Considering the administrative , political and social impact of the common lawyers, it is surprising that the legal profession has only lately attracted the attention of historians. Their recent work, which has been commenced by E.W. Ives and W.J. Jones for the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is being continued into the next century by W .R. Prest and T.G . Barnes. Certain educational, professional and literary aspects of the Inns of Court have been examined by W.R. Prest, L.A. Knafla and M. Axton. Dr Prest has published the first comprehensive history of the legal societies, a sixteenth century study by W.C. Richardson will soon be in the press, and T. Evans has started work on the Restoration period. Despite this surge of historical activity , not since R.J. Fletcher ' s cursory article in 1905 has consideration been given to the Reformation at the Inns. As the lawyers were largely responsible for implementing the religious policies of successive Tudor monarchs, the subject requires attention . Moreover t he legal societies offer an excellent opportunity to study the effect of religious change upon the laity. As the Inns were so representative of the landed classes, it could be argued that any significant changes in their religious adherence reflected similar developments in those classes as a whole. In the past it has been assumed that , until mid-Elizabethan years , the lawyers were predominantly conservative. Yet after that time, lawyers of a puritan cast have been discovered in almost every corner of the realm. If both views are accurate , some explanation is necessary. Consequently this thesis does not limit itself to the reformation of tenure, chapel and clergy at the Inns , but is also concerned with accompanying changes in the religious composition of the legal societies, and the attempts which were made to reform their religious character. It is in fact an institutional study of the Reformation, with a biographical bias. As a result the work is incomplete. Since members of the Inns were so pervasive , most manuscript collections , whether public or private , yield pertinent information. Given the deficiencies of many calendars and the dispersion of private records, a full survey could not be finished within practicable limits of time or space . My search has been restricted to the more obvious repositories, and further details could be obtained from inquisitions, law reports and private collections. As the History of Parliament Trust was unable to assist , parliamentary sources have not been used extensively, so that the considerable activity of lawyers in that area has been left for specialised study. Nor has it been possible to make a thorough religious analysis of those Elizabethan members of the Inns who were not benchers, though much of this work has been completed. In spite of these limitations, the known evidence is sufficient to support conclusions which further research should not invalidate, but merely expand.