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He was a Bernard, a Bourdaloue, and a Whitefield combined, speaking in the language of Pericles, and on themes which Paganism never comprehended and the Middle Ages but imperfectly discussed. The permanent influence of such a man can only be measured by the dignity and power of the pulpit itself in all countries and in all ages.
He died at Paris on the 12th of April, 1704, just when the troubles of the church were springing up again. Great was the consternation amongst the bishops of France, wont as they were to shape themselves by his counsels. "Men were astounded at this mortal's mortality." Bossuet was seventy-three. A month later, on the 13th of May, Father Bourdaloue in his turn died.
Yet, in spite of this, such men were as the salt of the earth in a corrupt age; and as we find, throughout the more modern pages of history, great preachers denouncing wickedness in high places, Bourdaloue and Massillon pouring their eloquence into the heedless ears of Louis XIV, and his courtiers Sherlock and Tillotson declaiming from the pulpit in such stirring accents that "even the indolent Charles roused himself to listen, and the fastidious Buckingham forgot to sneer" so, too, do we find these "monks of heathendom", as the Stoics have been not unfairly called, protesting in their day against that selfish profligacy which was fast sapping all morality in the Roman empire.
When has such a thing happened in modern times? Bossuet had the courage to dictate, in the royal chapel, the duties of a king, and Bourdaloue once ventured to reprove his royal hearer for an outrageous scandal. These instances of priestly boldness and fidelity are cited as remarkable.
Brother Jacques was conscious of the sound. "My mother," he repeated. "You lie, Jesuit!" "Not at this hour, my father." "Son of Margot Bourdaloue, you! . . . Ah!" The marquis rose again, leaning on both arms. "Have you come to mock my death-bed?" "Truth is not mockery." "Away, lying Jesuit!" The priest stooped. "Look well into my face, Monsieur; look well.
As I was entering to learn what was going on, I met the third pilot, Bourdaloue, who was going out crying.
She had held in her chains from time to time, all the heroes, and illustrious men of France, and she considered Père Bourdaloue worthy of a place on the list. She accordingly arrayed herself in her most fascinating costume, feigned illness and sent for him.
His Majesty has gradually undermined it; and the edict he has just published, maintained by the dragoons and by Bourdaloue, will soon give them the coup de grâce."
You cursed him and made him an outcast, wilfully. I was starving as a lad of two. My mother, Margot Bourdaloue, went out in search of bread. I followed, but became lost. I never saw my mother again; I can not even remember how she looked. I can only recall the starved eyes. And you cursed your acknowledged son and applied to him the epithet which I have borne these twenty years. Unnatural father!"
Stanislaus Kostka, a Polish noble who died at seventeen years of age; Aloysius Gonzaga, an Italian prince of twenty-three; and John Berchmans, a Flemish townsman of twenty-two. Among some of the famous men educated by the Jesuits we find Bossuet, Corneille, Molière, Tasso, Fontenelle, Diderot, Voltaire, and Bourdaloue, himself a Jesuit.
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