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

COLLECT is sometimes used to signify a tax or imposition raised by a prince for any pious design. Thus histories say, that in 1166 the king of England, on going into Normandy, appointed a collect for the relief of the Holy Land, at the desire and after the example of the king of France.

in the liturgy of the church of England, and in the mass of the Catholic Church, denotes a prayer, accommodated to any particular day, occasion, or the like.

In 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, as is the opinion of Pamellus in his commentary on Tertullian.

The congregation itself, however, 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, wrote a treatise on collects, their origin, antiquity, authors, and the like.