Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. The English and their Christian Neighbours, c.550-650 -- Influences (i): the Roman inheritance in Britain -- Influences (ii): the Roman inheritance in Italy and Gaul -- Influences (iii): the Frankish world -- Influences (iv): the Irish -- The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: political and social contexts -- The monumentalization of cult -- Lay burial: church versus ancestors? -- The first Christian sites and systems -- The triumph of the monastic model -- 2. Minsters in Church and State, c.650-850 -- Minsters and monasticism -- The royal and sub-royal context of monastic foundations -- The episcopal context of monastic foundations -- Useless to God and man? The problem of aristocratic minsters -- Reaction and reform: Bede, Boniface, and the struggle for episcopal governance -- The problem of local churches -- Minsters on the defensive: external control and disendowment -- 3. Church and People, c.650-850 -- The 'minster culture' of Bede's England -- The cults of saints -- The landscape of minsters: distribution and influences -- The territorial framework: secular and religious structures -- The provision and organization of pastoral care -- The lay practice of Christianity -- 4. The Church in the Landscape, c.650-850 -- Recycling the past -- The locations of minsters -- The enclosures and buildings of minsters -- Problems of identity: Northampton, Brandon, Flixborough, and the metal-detected sites -- Monastic centres and peripheries: cells, 'granges', hermitages, and retreats -- Widening circles for the living: sacred space and the Christianization of the landscape -- Widening circles for the dead: the drift towards minster-associated burial -- 5. Monastic Towns? Minsters as Central Places, c.650-850 -- The 'holy city' (i): symbolic urbanism -- The 'holy city' (ii): economic centrality.

Minsters and urbanization: problems of definition and hierarchy -- Hierarchical centres (i): princely citadels -- Hierarchical centres (ii): Roman towns and forts -- Hierarchical centres (iii): open-ground royal vills -- Secular residence, itineration, and encroachment on minsters -- Fortress-work, citadels, and minsters -- 6. Minsters in a Changing World, c.850-1100 -- The Scandinavian impact -- Continuity, disruption, and development: regional variation in the experience of minsters -- The secularization of minsters (i): annexation by kings, lords, and religious corporations -- The secularization of minsters (ii): urbanization -- Communities, patronage, and reform (i): from Alfred to Eadgar -- Communities, patronage, and reform (ii): from Æthelred II to William II -- 7. The Birth and Growth of Local Churches, c.850-1100 -- Relativities of scale in a changing parochial culture -- Origins (i): the privatization of 'undeveloped' sacred sites -- Origins (ii): devolution from clerical communities -- Origins (iii): foundation by estate proprietors -- Origins (iv): divided townships, joint founders, and shared churchyards -- Origins (v): small urban churches -- Endowment and the 'Great Rebuilding' -- Regional variation -- How different was England? -- 8. From Hyrness to Parish: The Formation of Parochial Identities, c.850-1100 -- The language of parochial allegiance -- The background and context of mother-church dues -- The enforcement and erosion of mother-church dues -- The mother-church as spiritual and social focus -- The local church as spiritual and social focus -- Changing burial practice in post-Viking England -- The landscape of ritual and cult: continuity and innovation -- Bishops, lords, and priests -- Township, manor, and parish -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Three Minor Minsters in the Eleventh Century: Reculver, Christchurch, and Plympton.

References -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z.