The Wars of Religion 623 preaching, hearing confession, and encouraging devotional exer- cises. But the Jesuits were teachers as well as preachers and confessors. They clearly perceived the advantage of bringing young people under their influence ; they opened schools and seminaries and soon became the schoolmasters of Catholic Fig. 217. Principal Jesuit Church in Venice The Jesuits believed in erecting magnificent churches. This is a good example. The walls are inlaid with green marble in an elaborate pat- ^ tern, and all the furnishings are very rich and gorgeous Europe. So successful were their methods of instruction that even Protestants sometimes sent their children to them. Before the death, of Loyola over a thousand persons had Rapid in- joined the society. Under his successor the number was trebled, jesuit^s^n and it went on increasing for two centuries. The founder of numbers the order had been, as we have seen, attracted to missionary work from the first, and the Jesuits rapidly spread not only over Europe but throughout the whole world. Francis Xavier,
