As nearly related to this branch of our subject, it has been remarked that Free Masonry was first known in Europe among these people, a fact that will have its weight among Latter-day Saints. In the middle ages these lodges of free masons built the cathedrals of Europe, and it is asserted that "the English cathedrals appear to have been built after the fashion of the temples that they frequented previous to their conversion to Christianity. And these cathedrals, it has been observed, seem evidently to be built after the design of the temple at Jerusalem. Like this, they have their most holy place, the altar, and their holy place, choir; and the court outward from thence for the body of the people." It is also somewhat remarkable that the only Gentile people of old, among whom anything like Free Masonry was found, were the Ionians, for whom we stated in a previous chapter some claim an Israelitish ancestry. Their temples dedicated to Bacchus and other heathen deities, were built by lodges, who had secret signs, etc., and conducted their affairs much after the manner of the masons of the middle ages. But the strongest of all the supposed identifications of the two races, stronger even than the religious phases of the subject, is the peculiar Mosaic tendency of the ancient Norseman's laws. So great is the similarity that most writers on this subject have been greatly puzzled to account therefor. It is written, "To those who have attentively studied the institutions of Moses, and compared them with the Saxon, there must appear a similarity as will be apt to lead to the conclusion that the Saxon commonwealth was thus framed, after their becoming acquainted with Christianity. This, however, does not appear to have been the case. They brought these institutions with them into England, and left similar institutions among the people in the north of Europe, with whom they had been from time immemorial. Limited monarchy, constitutional law, and representative government, an efficient civil police, and trial by jury, are among the most important legacies left the English nation by their Anglo-Saxon forefathers, and these may all be easily traced to an Israelitish origin. And to this origin they have been traced * * * even by those who were obliged, in rather an unphilosophical way, to account for the connection."