Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.
Louis Bourdaloue
[A French pulpit-orator, preacher to Louis XIV.; born 1632; died 1704.]
In his church thieves give up the purses they stole in mine.
Louis XIV. having asked Bourdaloue what he thought of Père Honoré, a Capuchin who preached at St. Antoine, he replied, “Sire, Père Honoré scorches the ears and tears the heart: at his sermons thieves return the purses they stole in mine” (à ses sermons on rend les bourses que l’on a coupées aux miens).The great Condé could not separate himself from thoughts of war, even in church. Going one day with his sister, the Duchess de Longueville, to hear Bourdaloue preach at St. Sulpice, and noticing when the orator entered the pulpit that his sister was asleep, he woke her with the exclamation, “Wake up, sister, here comes the enemy!” (Alerte, ma sœur, voici l’ennemi!)
