Il concilio di Trento e i regolari. Gli ordini religiosi alla prova della Controriforma

The article illustrates the relationship between the Council of Trent and the world of the regulars through two complementary perspectives. The first part examines the attempts of the monastic world to influence the Council of Trent, taking the Benedictine order as a case study. In the second part, the council’s debates and decrees on the regular orders are analysed. The framework that emerges shows how the religious orders tried to influence the council’s decisions, but, above all, were influenced by them. In particular, at the end of the assembly, the autonomy of the regular orders was limited and the power of the bishops was strengthened in order to favour an increasingly strict moralisation of the clergy