Morelos had ambitions for something more than working with his hands, and assiduously studied; his maternal grandfather was a school teacher. In 1789, he enrolled in the Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo in Valladolid, where Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was rector. When he was ordained a priest, he, as with many others without connections, had no benefice to guarantee any income as a priest. However, since he was a secular cleric and therefore took no vow of poverty, he could freely pursue business activities to make a living.