Nor was religious education neglected.

Attendance upon daily Mass, monthly confession, and instruction in the articles of the faith, formed an indispensable part of the system.

When we remember that these advantages were offered gratuitously to the public, it is not surprising that people of all ranks and conditions should have sent their boys to the Jesuit colleges.
Even Protestants availed themselves of what appeared so excellent a method; and the Jesuits obtained the reputation of being the best instructors of youth.[172] It soon became the mark of a good Catholic to have frequented Jesuit schools; and in after life a pupil who had studied creditably in their colleges, found himself everywhere at home.
Yet the Society took but little interest in elementary or popular education.

Their object was to gain possession of the nobility, gentry, and upper middle class.

The proletariat might remain ignorant; it was the destiny of such folk to be passive instruments in the hands of spiritual and temporal rulers.