Council of Trent and Catholic Reform

The Council of Trent met in several sessions between 1545 and 1563 in response to the Protestant Reformation and longstanding demands for reform within the Catholic Church. Its decrees clarified Catholic doctrine while also addressing clerical education, episcopal residence, the administration of the sacraments and discipline within religious institutions.

Implementation continued after the council closed and varied between states, dioceses and religious communities. Reforming bishops and secular authorities pressed monasteries and convents toward stricter enclosure, supervision and conformity. For enclosed women, these policies could restrict contact with families, limit movement and place established traditions of music, education and patronage under closer scrutiny.

Sarah Dunant's Sacred Hearts is set in a Ferrara convent in 1570, where the enforcement of stricter religious rules shapes the lives of the nuns and a young woman confined against her will.