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

Collect, is sometimes also used for a tax, or imposition, raised by a prince for any pious design. Thus, historians 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 CRUSADE.

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 collect, 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 collect. The popes Gelasius and Gregory are said to have been the first who established collects. De Spence, a doctor of the faculty of Paris, has an express treatise on collects, their origin, antiquity, authors, &c.