In 1563, during the final session of the Council of Trent, the decree De Regularibus e Monialibus re-established the strict enclosure of convents. This first step in the project of disciplining the regular orders by a Church faced with mass desertion opened a period of reform that stretched far beyond the seventeenth century. Thus, the Council of Trent, with its prescription for impenetrable and enclosed convents, imagined an environment that was constant, isolated, and reclusive.