Pastoral care was one of the most consuming and important reform issues discussed at the Council of Trent. During every session that addressed reforms to the Church, the attendees confronted issues of pastoral care. In its most basic sense, pastoral care means the provision of spiritual guidance to the flock, a key element of what any religious organization must do. But it entails innumerable facets and meticulous attention to detail. What does spiritual care look like? Who should provide it and how? What constitutes adequate or excellent care? How can it be institutionalized, monitored, and controlled? The reformers at Trent tried to answer these questions in order to ensure the Catholic Church could provide consistent and hopefully exemplary pastoral care to all of its members. This required a focus on episcopal and clerical residency, clerical education and discipline, the importance of preaching and teaching laypeople about the sacraments, the regulation of confraternities and lay devotions, and the provision of catechism instruction. Improvements in these areas, the reformers argued, would ensure that Catholics received the guidance they needed.