Long before the burly Vermont farm boy Brigham Young would establish a Zion in Utah, where he would serve as Prophet to the Mormons and Governor, governments and religions had been intertwined. From ancient Egypt to the Protestant Reformation and from the Kingdom of Siam to the Holy Roman Empire, political rulers have claimed divine sanction if not actual divinity to justify even the most abhorrent behaviours. Some of the largest religions today, such as Catholicism and Islam have survived and grown as a direct result of religious control over government.