COLLECTION, a voluntary gathering of money, for some pious or charitable purpose. Some say, the name *collecta*, or *collection*, was used, by reason those gatherings were anciently made on the days of *collecta*, and in *collectis*, i.e., in assemblies of Christians; but, more probably, *qua colligatur pecunia*.

Collect is sometimes also used for a tax, or imposition, raised by a prince for any pious design. Thus, histories say, that in 1166, the king of England, coming into Normandy, appointed a collect for the relief of the holy land, at the desire and after the example of the king of France. See CROISADE.

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 *collecta*; 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 Pamphilus on Tertullian.

The congregation itself is in some ancient authors called *collecta*. The popes Gelasius and Gregory are said to have been the first who established *collecta*. Despence, a doctor of the faculty of Paris, has an express treatise on *collecta*, their origin, antiquity, authors, &c.