St. Ignatius had gathered about him a body of picked men. The Roman College, the type of colleges of Jesuit education, would have for its professors only those who had been doctors of the University of Paris.
The outline of the course of education was given by St. Ignatius. It was completed and developed by Aquaviva. The work was still more perfected by Father Laynez, of whom it is said,—
"St. Ignatius praised him not only on account of other great merits, but particularly for devising and arranging the system of colleges."
As to the number of students found under a unified method of thorough teaching, it will be interesting to take them in review.
In Rome in 1584, the twenty colleges attending classes in the Roman College numbered 2108 students, in Poland there were 10,000 young men chiefly of the nobility, at Rome 2000, at La Flèche 1700. In the seventeenth century at the College of Louis le Grand, in Paris, the number varied between 2000 and 3000. In 1627 the Province of Paris had in fourteen colleges 13,195 students.
The papal seminaries under Gregory XIII, at Vienna, Dillengen, Fulda, Prague, Grätz, Olmütz, Wilna, as well as in Japan, were directed by the Fathers, as also that of Pius V and of St. Charles Borromeo at Milan.
Taking an average, there were more than two hundred thousand students being educated in these educational institutions.
A comparison could be made on this basis of the work done by the Order and that which is accomplished by Oxford.