LEGEND, any idle or marvellous story told concerning saints, and other persons.
The legend was originally a book used in the churches, containing the lessons to be read at divine service; and hence the lives of the saints and martyrs came to be called legends, because chapters were read out of them at matins, and in the refectories of religious houses. Amongst these, the golden legend, which is a collection of the lives of the saints, was received with great applause in the church, where it maintained its ground for two hundred years; though it is so full of ridiculous and romantic stories, that the Romanists themselves are now ashamed of it.