Sermons du Pere Bourdaloue, de la Compagnie de Jesus

Complete 3 Volume set. Vol I 552 pages plus table & abrege, Vol II 551 pages plus table & abrege, Vol III 547 pages plus table & abrege. Full leather covers in over all good condition, pages are near fine except for some worming in volume II, which does not effect the text.
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Louis Bourdaloue (August 20, 1632 – May 13, 1704) was a French Jesuit and preacher. He was born in Bourges. At the age of sixteen he entered the Society of Jesus, and was appointed successively professor of rhetoric, philosophy and moral theology, in various Jesuit colleges. His success as a preacher in the provinces led his superiors to call him to Paris in 1669 to occupy for a year the pulpit of the church of St. Louis. Owing to his eloquence he was speedily ranked in popular estimation with Corneille, Racine, and the other leading figures during the height of Louis XIV's reign. He preached at the court of Versailles during the Advent of 1670 and the Lent of 1672. His strength lay in his power of adapting himself to audiences of every kind. His influence was reportedly due as much to his character and his manners as to the force of his reasoning. Voltaire said that his sermons surpassed those of Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (whose retirement in 1669, however, practically coincided with Bourdaloue's early pulpit utterances), and it is said that their simplicity and coherence as well as the direct appeal that they made to hearers of all classes gave them a superiority over the more profound sermons of Bossuet.