ABSTRACT
The nuns themselves frequently transgressed the demarcations that supposedly separated their lives from secular society. The financial health of their institutions and their role in the lives of the laity demanded that they do so. They managed vast estates and visited their properties. The struggle that defined the period from 1450 to 1650 was that of re-imposing order on the permeable cloister. Time and time again, monarchs and their ecclesiastical visitors insisted that religious women observe strict active enclosure. The decrees issued by the Council were not merely the expression of royal will or even the sentiment of an individual pope. Understanding local circumstance also helps to expose the limits of religious reform. The citizens founded over twice as many convents as monasteries in the period between 1550 and 1650. Local interpretation could be a decisive factor in shaping the ability of Trent to order the lives of religious women.
