COLLATION is also used among the Romans for the meal or repast made on a fast day, in lieu of a supper. Only fruits are allowed in a collation: F. Lobien neau observes, that anciently there was not allowed even bread in the collations in Lent, nor anything besides a few comfits and dried herbs and fruits; which custom, he adds, obtained till the year 1573. Cardinal Humbert observes farther, that in the middle of the 11th century there were no collations at all allowed in the Latin church in the time of Lent; and that the custom of collations was borrowed from the Greeks, who themselves did not take it up till about the 11th century.

Collation is also popularly used for a repast between meals, particularly between dinner and supper. The word collation, in this sense, Du Cange derives from collocatio, "conference," and maintains, that originally collation was only a conference, or conversation on subjects of piety, held on fast days in monasteries; but that, by degrees, the custom was introduced of bringing in a few refreshments; and that by the excellence to which those sober repasts were at length carried, the name of the abuse was retained, but that of the thing lost.

Collation of Seals, denotes one seal set on the same label, on the reverse of another.