d., p. 7. The German Freemason Findel disagrees with both the
Roman Collegia and the Egypt theory, and, like the Abbe Grandidier,
indicates the _Steinmetzen_ of the fifteenth century as the real
progenitors of the Order: "All attempts to trace the history of
Freemasonry farther back than the Middle Ages have been ... failures,
and placing the origin of the Fraternity in the mysteries of Egypt ...
must be rejected as a wild and untenable hypothesis."--_History of
Freemasonry_ (Eng. trans.), p. 25.

[281] Dr. Oliver and Dr. Mackey thus refer to true and spurious Masonry,
the former descending from Noah, through Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
and Moses to Solomon--hence the appellation of Noachites sometimes
applied to Freemasons--the latter from Cain and the Gymnosophists of
India to Egypt and Greece. They add that a union between the two took
place at the time of the building of the Temple of Solomon through Hiram
Abiff, who was a member of both, being by birth a Jew and artificer of
Tyre, and from this union Freemasonry descends. According to Mackey,
therefore, Jewish Masonry is the true form.--_A Lexicon of Freemasonry_,
pp. 323-5; Oliver's _Historical Landmarks of Freemasonry_, I. 60.

[282] Rev. G. Oliver, _The Historical Landmarks of Freemasonry_, pp. 55,
57 (1845).

[283] _The Jewish Encyclopaaedia_ (article on Freemasonry) characterizes
the name Hiram Abifi as a misunderstanding of 2 Chron. ii. 13

[284] Clavel, _Histoire pittoresque de la Franc-Maconnerie_, p. 340;
Matter, _Histoire du Gnosticisme_, I. 145.

[285] _Quoted_ in _A.Q.C._, XXXII. Part I. p. 36.

[286] Article on Freemasonry, giving reference to Pesik, R.V. _25a_ (ed.
Friedmann).

[287] Clavel, op. cit., 364, 365; Lecouteulx de Canteleu, _Les Sectes et
Societes Secretes_, p. 120.

[288] Clavel, op. cit., p. 82.

[289] Yarker, _The Arcane Schools_, p. 257.

[290] Ibid., p. 242.

[291] "According to Prof. Marks and Prof. Hayter Lewis, the story of
Hiram Abiff is at least as old as the fourteenth century."--J.E.S.
Tuckett in _The Origin of Additional Degrees, A.Q.C._, XXXII. Part I. p.
14. It should be noted that no Mason who took part in the discussion
brought evidence to show that it dated from before this period. Cf.
_Freemasonry Before the Existence of Grand Lodges_ (1923), by Wor. Bro.
Lionel Vibert, I.C.S., p. 135, where it is suggested that the Hiramic
legend dates from an incident in one of the French building guilds in
1401.

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