The Jesuit educational system, with its successful applications in all parts of the world for several centuries, is one of the most durable, influential, and far-reaching experiments in the history of education. In this monograph Aldo Scaglione explores the complex genesis of the system, which it regards essentially as a heritage of Renaissance Humanism; the impact of both Reformation and Catholic Counter-reformation on it; and its conflicts with the secular traditions and systems with which it competed through the centuries.