From the eighth birthday of the young Louis XIV, Mazarin took the title "Superintendent of the Royal Education" and managed every aspect of the young King's studies. All of the King's activities were governed and scheduled by Mazarin; his time of rising, his prayers, his physical exercise ("paume" fencing, and dance) followed by a morning lesson in politics with Mazarin himself. In the afternoons he was charged to write an essay each day for Mazarin on what he had learned. The education he gave Louis was purely practical, not theoretical. Among other topics, he instructed the King in the fine art of dissimulation, or lying, when needed, and always, when making an agreement, to leave a way out.