Westminster Abbey (Corporate Name)

Tanner, L. E. The history and treasures ... 1953.

InU/Wing STC files (variants: St. Peter's; Abby Church of Westminster; Abbey of St. Peter; Abbey Church of Westminister; Ecclesia Collegiata B. Petri Westmonasterii)

Allegations for marriage licences issued by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, 1558-1699, 1886.

Westminster Abbey Web site, 14 February 2014: main page (Westminster Abbey; founded 960; London SW1P 3PA UK) History (Benedictine monks first came to this site in the middle of the tenth century; has been the coronation church since 1066 and is the final resting place of seventeen monarchs; the first monks were brought to Westminster in about 960 AD by St Dunstan, then Bishop of London; Henry VIII dissolved the monastery 16 January 1540; the same year Henry VIII erected Westminster into a cathedral church; the abbot became the first dean; the bishopric was surrendered on 29 March 1550 and the diocese was re-united with London, Westminster being made by Act of Parliament a cathedral church in the diocese of London; Queen Mary I restored the Benedictine Abbey under Abbot Feckenham in 1556; on the accession of Elizabeth I the religious houses revived by Mary were given by Parliament to the Crown and the abbot and monks were removed in July 1559; Queen Elizabeth I refounded the Abbey by a charter dated 21 May 1560 as a Collegiate Church, a Royal Peculiar exempt from the jurisdiction of bishops and with the Sovereign as its Visitor; in place of the monastic community a collegiate body of a dean and prebendaries, minor canons and a lay staff was established; Elizabeth established the present Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster (the Abbey's correct title)) http://www.westminster-abbey.org/

Westminster Abbey : official guide, 1973: p. 9 ("Westminster Abbey" is shortened from the fuller phrase "Westminster Abbey Church," the church of the Abbey of Westminster; up to 1540, the "Abbey" as we call it today was the church of a Benedictine monastery; its legal title was Ecclesia Abbatiae Westmonasteriensis; Benedictine monks had been established there, at all events in the time of St Dunstan (about 960); 1540-1550, it was the cathedral of a diocese of Westminster; for a few years, under Edward VI, was declared to be a cathedral in the Diocese of London; with these exceptions, its extra-diocesan character has been carefully maintained to the present date; since 1560, when Elizabeth I replaced the abbot and monastery, which Queen Mary had restored for a time, by a dean, canons, and other officers, its legal title has been "the Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster"; Church of St. Peter)

Westminster Abbey. Acts of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, 1609-1642, 2006: p. facing t.p. (Westminster Abbey) p. 3, etc. (texts using English and Latin)

Wikipedia, 14 February 2014: Westminster Abbey (Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, is a large, mainly Gothic, church in the City of Westminster, London, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster; the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs; the abbey is a Royal Peculiar (a church responsible directly to the sovereign, rather than to a diocesan bishop) and between 1540 and 1550 had the status of a cathedral; in the 960s or early 970s, Saint Dunstan, assisted by King Edgar, installed a community of Benedictine monks here; Henry VIII assumed direct royal control in 1539, granted the abbey cathedral status; the Abbey was restored to the Benedictines under the Catholic Mary I of England, but they were again ejected under Elizabeth I in 1559; Elizabeth re-established Westminster as a Royal Peculiar and made it the Collegiate Church of St Peter; a collegiate church governed by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster) Dean and Chapter of Westminster (Westminster Abbey, a collegiate church of the Church of England and a royal peculiar in Westminster, Greater London)