Attempts by women to live religious life on the Jesuit model have been fraught with difficulty since the time of Ignatius himself. The reform of female communities was a major project proceeding from the Council of Trent, involving Ignatius and his early companions in a Herculean task. The question arose of taking some of these convents under Jesuit jurisdiction. While the nuns and several of their Jesuit confessors were enthusiastic, Ignatius resisted. Of supreme importance to him was the principle of universal mission and mobility for his fledgling Society of Jesus. To tie his men down to the service of monastic houses was to act in contradiction to this identifying principle. The freedom and flexibility in Ignatius' new concept of religious life for men had already given rise to substantial controversy. Given prevailing views on the place of women in society, and scandals, real or imagined, involving breaches of nuns' enclosure, he was strongly averse to violating social and moral codes with a branch of women Jesuits. While the Jesuits were not exempt from the social prejudices and misogynistic assumptions of their time, Ignatius himself had a wide spiritual correspondence with prominent women and never hesitated to enlist their support in promoting the welfare and apostolic ministries of his nascent order. The establishment of an order of “Jesuitesses” was, however, an entirely different matter. The early generation of Jesuits offered the Spiritual Exercises to women and trained them in turn to be spiritual guides to other women, and there are many instances of fruitful apostolic collaboration between Jesuits and female friends and companions.