Editing Minster (church) (section)

=== Early and mid Anglo-Saxon periods ===
The first minsters in the English-speaking parts of Britain were founded in the century after the [[Gregorian mission|mission to the Saxons]] led by [[Augustine of Canterbury]] in 597. The first cases for which documentary evidence has been preserved are [[Oswiu of Northumbria|Oswy's]] programme of 654/5, in which he endowed 12 small minsters, and a gift from [[Alhfrith of Deira|Alhfrith]] to [[Wilfrid]] in around 660 to accompany the foundation of the minster at [[Ripon]]. An expansion of monasteries began around 670, with many substantial royal gifts of land.<ref name="blair">{{cite book|author=John Blair|title=The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society|year=2005|publisher=OUP}}</ref> Kings made grants of land to named individuals to found a minster. In 734 Bede wrote a letter to [[Ecgbert (Archbishop of York)]], warning that noble families were abusing the privileged legal status accorded to the clergy, by making excessive landed endowments to minsters under their control. This reduced the overall stock of lands carrying the obligations of military service to the Northumbrian state.

Alan Thacker states: 
{{quote|The term 'minster' was applied by the Anglo-Saxons to all religious communities, whether of monks proper or of secular clergy, a usage which reflects the fact that many early Anglo-Saxon monasteries had assumed the pastoral role which was ultimately the principal distinction of the secular college. Early Anglo-Saxon monks might baptize, preach, and administer the sacraments to the laity in their locality, and distinctions were further blurred by the existence of 'double monasteries' of nuns and secular clerks. In the last resort, however, monks could be free of pastoral obligations, while the secular minster always had its parish ('parochia') over which it exercised extensive and well-defined rights, including control over baptism and burial and the receipt of various financial dues such as church-scot and tithe.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Midland History|first=Alan|last=Thacker|title=Kings, Saints and Monasteries in Pre-Viking Mercia|publisher=University of Birmingham|year =1985|volume=X|pages=1–2|doi=10.1179/mdh.1985.10.1.1 }}</ref>}}

The word derives from the [[Old English language|Old English]] "mynster", meaning "[[monastery]]", "[[nunnery]]", "[[mother church]]" or "[[cathedral]]", itself derived from the [[Latin language|Latin]] "monasterium" and the [[Ancient Greek]] "μοναστήριον", meaning a group of clergy where the Brothers would cloister themselves to meditate . Thus, "minster" could apply to any church whose clergy followed a formal rule: as for example a [[monastery]] or a [[Chapter (religion)|chapter]]; or to a church served by a less formal group of clergy living communally. In the earliest days of the English Church, from the 6th to the 8th centuries, minsters, in their various forms, constituted the only form of Christian institution with a permanent site. At the beginning of the period, they were the only form of permanent [[collective settlement]] in a culture that had not developed towns or cities. Kings, nobles and [[Bishop (Catholic Church)|bishops]] were continually on the move, with their respective retinues, from estate to estate.

Minsters were commonly founded by the king or by a royal [[thegn]], receiving a [[royal charter]] and a corporate endowment of [[bookland (type of land)|bookland]] and other customary agricultural rights and entitlements within a broad territory; as well as exemption from certain forms of customary service (especially military). The superior of the minster was generally from the family of the founder. The minster's primary purpose was to support the king and the thegn in the regular worship of the [[Canonical hours|divine office]]; especially through intercession in times of war. Minsters are also said to have been founded, or extensively endowed, in expiation for royal crimes; as for example [[Minster-in-Thanet]] near [[Ramsgate]]. Minsters might acquire [[pastoral]] and [[missionary]] responsibilities, for instance the three minsters of north-east Herefordshire, [[Leominster]], [[Bromyard]] and [[Ledbury]],<ref>Joe Hillaby, Ledbury, a medieval borough, Logaston 2nd ed. 2005</ref> all active in their areas before the towns were founded on episcopal manors; but initially this appear to have been of secondary importance. In the 9th century, almost all English minsters suffered severely from the depredations of [[Viking]] invaders; and even when a body of clergy continued, any form of regular monastic life typically ceased. The important role of minsters in the organisation of the early Christian church in Anglo-Saxon England has been called the "[[Minster hypothesis]]".