 Suárez was thoroughly educated within the framework of this revival, receiving two years of philosophy and four of theology, before he himself started teaching at the Jesuit School in Segovia. This first appointment was followed by positions at Avila, Valladolid, Alcalá, Salamanca, the Jesuit School at Rome (the Collegio Romano), and, for almost twenty years, at Coimbra, in Portugal. While an unsuccessful preacher (his few attempts failed because of his tendency to digress into the abstruse points of doctrine, the subtleties of which tended to be lost on his auditors), Suárez proved to be a dedicated and original teacher, if not always a popular one. His method departed from the norm: instead of merely repeating the opinions of others, he believed in taking a fresh look at the issue under consideration, examining, as he used to say, the very root of the problem (Scorraille 2005: I, 156).