If the director judged it advisable, symbolic objects were placed before him in the cell; at one time skulls and bones, at another fresh sweetsmelling flowers.

Fasting and flagellation, peculiar postures of the body, groanings and weepings, were prescribed as mechanical aids in cases where the soul seemed sluggish.

The sphere traversed in these exercises was a narrow one.

The drill aimed at intensity of discipline, at a concentrated and concrete impression, not at width of education or at intellectual enlightenment.
Speculation upon the fundamental principles of religion was excluded.
God's dealings with mankind revealed in the Old Testament found no place in this theory of salvation.

Attention was riveted upon a very few points in the life of Christ and Mary, such as every Catholic child might be supposed to be familiar with.