The section examines the fate of hermits and anchorites during the religious changes of the Reformation period. Some hermits were outspoken critics of the Dissolution. Others were caught up in its process, though the vocations were never officially abolished. Some individuals attempted to maintain their previous form of living, in at least some of its aspects, with varying degrees of success, into and beyond the 1540s. But by the end of the sixteenth century, hermits and anchorites were already part of the medieval past that was in process of being constructed as an object of study by early modern antiquarians.