It recalls and confirms the means which St. Ignatius Loyola had prescribed in order that the Society might attain the end for which he had founded it. Candidates have first to make two years' novitiate; they then take three simple vows. Thus they cease to be novices, and belong to the body of the Society. These simple vows are perpetuated on the part of those who make them, but on the part of the Society they bind only so long as the General thinks fit to retain as members of the Society those who have taken them.