Alms-Box (Or Alms-Chest)
a receptacle fastened to the wall or standing on a pillar in a church, for receiving the general offerings from the poor lduring public service. This usage is mentioned in the fourth Council of Carthage (where this receptacle is called sacrarium and gazophylacium), and by St. Augustine (De Diversis, serm. 50). It was appointed by canon 84 of the Synod of London (1603) to be provided in every parish, to the intent that parishioners may put into it their alms for their poor neighbors. See Landon, Eccles. Dict. s.v.