COLLECT, in the liturgy of the church of England, and the mass of the Romanists, denotes a prayer accommodated to any particular day, occasion, or the like, See LITURGY and MASS.
In the general, all the prayers in each office are called collects; either because the priest speaks in the name of the whole assembly, whose sentiments and desires he sums up by the word oremus, "let us pray," as is observed by Pope Innocent III. or, because those prayers are offered when the people are assembled together, which is the opinion of Pamelius on Tertulian.
The congregation itself is in some ancient authors called collect. The popes Gelasius and Gregory are said to have been the first who established collects. Despence, a doctor of the faculty of Paris, has an express treatise on collects, their origin, antiquity, authors, &c.