Starting with the Invention of the Holy Croſs, the loving, but fervid, imaginations of the faithful ſoon wove round it a covering of imagery, as we have juſt ſeen in the caſe of the ſeveral woods of the Croſs, and the ſacred tree became the ſubject of a legend (for ſo it always was only meant to be), which was incorporated in the _Legenda Aurea Sanctorum_, or _Golden Legend of the Saints_, of Jacobus de Voragine, a collection of legends connected with the ſervices of the Church. This book was exceedingly popular, and, when Caxton ſet up his printing-preſs at Weſtminſter, he produced a tranſlation, the hiſtory of which he quaintly tells us in a preface.[A] [Sidenote: _Caxton’s Golden Legend_] As this Golden Legend is the ſtandard authority on the ſubject, and as it will much aſſiſt the intelligent appreciation of the wood-blocks, I reproduce it, premiſing that I have uſed throughout the firſt edition, 20 Nov., 1483:— [Sidenote: 3 _Page 39._] [Sidenote: 4 _Laughed or ſmiled._] [Sidenote: 5 _Obtained true mercy._] [3] But alle the dayes of adam lyvynge here in erthe amounte to the ſomme of +ixCxxx+[B] yere / And in thende of his lyf whan he ſhold dye / it is ſaid but of none auctoryte / that he ſente Seth his ſone in to paradys for to fetch the oyle of mercy / where he receyuyde certayn graynes of the fruyt of the tree of mercy by an angel / And whan he come agayn / he fonde his fader adam yet alyve and told hym what he had don. And thenne Adam lawhed[4] firſt / and then deyed / and thenne he leyed the greynes or kernellis under his faders tonge and buryed hym / in the vale of ebron / and out of his mouth grewe thre trees of the thre graynes / of which the croſſe that our lord ſuffred his paſſion on / was made by vertue of which he gate[5] very mercy and was brought out of darknes in to veray light of heven / to the whiche he brynge us that lyveth and regneth god world with oute ende. [Illustration: +Of thynuencyon of tholy croſſe / and firſt of thys woke Inuencion+] [Sidenote: 6 _Page 167._] [Sidenote: 7 _Of old._] THE[6] Invencion[C] of the holy croſſe is ſaid bycauſe that this day the holy croſſe was founden / for to fore[7] it was founden of ſeth in paradyſe tereſtre / lyke as hit ſhal be ſayd here after / and alſo it was founden of ſalamon in the mounte of lybane and of the quene of ſaba / in the temple of ſalamon / And of the Iewes in the water of pyſcyne[D] / And on thys day it was founden of Helayne in the mounte of Calvarye/. Of the Holy Croſſe. [Sidenote: 8 _Cured: French, guerir, to heal._] [Sidenote: 9 _Whole._] [Sidenote: 10 _Did ſo—cauſed to be: words of frequent occurrence._] [Sidenote: 11 _Kingdom: French, royaume._] [Sidenote: 12 _Ceaſe._] [Sidenote: 13 _Dug, p. part. of delve._] [Sidenote: 14 _Pond._] [Sidenote: 15 _The Lăbărum, or Sacred Banner of Conſtantine._] [Sidenote: 16 _Cauſed to be called together._] [Illustration] [Sidenote: 17 _Know._] [Sidenote: 18 _Grandfather._]