[79] Gould, in his _History of Masonry_ (i, 31, 65), rejects the legend
as having not the least foundation in fact, as indeed, he rejects
almost everything that cannot prove itself in a court of law. For the
other side see a "Critical Examination of the Alban and Athelstan
Legends," by C.C. Howard (_A. Q. C._, vii, 73). Meanwhile, Upton points
out that St. Alban was the name of a town, not of a man, and shows how
the error may have crept into the record (_A. Q. C._, vii, 119-131).
The nature of the tradition, its details, its motive, and the absence
of any reason for fiction, should deter us from rejecting it. See two
able articles, pro and con, by Begemann and Speth, entitled "The
Assembly" (_A. Q. C._, vii). Older Masonic writers, like Oliver and
Mackey, accepted the York assembly as a fact established (_American
Quarterly Review of Freemasonry_, vol. i, 546; ii, 245).