Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/793

 BOURDALOUE

717

BOURDALOXTE

The king refused them audience, and a battle was then fought at Northampton (July, 1460), when Henry found himself once more a prisoner. The Duke of York now claimed the throne, but a com- promise was effected whereby he was to succeed Henry to the exclusion of the latter's son, Edward. Bourchier seems to have accepted this solution; and when Queen Margaret again opened hostilities, he threw in his lot definitely with the Yorkists, and was one of the lords who agreed to accept Edward (IV) as rightful king. As archbishop, he crowned Edward on 28 June, 1461, after Edward's marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, also crowned his consort (May, 1465). Edward besought Pope Paul II to be.stow a cardinal's hat on Bourchier in 1465; but delays occurred, and it was not till 1473 that Sixtus IV finally conferred that honour upon him. In 1475 Bourchier was employed as one of the arbitrators on the differences pending between England and France. Growing feeble, in 1480 he appointed as his coadjutor William Westkarre who had been conse- crated in 1458 Bishop of Sidon. In 1483, on the death of Edward IV, he formed one of the deputation who persuaded the queen-dowager, then in sanctuary with her family at Westminster, to deliver her second son Richard to his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to be with his brother the boy-king Edward V. Bourchier had pledged his honour to the distrustful queen for the lad's security; yet, three weeks later he was officiating at the coronation of the usurper, Richard III. He performed the like solemn office for Henry VII in 1485 after the death of Richard on the field of Bosworth; and, as a fitting close to the career of a man who was above all a peacemaker, he married Henry VII to Elizabeth of York on 18 January, 1485-86, thus uniting the factions of the Red and White Roses. He died on 6 April, 1486, at Knowle, a mansion he had purchased for his see, and was buried in Canterbury cathedral. It fell to his lot as archbishop to preside in 1457 at the trial of Reginald Peacock, Bishop of Chichester, charged with unorthodoxy. Though the incriminated bishop withdrew his works condemned as unsound, he was kept in custody by Bourchier till his death two years later, although he had been compelled to re- sign his see.

Gairdner in Did. Nat. Biogr.; Doyz,e, Official Baronage; Godwin, De PrcEsidibus; Wharton, Anglia Sacra; Hook, Lives of the Abps. of Cant.; Rymer, Fadera; Moreri, Diction- naire; Stubbs. Episc. Succession; Lingard, Hist, of England (London, 1878), passim.

Henry Norbert Birt.

Bourdaloue, Louis, b. at Bourges, 20 August, 1632; d. at Paris, 13 May, 1704, is often described as the "king of preachers and the preacher of kings". He entered the Society of Jesus at the age of fifteen years. His father, Etienne Bourdaloue, a distin- guished legal official of Bourges, though opposmg his choice for a time, in order to test its sincerity, willingly consented, having had similar aspirations himself in his youth. A genealogist of the seventeenth century named Hodeau has attempted to trace back the family to the time of the Crusades, but the learned and laborious Tausserat informs us that the first of the race was Mac6 Bourdaloue, an humble tanner of Vierzon, about 14.50. During Bourdaloue's lifetime there were some titles of nobility in the family for military prowess, and although his father was conspicuous in his profession, yet they were by no means wealtliy. One of his relatives married a shoemaker, and considerable difficulty was ex- perienced in providing her with a modest dower. .Attempts have been made to discover some de- scciiilants of the Bourdaloues in our own times, but though the name is common enough, the family is extinct.

When young Bourdaloue entered the Society he immediately attracted attention by his quick and

penetrating intelligence, his tireless industry, and his strict observance of religious discipline. He was subsequently made professor of philosophy and moral theology, but certain sermons which he was called on to preach unexpectedly brought him into notice as an orator, and it was determined to devote him altogether to the work of pre ing. He bega: the Provinces 1665, was tr; ferred to Pari 1669, and thirty-four con utive ye

preached witl success that re; ed its climax c at the end of career. He the contemporary and friend of Bos- suet, and though quite unlike each other in their methods, their elo- quence gave to the French pulpit a glory which has perhaps never been equalled in modern times. They died within two months of each other, though Bossuet was famous long before Bourdaloue appeared. They followed different lines: Bossuet was distinguished for the sublimity and vast sweep of his conceptions, the marvellous conciseness, splendour, and grandeur of his language, as well as the magisterial and almost royal manner in which he grasped his subject and dominated his hearers. He often spoke with scant preparation, so that very few of his wonderful dis- courses were put on paper before being delivered. His glory as an orator is based mainly on his wonder- ful "Oraisons Funebres". Bourdaloue, on the con- trary, was essentially a preacher. He wrote his discourses with extreme care, and although they are numerous enough to form editions of twelve and si.xteen volumes, there is only one sermon that is incomplete. He had a pronounced dislike of the Oraisons Funebres; he even objected to the name, and called them etoges. In the entire collection of his discourses, we find but two of that character, both of them panegyrics of the Cond^s, Henri and Louis, and both undertaken to pay a debt of grati- tude which the Jesuits owed to that family. The first was prompted also by the purpose of gaining an influence over the Great Cond^, in order to lead him to a better life. This was realized, for when, only four years after the first discourse Condi's corpse was borne to the same church where he had listened to the panegyric of his father, Bourdaloue was again the orator, and startled his audience by saying: "God gave me a presentiment of the Prince's conversion. I had not only formed the wish, but, as it were, anticipated it by a prayer which seemed then to contain something of a prediction. Whether it was an inspiration or a feeling of zeal, I was trans- ported beyond myself, O Lord, and I was assuretl by Thee, that Thou wouldst not leave this great man, whose heart was so true as I knew it to be, in the way of perdition and the corruption of the world. He heard my voice; he has heard Thine."

This apostolic motive never failed to reveal itself in all his utterances. Nevertheless, his funeral oration on Henri de Bourbon was considered at the time equal oratorically to any of Bossuet's. Mme. de S^vign^ describes it as "the most beautiful that, could be imagined. It is the finest and most Christian panegyric that has ever been pronounced."