BOURDALOUE, LOUIS (1632-1704), French Jesuit and preacher, born at Bourges on Aug. 20, 1632, at the age of 16 entered the Society of Jesus, was appointed successively professor of rhetoric, philosophy and moral theology, in various colleges of the Order. His success as a preacher determined his superiors to call him to Paris in 1669 to occupy for a year the pulpit of the church of St. Louis. His eloquence ranked him in popular estima tion with the great masters of style in the most brilliant period of Louis XIV.'s reign. On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he went to Languedoc to confirm converts to Catholicism. Catho lics and Protestants joined in praising his fervid eloquence in the Lent sermons preached at Montpellier in 1686. Bourdaloue died in Paris on May 13, 1704. His influence was due as much to his saintly character and to his gentleness as to his reasoning. Voltaire said that his sermons surpassed those of Bossuet (whose retire ment in 1669, however, prevented Bourdaloue from being regarded as his rival) ; there is little doubt that their simplicity and co herence, and the direct appeal which they made to all hearers, gave them a superiority over the more profound sermons of Bossuet. BIBLIOGRAPHY.—The only authoritative source for the Sermons is the edition of Pere Bretonneau (14 vols., Paris, 1707-21, followed by the Pensees, 2 vols. 1734) . Other editions not based on Bretonneau are inferior; some, indeed, are altogether spurious (e.g., that of Abbe Sicard, 1810). Among critical works are Henri Cherot, Bourdaloue inconnu (1898) and Bourdaloue, sa correspondance et ses correspon dans (1898-1904) ; L. Pauthe, Bourdaloue (les maltres de la chaire an siecle) (1900) ; E. Griselle, Bourdaloue histoire critique de sa predication (2 vols. 1901) ; Sermons inedits; bibliographie, etc. (Paris, 1901) ; Ferdinand Castets, Bourdaloue, in vie et la predication d'un religieux au XVlle siecle, La Revue Bourdaloue (19o2--04); C. H. Brooke, Great French Preachers (sermons of Bourdaloue and Bossuet, 1904) ; F. Brunetiere, "L'Eloquence de Bourdaloue," in Revue des deux Mondes (Aug. 1904), a general inquiry into the authenticity of the sermons and their general characteristics.