Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Its emphasis on dedication and obedience made it effective in training young minds for Catholicism, and Jesuit schools would come to play a key role in the Counter-Reformation's recovery of ground lost to Protestantism, especially in the Low Countries and Poland." [1001 Days] "St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), the son of a Basque nobleman, was the founder of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits. Injured in battle in 1521, he dedicated his life to the Virgin Mary. He distilled his religious experience into Spiritual Exercises, a handbook to develop self-mastery and spiritual discipline. . . . The Jesuits launched a program to build new schools, which combined the best humanist teaching with traditional Catholic beliefs." [DK Timelines, p. 279]