of the talents which he displayed, it is only necessary, on the one hand, to call to mind the ridiculous manner and inflated style of the preachers of that period; and, on the other, to figure the young Jesuit at issue with the bad taste as well as the bad habits of the time; combating at once the passions, the vices, the weaknesses, and the errors of humanity, and overcoming his enemies, sometimes with the arms of faith, and sometimes with those of reason.

At first he preached for some time in the province, but his superiors afterwards called him to Paris. This took place in 1669, at the most brilliant epoch of the age of Louis XIV., when nothing was talked of but the victories of Turenne, the festivities of Versailles, the master-pieces of Corneille and Racine, the encouragement afforded to the arts, and the general impulse given to the human mind. Bourdaloue suddenly appeared in the midst of these fascinations, and, far from diminishing their effects, the severity of his ministry, and the gravity of his eloquence, served rather to enhance their splendour. His first sermons met with prodigious success, and all voices were raised in loud applause of the preacher. Madame de Sévigné, sharing the universal enthusiasm, wrote to her daughter that "she had never heard anything more beautiful, more noble, more astonishing than the sermons of Father Bourdaloue." Louis XIV. also wished to hear him, and the new preacher was in consequence sent to court, where he preached the Advent in 1670, and the Lent in 1672; and he was afterwards called for the Lents of 1674, 1675, 1680, and 1682, and for the Advents of 1684, 1689, and 1693. This was a thing unheard of before, the same preacher being rarely called three times to court. Bourdaloue, however, appeared there ten times, and was always received with the same ardour. Louis XIV. said that "he loved better to hear the repetitions of Bourdaloue than the novelties of any one else." After the revocation of the edict of Nantes, he was sent to Languedoc to preach to the Protestants, and confirm the newly-converted in the Catholic faith; and in this delicate mission he managed to reconcile the interests of his ministry with the sacred rights of humanity. He preached at Montpellier in 1686, with prodigious success; Catholics and Protestants being all equally eager to recognise in this eloquent missionary the apostle of truth and of virtue.

In the last years of his life Bourdaloue abandoned the pulpit, and devoted himself to charitable assemblies, hospitals, and prisons, where his pathetic discourses and insinuating manners never failed of their effect. He had the art of adapting his style and his reasonings to the condition and the understanding of those to whom he addressed either counsel or consolation. Simple with the simple, erudite with the learned, and a dialectician with sophists and disputants, he came off with honour in all the contests in which zeal for religion, the duties of his station, and love of mankind, led him to engage. Equally relished by the great and by the commonalty, by men of piety and by people of the world, he exercised till his death a sort of empire over all minds; and this ascendancy he owed as much to the gentleness of his manners as to the force of his reasonings. "His conduct," says one of his contemporaries, "is the best answer that can be made to the Lettres Provinciales." No consideration was ever capable of altering his frankness or corrupting his probity.

Boileau, who detested the Jesuits, loved and often visited Bourdaloue. He may with justice be regarded as the reformer of the pulpit and the founder of Christian eloquence among the French. That which distinguishes him from other preachers is the force of his reasoning, and the solidity of his proofs. Never did Christian orator infuse into his discourses more majesty, dignity, energy, and grandeur. Like Corneille, he has been charged with overlabouring his diction, and accumulating idea upon idea with a needless superfluity of illustration,—of speaking more to the understandings than to the hearts of his auditors, and sometimes enervating his eloquence with too frequent a use of divisions and subdivisions. But even in subscribing to these criticisms, which are to a certain extent well founded, it is impossible not to admire the inexhaustible fecundity of his plans,—the happy talent, velut imperatoria virtus, which he possessed, of disposing his reasonings in the order best calculated to command victory,—the exact, constrictive logic with which he excludes sophisms, contradictions, and paradoxes,—the art with which he lays the foundations of our duty in our interest,—and, finally, the inestimable secret of converting the details of manners and habits into so many proofs of his subject. Parallels have often been drawn between Bourdaloue and Massillon; but the talents of these great pulpit orators lay in different directions, and they may therefore be more fitly contrasted than compared. If Massillon is now read with a more lively interest, he owes this advantage to the charms of his style rather than to the force of his reasonings. Among the critics of the present day, the preference is unhesitatingly given to the rival of Racine, to the painter of the heart, to the author of the discourse on the small number of the elect; but if we consult the contemporaries of Massillon himself, we shall find that they assign him only the second rank. According to them, Bourdaloue preached to the men of a vigorous and masculine age; Massillon to those of a period remarkable for its effeminacy. Bourdaloue raised himself to the level of the great truths of religion; Massillon conformed himself to the weakness of the men with whom he lived. The bishop of Clermont will always be read; but if the simple Jesuit could raise his commanding voice from the tomb, and again roll forth a majestic stream of divine truth, the courtly accents of his rival would no longer be heard, and the charms of his diction would be forgotten. The first part of his celebrated Passion, in which he proves that the death of the Son of God is the triumph of his power, has generally been considered as the great masterpiece of Christian eloquence. Bossuet has said nothing stronger or more elevated: The second part, however, is inferior to the first, though considered by itself, alike beautiful and convincing.

The discourses of Bourdaloue have been described by a celebrated French critic as embodying in them a complete course of theology. This is perhaps going a little too far; but still their general merit is very great, and for nothing are they more distinguished than their comprehensiveness. As to the diction of this great preacher, it is always natural, clear, and correct; sometimes deficient in animation; but without vacuity or languor, and generally relieved by breakings of much force and originality. With regard to his proofs, again, nothing can be more irresistible, where he confines himself to the exposition of the great doctrines and precepts of Christianity. He generally promises to demonstrate, but he does so because he is conscious of his strength; and he never fails to keep his word. "Au total," says the critic above referred to, "je croirais que Massillon vaut mieux pour les gens du monde, et Bourdaloue pour les prédicateurs; l'un attirera le monde à la religion, par tout ce qu'elle a de douceur et de charmes; l'autre éclairera et affermira le Chrétien dans sa foi, par tout ce qu'elle a de plus haut en conception et de plus fort en appuis." Two editions of Bourdaloue's works were published at Paris in 1707 and the years immediately following, by Pére Bretonneau, a Jesuit; one in 14 volumes 8vo, and the other, from which the editions of Rouen, Toulouse, and Amsterdam, were afterwards printed, in 15 volumes 12mo. The works are distributed as follows, viz. 1. Deux Avent, préché devant le Roi, 1 vol.; 2. Carême, 3 vols. 8vo, or 4 vols. 12mo; 3. Mystères, 2 vols.; 4. Fêtes des Saints, Vêtures, Professions, Oraisons Funèbres, 2 vols.; 5. Dominicains, 3 vols.; 6. Exhortations et Instructions Chrétiennes, 2 vols.; 7. Récréation Spirituelle, 1 vol.; 8. Pensées, in 2 and in 3 vols. In 1812, the Abbé Sicard published at Paris, in 8vo and in 12mo, Sermons Inédits de Bourdaloue; and soon after appeared the Versailles edition of the Œuvres de Bourdaloue in 16 volumes 8vo. (Vie de P. Bourdaloue, par Madame de Pringy; Esprit de Bourdaloue, par l'Abbé de la Porte; et Biographie Universelle.)