ABSTRACT
The beginnings of reform within the Western Church at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century were associated above all with bishops and with regulars. In France, by the seventeenth century, two congregations of reformed Benedictines had formed some organizational links between houses, and the more famous, in a way, was that based on Saint Maur, where the Maurists devoted special attention to the Benedictine duty of study. The work of nuns in the missions overseas remained largely that of enclosed prayer and contemplation in support of the activities of the friars, Franciscan, Dominican and Augustinian, on mission, though charitable and educational work was also undertaken. In the later seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century, Italian bishops continued to improve clerical life, not least by encouraging seminaries, and popular missions were conducted by many orders and individuals, such as Saint Leonard of Port Maurice.
