The ecclesiastical system and ways of life we have been describing came to an end with the Reformation. When did the Reformation come to Durham? The only way to consider this question is over a very long period. Much that has been revealed in what has gone before suggests that the authorities in the city of Durham in the pre-Reformation period were conservative. Some of the secular encroachments on ecclesiastical jurisdiction, for instance, which begin to be seen in the South under Henry VII, did not appear in the Durham church courts until 1531. The Durham and York courts also seem to have interpreted marriage law very conservatively. To ascertain how quickly the Reformation statutes were implemented we would need more information than we have for the city. There is a little. Though the act declaring Henry VIII supreme head of the church was dated 1534, the Gilesgate court book did not inscribe this title until 20 January 1539: Anno Regis Henrici Octavi Dei gratia Anglie et Francie Regis fidei Defensor et in terra supremum capitis [sic] Anglicane ecclesie. By then much had happened to show the inhabitants that change could not be avoided.

Though most accounts of the Reformation would begin well before the Reformation parliament from 1529 onwards, for most of the Durham parishes the crucial dates must have been 1536, with the Pilgrimage of Grace, and 1539, when the priory was dissolved. The first of these was very important.