COLLECT. A short concentrated prayer. The derivation of the word is doubtful. The greater part of our Collects are found in the Sacramentaries of St. Leo (A.D. 420), Gelasius (A.D. 494), and Gregory the Great (A.D. 590.) Fifty-seven out of tie existing eighty-two Prayer Book Collects are thus translations from the Latin. The later Collects may sometimes be distinguished from these ancient ones by their lack of terseness, and by their greater use of scriptural language.
COLLEGE. A corporation or community. The Colleges of our Universities are independent societies, governed by their own statutes and officers. Still, they are connected in certain ways with the greater Corporation, called the University (which see.)
COLLEGIATE CHURCHES. Churches with a College, or body of Canons or
Prebendaries attached, such as Westminster Abbey, and St. George's,
Windsor. The only others remaining now are Wolverhampton, Middleham,
and Brecon.
COMMANDMENTS, The TEN. The recital of the Decalogue is peculiar to our English Communion Service. It was ordered in 1552, possibly to counteract the growth of Antinomianism (which see.) While other parts of the Levitical Law relating to ceremonies and the like are not binding on Christians, the Commandments are so, because they embody the Moral Law, which is for all time and all people.
For the sense in which the Commandments are to be understood, see the explanation of them in the Catechism. The reason of their being placed in the Communion Service is to remind us of the duty of self-examination before we "presume to eat of that bread and drink of that cup," and to give us a standard whereby we may measure ourselves. For the alteration from the seventh day to the first, see Sunday.
COMMENDATORY PRAYER. One of the four extra prayers added to the Office for the Visitation of the Sick in 1662. It is a most beautiful commendation of a "sick person at the point of departure" to God's gracious mercy.
COMMINATION. The word means a threat, or denunciation of vengeance. The Service, so-called in our Prayer Book, took its present shape in 1549. It is, as the first exhortation states, an imperfect substitute for the primitive practice of open penance. Notice that in using this Service we do not invoke the wrath of God on sinners, but merely declare that a curse must rest on sin. The Service is used on Ash Wednesday, although, if ordered, it may be used at other times. The first seven sentences are from Deut. xxvii.15-26; the eighth is from Jer. xvii.5; the ninth is an agglomeration of sins condemned in Scripture. The Amen here means not So be it, but So it is. The exhortation which follows is a succession of quotations from Scripture. The Rubric mentions the "place where they are accustomed to say the Litany," which place is neither the pulpit nor reading pew mentioned in the first Rubric in the Office, but is a desk placed "in the midst of the church" (Injunctions of 1549). Following the Lord's Prayer, Versicles, and Collects, comes a most forcible confession couched in the words of Scripture, but less comprehensive than those of the Morning and Communion Services. The Blessing, added in 1662, is a shortened form of the old Jewish Blessing (Num. vi.24-26), but here it is precatory not declaratory.
COMMITTAL PRAYER. That prayer in the Burial Service in which the minister commits the body to the ground, "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." (See Burial Service.)
COMMON PRAYER, see Liturgy.
COMMUNION, THE HOLY. Variously called the Lord's Supper and the Eucharist. This Service, formerly exclusively called the Liturgy is the highest act of Christian worship. We will consider it under four heads,—(1) History; (2) Rubrics; (3) Service; (4) Views.