ABSTRACT
When Teresa of Avila visited the city of Valladolid in 1568 to oversee work on one of her discalced Carmelite convents, she reportedly met a young local woman, Marina de Escobar. Marina was renowned for her piety. After their promulgation Philip II had almost immediately made the decrees of Trent the law of the land in Spain. This was a grand gesture, but one that might have been slow in its application throughout the peninsula. The profession of nuns in the period after Trent reflected a heightened emphasis on ensuring that these women were making informed and devout decisions as they moved from the secular world to the cloister. Whatever its modifications or adaptations, at the heart of the enclosure decree and Circa pastoralis was the assumption that female religiosity should adhere to a strictly contemplative model protected by high walls, grilles, and locking doors and windows.
