1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Minster

MINSTER (from Lat. monasterium; cf. German Münster), the church of a monastery, or one to which a monastery has been attached. In the 10th century the name was applied to the churches of outlying parishes, and is now given to some of the English cathedrals, such as York, Lincoln, Ripon and Southwell, and to large churches or abbeys, like those of Sherborne, Wimborne or Westminster.