COLLATION, a term in the canon law, signifying a conferring, has been applied in various countries to the ecclesiastical sanction by which a clergyman is admitted to a benefice, whether the act consists in the conferring of the benefice by the ecclesiastical superior, or is merely an admission of the spiritual qualifications of a person otherwise presented. By the practice of England it is limited to the giving or bestowing of a benefice on a clergyman by a bishop, who has it in his own gift or patronage. It hence differs from institution in this, that institution is performed by the bishop upon the presentation of another, and collation is his own gift or presentation; and it differs from a common presentation, as it is the giving of the church to the person, whereas presentation is the giving or offering of the person to the church. But collation supplies the place of presentation and institution, and amounts to the same as institution, where the bishop is both patron and ordinary. Anciently the right of presentation to all churches was vested in the bishop; and now, if the patron neglect to present to a church, this right returns to the bishop by collation. But if the bishop neglects to collate within six months after the elapse of the patron, then the archbishop has a right to do it; and if the archbishop neglects, then it devolves to the king; the one as superior, to supply the defects of bishops, the other as supreme, to supply all defects of government.