Together with the Administrator, the Assistants were nominated by the General Congregation and could not be removed or replaced without its sanction.

It was their duty to regulate the daily life of the General, to control his private expenditure on the scale which they determined, to prescribe what he should eat and drink, and to appoint his hours for sleep, and religious exercises, and the transaction of public business.

If they saw grave reasons for his deposition, they were bound to convene the General Congregation for that purpose.

And since the Founder knew that guardians need to be guarded, he provided that the Provincials might convene this assembly to call in question the acts of the Assistants.

The General himself had no power to oppose its convocation.
The Company of Jesus was thus based upon a system of mutual and pervasive espionage.