ABSTRACT
From the twelfth century a new and substantial votive form begins to feature prominently in English Benedictine books; an observance which will be referred to as the commemorative office, following the majority of liturgical manuscripts which term the form commemoratio. The history of the commemorative office, whether in secular or monastic foundations, is less well documented than many of the other votive forms. The earliest surviving commemorative offices of English compilation occur in Ccc 391, the Worcester Portiforium of c.1065. The presence of the weekly commemorative offices in the Worcester Portiforium establishes clearly that the phenomenon of liturgical replacement was accepted and practised before the Norman Conquest in England, and indeed a century earlier in certain parts of Europe. The related three-nocturn commemorative offices of Lbl 2. A.X and F-VAL 116, both apparently compiled in the twelfth century, have few direct structural parallels among the sources.
