In the spring of 1842 the simple rites of washing and anointing that had been performed in the Kirtland temple were transformed into a complicated and mysterious ceremonial, which for a time was kept as secret as polygamy. In the beginning only men were permitted initiation, but by the spring of 1844 women were granted the same privilege.(1) (1., Heber C. Kimball in his journal, pp. 14-15, noted that his wife, Vilate, had been washed, anointed, and sealed by Emma Smith. This is quoted by his daughter, Helen Mar Whitney, in Plural Marriage as Taught by the Prophet Joseph [Salt Lake City, 1882.])

The succession of apostates who exposed the temple mysteries usually hinted of a great sexual orgy. Actually there was nothing gross or disgusting in the ceremony. Each initiate was washed and anointed by a member of his own sex and then dressed in a special undergarment covered with a modest, flowing robe. The purification ritual was as follows:

Brother, having authority, I wash you that you may be clean from the blood and sins of this generation. I wash your head that your, brain may work clearly and be quick of discernment; your eyes than you may see clearly and discern the things of God; your ears that they may hear the word of the Lord; your mouth and lips that the; speak no guile; your arms that they may be strong to wield the sword in defense of truth and virtue; your breast and vitals that the their may be strengthened; your loins and reins that you mad, be fruitful in the propagating of a goodly seed; your legs and fee that you may run and not be weary, walk and not faint.(2) (2., W. M. Paden: Temple Mormonism, Its Evolution, Ritual and Meaning (New York, 1931), pp. 14-15. For the earliest description of the endowment ceremonies see I. M. Van Dusen: The Sublime and Ridiculous Blended [New York, 1848].)

The close affinity of religious and phallic rites is a common place in social history, and Mormon ritual doubtless had its roots in the same unconscious drives that led the prophet into polygamy. The endowment ceremony was essentially fertility worship; but its basic nature was so camouflaged that only the skeptical felt a sense of outrage.

A good deal of the ceremony performed after the rituals of washing and anointing was borrowed from the Freemason. From his earliest youth in Palmyra Joseph had known the old Masonic legend that Masonry dated back to the time of Solo coon's temple.(3) (3., The Palmyra Register on January to, 1821 quoted the Masonic Register as follows: "Solomon was endowed with wisdom from on high to designate the plan; he called the craft together, and the temple of our God was begun and finished solely by Masonic hands." Actually Masonry dates from about the thirteenth century. It originated in Britain as a trade guild, though it incorporated some symbols that date back to various mystery cults in antiquity.) Although he had peppered the Book of Mormon with anti-Masonic strictures stemming from the Morgan hysteria, he had long since lost his hostility to the craft. Masonry was now as respectable as before 1827, and when judge James Adams, Deputy Grand Master of the Illinois Masonic Order, urged him to set up a lodge in Nauvoo, he complied at once.

The lodge was formally installed on March 15, 1842, with headquarters in the big room over Joseph's store. John C. Bennett was secretary. (4) (4., See the Wasp, April 30, 1842, and History of the Church, Vol. IV, pp. 550-2.) Joseph became a first-degree Mason on the night of the installation, and the next night rose to the sublime degree. His interest in Masonry became so infectious that many Mormon elders hastened to follow his lead, and within six months the lodge had 286 candidates. This accretion left the non-Mormon lodges thunderstruck, for in 1842 the total membership in all of Illinois was only 227. They saw in this growth not only a degeneration of the theory of selective membership but also a threat to control the Grand Lodge in Springfield. (5) (5., John C. Reynolds: History of the M. W. Grand Lodge of Illinois, Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masons (Springfield, 1869), p. 166.)

There is no doubt that Joseph's primary interest in Masonry lay in its ritual. Like Solomon he was a temple-builder. Whatever had come down through the ages that was of value he meant to incorporate into his church. Six weeks after the installation of the lodge he called seven of his leading men ---Masonic Grand Master James Adams among them--- and instructed them "in the principles and order of the Priesthood, attending to washings, anointings, endowments and the communication of keys." In this council, he said, "was instituted the ancient order of things for the first time in these last days."(6) (6., History of the Church, Vol. V, p. 2.) This order was an elaborate ritual designed for performance in the Nauvoo Temple. The ceremony, which for a time was kept completely secret, was reserved for the faithful, who believed it to be the summation of all spiritual blessings.

The men were stripped, washed, anointed, and then, as in the Masonic ceremony, dressed in a special "garment" which was held together with strings or bone buttons, metal being forbidden. According to John C. Bennett, this garment at first was a kind of shirt, which was worn only during the ceremony and then hidden away as a kind of security against Destroying Angels. But it was shortly changed into an unlovely and utilitarian long suit of underwear, which the novice was instructed to wear always as a protection against evil.

The Masonic square and compass were cut into the garment on the breast and a slash was made across the knee. In the beginning the cut across the knee was apparently deep enough to penetrate the flesh and leave a scar, but this practice was eventually abandoned as a result of protests from the Mormon women. There was also a slash in the garment across the abdomen, symbolic of the disemboweling that would be the fate of anyone who revealed the sacred secrets.

After swearing to an oath of secrecy the initiate was dressed in white robes and permitted to witness a long allegorical drama depicting the creation of the earth and the fall of Adam. Joseph, it is said, took the role of God, Hyrum Smith that of Christ, and Bishop George Miller that of the Holy Ghost. The drama followed the language of Genesis, with God pretending to create Eve from the sleeping Adam, with Eve plucking raisins from a tiny tree symbolizing the tree of knowledge, and with W. W. Phelps as the devil crawling about serpent-like on his stomach. (7) (7., Accordining to John C. Bennett: History of the Saints; [Boston, 1842], p. 277. Succeeding years saw minor changes in this drama, but it is clear that the present Mormon ritual is essentially the same. The "second anointing," reserved for leading church officals has never been described in print.)

After being expelled from the Garden of Eden, the actors representing Adam and Eve donned tiny white aprons which were exactly like the Masonic aprons except that they were painted with green fig leaves. Then followed instruction in certain grips, passwords, and "keys." Each man was given a secret name by which he was to be known in the kingdom of heaven.

It may seem surprising that Joseph should have incorporated so much Masonry into the endowment ceremony in the very weeks when all his leading men were being inducted into the Masonic lodge. They would have been blind indeed not to see the parallelism between the costuming, grips, passwords, keys, and oaths. Joseph made free use of other Masonic symbols ---the beehive, the all-seeing eye, the two clasped hands, and the point within the circle. The miracle play performed in the Mormon ceremony differed only in subject matter from the Masonic drama of Hiram Abiff, and both used many of the same sonorous phrases from the Old Testament. Joseph taught his men simply that the Masonic ritual was a corruption of the ancient ritual of Solomon, and that his own was a restoration of the true Hebraic endowment. (8) (8., The most comprehensive analysis of the relation between Masonry and the Mormon temple ritual has been made by S. H. Goodwin. See his Mormonism and Masonry (Salt Lake City, 7th printing, 1938), and Additional Studies in Mormonism and Masonry (Salt Lake City 1932). Wilford Woodruff once frankly admitted that some temple ordinances were first performed in the Masonic Temple in Nauvoo. Temple Lot Case, p. 299.)

The elaboration of the temple endowment transformed the Mormon Church into a mystery cult. The secrecy, pageantry, and veiled phallicism appealed to very basic human instincts, and the fact that they seemed to be rooted in Old Testament tradition gave them an authenticity demanded by this Biblereading people.

The temple mysteries were closely bound up with Joseph's new theories about the nature of heaven and hell. After death, he said, all souls went to the world of spirits - similar to the purgatory of Catholic theology - where they remained in a not unpleasant imprisonment until the judgment Day. Only those who had joined the true church could clamber immediately up the road to godhood.

Those who had missed the chance to hear the gospel on earth could be freed from the world of spirits by the good offices of any Mormon. To liberate a dead relative or friend one simply acted as proxy in the ordinances of baptism and "sealing:" In this manner not only relatives but also all the heroic figures of the past could be released from spiritual bondage, and every Mormon was granted the opportunity of going through the oddly exciting temple ritual not once but hundreds of times.

Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians had made an ambiguous reference to baptism for the dead, and at least one German sect had practiced this ritual in Pennsylvania. Joseph taught it openly.(9) (9., History of the Church, Vol. IV, pp. 568-9; Times and Seasons, April 15, 1842.) At first the Mormons were baptized in the Mississippi and later in an elaborate font standing upon the backs of twelve white wooden oxen in the temple basement.

It is doubtful whether Joseph sensed the truly staggering implications of his endowment system. Upon his church now rested the burden of freeing the billions of spirits who had never heard the law of the Lord. Nauvoo had become the center not only of the world, but also of the universe. But Joseph laid too great emphasis on the temple ordinances. The costuming, pageantry, and general abracadabra had attracted him to the Masonic ritual in the first place, just as the theatricalism of the conjurer's art had lured him to the money-digging of his youth. And though he gave an ingenious theological significance to his own adaptation and development of the Masonic drama, it was always secondary to the pomp and spectacle. This was why Joseph could derive enormous satisfaction from playing the role of God in the temple allegory and yet, without any sense of impropriety, leave the lodge room to transact the sale of a city lot.

* * * * * *

from the same book, page 367---- [In 1844 . . .}

The Masons, annoyed at rumors of corruption of the Masonic ritual in the Mormon lodges (which now numbered five, three in Nauvoo and two in Iowa) and furious at Joseph's refusal to send the lodge records to Springfield for inspection, were determined to revoke the dispensations and declare all the Mormon lodges clandestine. (10)

(10., This was done in the 1844 meeting of the Grand Lodge. See Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons, Illinois, from its Organization in 1840 to 1850 Inclusive [ Freeport, Illinois, 1892].)

354 RECEIVING GIFTS AND GRACES.

and placing him in the most perfect state of progression which, if real, would be a state of the highest felicity and most assured salvation.

Two or three elders lay their hands upon the head of the person to be confirmed, one of whom acts as a mouthpiece for the rest, and pronounces the blessings and promises, generally exhausting his full list of mercies upon him whom they are receiving into full Sainthood. There are two essentials in this ordinance which are never omitted---" I confirm you a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," and, "I also confer upon you the Gift of the Holy Ghost."

Oftentimes the elder becomes so thoroughly filled with inspiration that he cannot cease his blessing until he has sealed the young Saint up to eternal life, with a perfect assurance that he shall "inherit all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with a fulness of the holy priesthood after the order of an endless life;" thus placing him beyond the possibility of falling from grace or missing the celestial gate: though he may wander from the fold and become bewildered in fogs and darkness, yet in the consummation of his mission to earth he will find his way back to

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page 355 GOING TO THE ENDOWMENT-HOUSE.

the fold of Christ; and as it is supposed that the Word of God, spoken by the mouth of His servant, cannot fail, will inherit thrones, principalities, and dominions, be made King and Priest unto God and His Christ, and reign upon the earth.

The person, having reached this high plane in the kingdom of God on the earth, is considered properly prepared to receive the higher and holier ordinances, which are to be kept entirely secret, and are accompanied by the strongest and most binding covenants, which cannot be broken without incurring the severest penalties.

I was promised everything that I could wish; indeed, I was quite overcome by the magnitude and number of special blessings that was promised me. First of all, as that was my most earnest desire, I was to have perfect health bestowed upon me at once. I was to go on "from grace to glory," in full saintship, and my last days were to be better than my first. I am glad to say that this portion of the blessing promises to be fulfilled, although by no means in the manner that was intended when the blessing was bestowed. I, of course, could not be a King or Priest, but I should be a "Celestial Queen," with all the glory, emoluments, and perquisites which attend that very exalted, but somewhat mythical, position. Having thus settled my future to their evident satisfaction, they left me fully prepared to receive my Endowments.

I was now all eagerness to receive my Endowments. If the first step could have so sudden and marked an effect on me, what would not the greatest, the most important step of all, do for me ! My faith in it and its virtues was almost sublime. I could scarcely wait for the next day to come-the day that had been appointed for me to enter into the full fellowship of the church, the full glory of the Lord, and the eternal heirship to heavenly things.

The morning came, however, and, with a heart filled with hopeful anticipation, I took my way to the Endowment-House [carrying a lunch and my Temple-robes, which had

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page 356 PREPARING FOR THE CEREMONY.

to be specially prepared for this occasion], where, in the absence of a regular Temple, the rites were performed. I expected something solemn and awful; something elevating to the spirit, and ennobling to the mind. How I was disappointed, everyone who has entered the Endowment-House with feelings similar to my own will understand. In place of the awe which I expected to find the rites endowed with, they were ridiculous and farcical in the extreme.

I have heard persons speak of the solemnity of their feelings on the occasion of taking their Endowments, but, with all respect to their truthfulness, I am always incredulous in the extreme. I think either their imagination must have got the better of their common sense, or they could have had very little of the latter commodity to begin with, else they would have seen through the very thin tissue of absurdities which they are obliged to witness with unmoved features, for to laugh in the Endowment-House would be the most fearful sacrilege. For my own part, I was in a most uncomfortable frame of mind. I wanted to laugh; everything seemed so ridiculous; and yet all the while I was conscience-stricken at my own levity. I thought it must be my own wicked heart, and not the rites themselves, and I

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page 357 OFF WITH OUR SHOES!

was constantly upbraiding myself for lack of spiritual grace; and yet I could not alter my feelings in the least. The only thing that in any degree overcame my disposition to laugh, was the horror at the oaths which I was obliged to take. They were fairly blood-curdling, they were so awful; and even now a shudder runs through my whole frame as I recall them.

The Endowment rites are nothing more nor less than a drama, founded partially upon the Bible, but more upon Milton's Paradise Lost. It represents the Creation, the Fall, and the final Restoration of Man to his first glory. To speak in stage parlance, the "different lines of business" are taken by the leaders of the church, who always sustain the same characters. The following is a list of the dramatis personae at the time that I took my Endowments:

ELOHIM, or Head God,.........Brigham Young.

JEHOVAH,.............................Heber C. Kimball.

JESUS,..................................Daniel H. Wells.

MICHAEL, or Adam,.............W.C. Staines.

SATAN,.................................W.W. Phelps.

APOSTLE PETER,................Oson Pratt.

APOSTLE JAMES,................John Taylor.

APOSTLE JOHN,...................Erastus Snow.

WASHER,...............................Dr. Sprague.

CLERK,...................................David O. Calder.

EKE,........................................Miss Eliza R. Snow.

TIMOTHY BROADBRIM, a Quaker,....Wilfred Woodruff.

DEACON SMITH, a Methodist,.....Orson Hyde.

PARSON PE PEABODY, a Presbyterian,.....Franklin D. Richards.

ELDER SMOOTH-TONGUE, a Baptist,....Phineas H. Young.

FATHER BONIFACE, a Catholic,.....George A. Smith.

When I entered the Endowment-House, I was made, first of all, to take off my shoes, for the place was too holy to be desecrated by outside dust. Having done this, I gave my name and age, the names of my parents, and date of baptism and confirmation, to the officiating clerk, who entered them all in a large book. Several other persons of both

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page 358 SISTER, PASS ON

sexes were present, and after all had been similarly catechized, and their answers noted, we were asked to produce our bottles of oil, ---for we had been instructed, among other things, to bring with us a bottle of the best olive-oil : these were taken from us; our bundles of clothing were handed to us Again, and we were told to "pass on."

We entered a large bath-room, which was separated in the middle by a heavy curtain, for the purpose of dividing the men from the women. The men passed to one side of the curtain, the women to the other. In our room were several large tubs filled with water, and Miss Eliza R. Snow and two or three other women were in attendance. I was received by Miss Snow, who placed me in one of the tubs, and washed me from my head to my feet, repeating certain formulae to the effect that I was washed clean from the blood of this generation, and if I remained firm in the faith, should never be harmed by any of the ills that beset the world, and which soon were to be showered in terrible profusion upon the earth. Plagues, pestilence and famine should cover the earth, and be let loose in its every corner, but I should be passed by unscathed, if I was true to my religion-the only revealed religion of God. After I had been wiped dry, she proceeded to anoint me with olive-oil. As she did so, she repeated. solemnly,

"Sister, I anoint your head, that it may be prepared for that crown of glory awaiting you as a faithful Saint, and the fruitful wife of a priest of the Lord; your forehead, that your brain maybe quick of discernment; your eyes, that they may be quick to perceive the truth, and to avoid the snares of the enemy; your ears, that they maybe quick to hear the word of the Lord; your mouth, that you may with wisdom speak the words of eternal life, and show forth the praise of the immortal gods; your tongue, to pronounce the true name which will admit you hereafter behind the veil, and by which you will be known in the celestial kingdom. I anoint your arms to labor in the cause of righteousness, and your hands

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page 359 I AM WELL WELL OILED.

to be strong in building up the kingdom of God by all manner of profitable works. I anoint your breasts, that you may prove a fruitful vine to nourish a strong race of swift witnesses, earnest in the defence of Zion; your body, to present it an acceptable tabernacle when you come to pass behind the veil; your loins, that you may bring forth a numerous race to crown you with eternal glory, and strengthen the heavenly kingdom of, your husband, your master, and crown in the Lord. I anoint your knees, on which to prostrate yourself, and humbly receive the truth from God's holy priesthood; your feet, to run swiftly in the

ways of righteousness, and stand firm upon the appointed places. And now I pronounce your body an acceptable temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit."

As may be imagined, I was literally besmeared with oil from my head to my feet. I breathed it, smelled it, tasted it; it ran into my eyes, and made them smart fearfully, and dripped in any but an agreeable manner from my hair. I was fairly saturated with it; was cognizant of nothing else; and I was so nauseated from it that I could scarcely go on

with the ceremonies. I got a distaste for it then that I have I never got over, and to this day even the sight of it makes me ill.

After the washing and anointing, I was given a garment which I was told to put on, and charged, after once assuming it, that I must never leave it off. When it became necessary to change, I must take off one side, then put the fresh one in its place; then I could drop the soiled one altogether, and get the fresh one on as soon as possible. So long as I wore it, I was free from danger, and even from death. Disease should not assail me, and neither shot nor the assassin's knife should have power to harm me; all should be turned one side. Every good Mormon wears this garment, and is very superstitious about allowing it off. It is said that Smith never would have been killed had it not been that he left off this charmed garment when he went to

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page 360 POMPS AND VANITIES" OF THE MORMON GIRLS.

Carthage. Had he allowed it to remain on, the balls of the murderers would have been utterly powerless to harm him.

There is nothing elegant about this garment; on the contrary, it is quite ugly, and the young Saints who assume it dislike it terribly for its plainness and awkwardness. In shape, it is like a child's sleeping-robe, with the waist and drawers combined, and reaches from the neck to the feet. It is of white, bleached muslin, and untrimmed. Latterly, some of the younger daughters of Brigham Young, and other young ladies of the Mormon bon ton, have instituted a reform, and, to the horror of the older ones, -who are not given over to the "pomps and vanities," &c.,-have had their garments cut shorter, low in the neck, and shortsleeved, and elaborately trimmed. Of course the. majority of the people, who have known of .this innovation, have been terribly scandalized; but all to no avail. Mormon girls, like girls of the world, object to making guys of themselves; and neither " counsel "nor ridicule can affect them when once their minds are made up on the subject of dress. They will suffer for that what they will not for their religion.

Mine, of course, was made after the true orthodox fashion. Over it I wore a white night-gown and skirt, and on my feet white stockings and white linen shoes. My Temple robe was the last to be donned. It is a long, loose, flowing robe of homespun linen, falling to the ankle, and at the top plaited into a band, which passes over the right shoulder, and is fastened under the left arm; it was girdled by a white linen belt: the cap, which accompanies it, is a simple square of linen, or muslin, gathered in one corner to fit the head; the remainder falls down over the back of the head, like a veil.

While all this washing and robing was going on on one side of the curtain, the same things were being done on the opposite side. I suppose we could hear the murmur of

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page 361 SHOUTING FOR SARAH!

voices and the splash of water; but everything was quiet and subdued, and the most perfect order reigned.

When we were all ready, a name was secretly given to each one of us, which was the name by which we were to be known in the celestial world, and which was to be told only to the man who should take us through the veil. If a woman was married, her husband took her through; if not, some brother kindly performed the office for her, and he was rewarded for his kindness by having the young Saint's celestial name whispered confidingly in his ear. I was not married; so Elder Samuel Richards took me through, and I told him my name, - and, by the way, he was the only person who ever knew it until after my apostasy, as I never told it to either of my husbands.

It is believed that as the husband has to "resurrect "his wife by her Endowment name, so it is rather necessary that he should know it. Consequently, when he is sealed to her, she is permitted to whisper her name to him through the veil, and after that it must be spoken no more between them until he shall call her by it on the morning of the final resurrection. If the Mormon doctrine were true, there would be a mighty shouting for " Sarah" at that time, as every person whose name I have heard was always called the same. It was the name that was given me, and I have known many others who received it. It certainly will make the husband's work at that time much lighter, since he need call but once to summon his entire family.

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page 362 CHAPTER XXII.

WE CARRY ON THE ENDOWMENT DRAMA. --- I AM FULLY INITIATED.

In the Endowment-House.---How the "Kings and Priests" appeared in their Shirts.---The poor Fellows "feel Bad! "---The "Gods" hold a Conversazione. --- Michael is sent down to Earth. --- The "Tree of Life." --- How Raisins grew instead of Apples. --- Not good to be Alone. ---The Rib abstracted and little Eve made.---The Devil dressed in "Tights." --- John D. Lee once a Devil. --- Eve's Flirtation. --- She eats Forbidden Fruit. --- Tempts her Husband.--- Fig-leaves come into Fashion. --- We hide in Holes and Corners---The Devil is Cursed and we are Lectured. ---The Second Degree.--- Story of a Pugnacious Woman.---The Terrible Oaths of the Endowment-House. --- Pains and Penalties. --- Signs and Grips. --- Good-bye! "---- Brother Heber gives me Advice.

AFTER our names had been given us, Miss Snow announced that we were ready, in answer to a questtion from the other side of the curtain. We were arranged in a row facing it, when it was suddenly with-drawn, and we were standing face to face with the men. The sight that met our eyes was very funny, and I had all I could do to keep my features decently straight. I looked out from under my eyelids, for I did not dare give a good, square, honest look; it would have been altogether too much for my gravity; but from my stolen looks I found that the men, over their new gar-

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page 363 THE "KINGS AND PRIESTS" IN THEIR SHIRTS.

ment of protection, wore a shirt only. On their feet were white socks and white linen shoes. The cap was of white linen, in shape exactly like those worn by stonemasons, and tied by a knot in front. They were certainly no more beautiful in appearance than we women, and, as is generally the case in embarrassing circumstances, were much less at their ease.

We were all conducted into another room, where we were seated opposite each other. We remained quiet for a few moments, getting used to the situation and our clothes, I suppose. Suddenly the silence was broken by voices in conversation. The persons who were carrying it on were concealed; but by listening intently we discovered that it was Elohim in conversation with Jehovah, and he was describing the creation of the world. His description was taken mainly from the first chapter of Genesis. The Gods then decide to visit the earth and see the works of their hands. This they do, and seem quite satisfied with the results of their labors; but they decide that it is necessary to place a ruler over the brute creation, since they must be governed and brought under the control of a superior order of intelligence.

The Gods continue their discussions, and Michael the Archangel is called and given control of "the earth and all that therein is." The brute creation is to be subject to him; the fruits of the earth shall yield abundantly for his sustenance. Of all these he is free to partake, with one single exception: he shall not eat of the fruit of a tree which stands in the middle of the garden.

This tree is represented by a small evergreen, on the branches of which, are tied apples, raisins, oranges, or bunches of grapes, as may happen. The fruit on the occasion of my passing through was raisins.

Michael ---or Adam., as he is now called--- finds his new abode rather a lonesome place, in spite of its beauty; and even the knowledge of his power over all about him does not

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page 364 THE RIB ABSTRACTED-LITTLE EVE MADE.

prevent him from longing for companionship. The Gods, too, decide that it is not good for him to be alone; and as there is nothing on earth that is sufficiently near an equality with him to be admitted to an intimate friendship, it is determined to give him a companion created specially for him. A profound slumber falls upon him, and we were all told at that time to feign sleep also, which we did. Elohim and Jehovah then make their first visible appearance, and go through the form of taking a rib from Adam's side, and on the instant appears Eve, in the person of Miss Eliza R. Snow.

At this point we were told to wake up, and instantly every Adam present appropriated to himself an Eve, and, led by the chief Adam and his bride, we all marched about, looking at our new

kingdom and marking all its beauties. It was then that Adam became separated from Eve, and wandered off by himself, very much after the fashion of husbands of the present day; and while

he was away, Satan entered and commenced a desperate flirtation with the coy and guileless Eve. The Garden of Eden is represented by painted scenery and furnishings.

It requires some imagination to invest this place with all the beauty that is supposed to have belonged to the original garden; but as it is the best Eden that can be provided, we, like all the rest of the Saints, were obliged to be content with it. Satan was for many years represented by W. W. Phelps, who has recently died. Much to his own surprise and great chagrin, he saw his end

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page 365 A FIRST-RATE DEVIL.

approaching; for he had always claimed to be immortal, and on a seal-ring which he wore while in the Endowment House was inscribed the blasphemous legend,

"The Lord and I

Shall never die."

I do not know who has succeeded him; but I know that in the Temple at Nauvoo, John D. Lee used frequently to assume the character, and I have heard old Mormons say that "he made a first-rate devil." I think no one who has watched his career will doubt that. Since, however, Brigham has recently cut him off from the church, it is hardly probable that he will ever again be able to make his appearance in his old character at the Endowment-House.

Satan was dressed in a tight-fitting suit of black, slashed with pink, pointed shoes, helmet; and a hideous mask. His costume, with the exception of the mask, resembled very closely the dress always worn by the stage Mephistopheles. I think he must have had different costumes, since it has been described several times, and the descriptions have varied in every case.

Eve seemed decidedly pleased with his attentions, and prattled on to him in artless gaiety. He, in turn, showed her the tree of the forbidden fruit, and tempted her to taste it. She did taste it, and finding it pleasant, offered it to Adam, who, by the time the mischief was done, returned to look after his wife. It required but little coaxing on her part to induce him to take the fruit, and he also found it agreeable. At this juncture they- seemed to discover their condition of supposed nudity, and instantly they produced white linen aprons, with fig-leaves stitched upon them, and proceeded to put them on. All the rest of us did the same.

The pattern of this apron, by the way, was said to have been given to Joseph Smith by revelation. It was a square 'of white linen, measuring about eighteen inches, on which

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page 366 FIG-LEAF FASHIONS.

were to be sewn nine fig-leaves cut from green silk. Those who first took their Endowments had their aprons made after this model ; but there were afterwards many inventions sought out for improving the Lord's pattern, one of which was to paint them. Over these painted aprons fancy fairly ran riot. The borders would be whatever color the person making them might choose, and were red, yellow, or blue, as the caprice dictated, with white centres filled with green leaves. The shape of these leaves was as varied as the people who wore the aprons. Some resembled the oak leaf, some the fig, a part the burdock, and others were like nothing else that ever was seen under the sun. A company going through their Endowments thirty years since, presented, it is said, a decidedly fantastic appearance. After trying every conceivable mode of making the aprons, they have settled down to the "revealed pattern" as the best every way.

After the aprons were on, the voice of Elohim was heard calling Adam; but he was afraid, and hid himself with Eve. All the rest of us were supposed to follow their example, and there was a most undignified scurrying behind sofas, chairs, or any other article of furniture that was convenient. It was like nothing so much as the old game of "hide-and- and it was a rare piece of fun to see men arid women scudding in every direction about the room. It was like a good old-fashioned frolic to me, and I actually laughed aloud, much to m3• discomfiture and Heber Kimball's horror, who reproved me afterwards, and told me it was very wrong. "For," said he, "these things are sacred, and make me feel as solemn as the grave, and I can scarce refrain from shedding tears every time I see them."

I was properly penitent, but I know I thought at the time how very easily Brother Heber was moved.

The devil was then cursed, and he fell upon his hands and knees, and wriggled and hissed in as snake-like a manner as possible; we were all brought out from our several

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page 367 FIRST DEGREE.-THE DEVIL IS PUT TO FLIGHT.

hiding-places, the curse was pronounced upon us, which doomed us to leave the beautiful garden, and earn our bread by the sweat of our brows. We were then driven into another room, which was called the world; arid then we had taken our "First Degree."

We found the world a very bewildering place. We were drawn hither and thither, and tossed about by every conflicting wave of circumstance. Our friend, the devil, did not leave, but was our constant visitor, urging us to new deeds of sin. We were waited upon by representatives of the different sects, each 'descanting upon his peculiar plan of salvation, and its advantage over all the rest. The Quaker advocated his non-resistance doctrine. The Methodist gave a graphic, but not very refined description of the future torments of those who did not take his road to heaven. The Presbyterian gave his belief in foreordination and election in the very terse lines,

"You can if you can't;

If you will you won't;

You'll be damned if you do;

You'll be damned if you don't."

The Baptist expatiated upon the virtues of immersion and close communion, and insisted upon predestination as the principal basis of religion; the Catholic called for observances of fasts and prayers to the Virgin Mary. Each grew more clamorous in recommending his special creed, and the discussion waxed fast and furious, even the peaceful Quaker shouting his "good will to men" with a red face, an angry voice, and excited manner, when Satan entered, filled with delight at the disturbance, and urging them on to renewed contention.

Then the apostles began to visit the earth, and comfort its afflicted tenants with plans of the true, revealed religion that was to be their salvation. They- put the devil to flight, and the representatives of the "false religions" cowered and shrank away before the truth which they brought.

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page 368 THE MYSTERIOUS OATHS AND SIGNS.

We were then given certain signs, pass-words, and grips, arranged in a circle, and told to kneel; the women were also required to cover their faces with their veils; then we were bidden to raise our right hands heavenward, and take the oath of implicit obedience and inviolable secrecy. The women promised entire subjection to their husbands' will ; the men that they would take no woman as a wife without the express permission of the priesthood. We all promised that we would never question the commands of our authorities in the church, but would grant them instant obedience; we swore also to entertain an everlasting enmity to the United States government, and to disregard its laws so far as possible; we swore that we would use every exertion to avenge the death of our Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum upon the Gentile race, by whose means they were brought to their unhappy fate, and to teach our children to foster this spirit of revenge also ; and last of all, we swore never to reveal the mysteries of the Endowment House.

The breaking of this latter oath was to be followed by the most horrible penalties; torture of the most excruciating kind was to be inflicted upon anyone who should disregard this oath - his bowels should be torn from him while he was yet alive; his throat should then be cut from ear to ear; his heart and his tongue cut out; and in the world to come he should inherit eternal damnation. There should be, nor could be, no chance of salvation for him.

These promised penalties are by no means mere forms of words, given merely to add impressiveness to the ceremony. The " Blood-Atonement " shows that they are carried out, and hundreds of cases could be cited in addition to those already given, to prove that the Endowment-House penalties are by no means dead letters in the Mormon Church law. The cutting of every Gentile and apostate throat, and the "sending to hell across lots," that have been so openly and emphatically urged from the stand by Brigham Young and

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page 369 THE SECRET OF THE VEIL.

others, is only a public expression of the mysteries of the Endowment oaths.

Brother Heber endeavored to add weight and emphasis to this horrible rite by delivering a discourse to us on the duty of keeping quiet, even to our husbands or wives, on the subject; from the time we left the room we were in, the transactions therein must not be mentioned, or even hinted at, to anyone. He then entered upon a dissertation of the glories of the Celestial Kingdom, and fairly outdid himself in coarseness and vulgarity. It was then announced to us that the talk finished the ceremony of the "Second Degree," and we were told to enter the next room, for the purpose of having the "Third Degree" of the Order of Melchisedec Priesthood conferred upon us.

In this room a portion of the scenes of the last were repeated: the devil encouraged the ministers of the conflicting denominations to visit the new inhabitants of earth, and urge their religions on them once more. The apostles stop the proposed visit, and explain still further the doctrines of the true faith; they organize a new church, which is, of course, the "Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints." Our Temple robes were changed; resting afterwards upon the left shoulder and fastening under the right arm --- which was a sign that we were now received into the true church, and subject to the will of its leaders. Another grip was taught to us, and we then received the "Third Degree," and were ready to "pass through the veil."

The men, of course, went through first, and they were permitted then to take us women through.

The room we were in was divided by a muslin partition, in which was a door; in this door was a hole just large enough to pass the hand through, and over this hole was a curtain of muslin. The persons who were behind this muslin partition-which was supposed to represent "the veil" - were invisible to us, although they could see us distinctly.

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page 370 WHAT THE WOMEN WHISPERED TO THE MEN.

A man approached the door as if seeking admittance, and the Apostle Peter, appearing at the opening, asked who was there and what was wanted. He was told that some one wished to enter. The applicant was told to come near, and, as he approached, hands came through the opening in

the door, and cut a mysterious mark on each breast of the man's garment, another over the abdomen, still another over the right knee. The garments of all the applicants were treated in the same mysterious manner, and the women were told to copy them in their own when they went home. It was also commanded them that whenever other garments were made, these marks must be placed on them.

After the garments had been cut, the applicant for admission gave the last grip which had been taught them, through the slit in the partition, and whispered his or her new name to those behind who were waiting, to hear it, and was then permitted to go "behind the veil." The women were then taken through, the married ones by their husbands ; I, as I have before said, by Elder Samuel Richards, brother of Apostle Franklin D. Richards, of Hand-Cart memory. Several remained to be sealed, but as I had not that ceremony to go through, I was permitted to go away.

I was perfectly exhausted by what I had passed through, and quite dissatisfied. It was so different from what I expected that I was saddened and disappointed by it all. My feelings of the morning had undergone a most radical change. I was no longer buoyed up by the enthusiasm of religious fervor; that had died away, and I was as hopeless and apathetic as I had before been eager and buoyant.

I was too tired to go home at once; so I went to Heber Kimball's to rest. When he returned from the Endowment-House he found me there, and he asked how I felt since I left the House; if I had found peace and help. I told him no; that I felt worse, if possible, than ever. It was then that he reproved me for the levity which he had seen me show, and told me he feared I did not take my Endowments

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page 371 HOW TO BURY A SAINT.

in the right spirit. I began to think that that might be the case, and that the fault lay with me and my understanding, and possibly the ordinance was not such a farcical proceeding as it had seemed to me; and I took the reproof so humbly and with such good grace, that Brother Heber grew absolutely hopeful for me.

It is claimed that the mysterious rites were taken from Masonry, and that the Endowments are a direct outgrowth of the secret society. Brigham Young delights, I know, to speak of it as "Celestial Masonry," but I am very sure all good Masons would repudiate it and its teachings.

In regard to the oaths of secrecy which I took at that time, I do not consider that I am doing anything wrong in breaking them; I am sure I shall in no way be held accountable for so doing. I took them because I felt that I must. I did not know what I was promising until after the oath was given me, while I listened with uplifted hand. I was bound to secrecy, but I feel that right and justice demand that I shall break these bonds. I consider it a duty to expose, as far as I possibly can, the wickedness, cruelty, blasphemy, and disloyalty of the leaders of the deluded Mormon people.

All Mormons who have received their Endowments are buried in their robes ---caps, shoes, apron, and all. It is held necessary in order to insure their entrance into the Celestial Kingdom. One of the authorities in the church was once asked what would become of the Mormon children who should die before they were old enough to receive their

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page 372 HOW BAPTISTS "DISAPPEARED."

Endowments, and consequently were buried without the robes.

He replied that their parents, or whoever had the power of resurrecting them, must prepare the clothing, and when their dead came out of their graves they were to clothe them with the sacred robes.

A few years since a man named Baptiste was discovered robbing the dead of their garments, and as a matter of course the greatest excitement prevailed. He was immediately "made away with," his house searched, and a large number of robes discovered. Some said that he was put on a little island in the lake, and left to perish. Others said that Porter Rockwell looked after his interests. But certain it is that he "disappeared," and was never seen again. The garments were identified, and the friends of the dead began taking up the bodies and replacing the robes. Brigham ordered them to desist, telling them that "under the circumstances their friends would be taken care of in the resurrection;" so most of the robes were never restored.

Freemasonry and Mormonism
By Michael S. Thomas

For years, in fact for as long as I can remember I've heard that the LDS (Mormon) Church "discouraged" its members from joining the Masonic Fraternity. This was often a source of wonderment for me since it was well documented that Joseph Smith Jr., the founder and first leader of the LDS Church, had been made a Master Mason while in Nauvoo, Illinois. Additionally, many of the prominent men of the early LDS Church were avid Mason's, men such as Brigham Young Joseph Smith's successor, Hyrum Smith -Joseph's brother, Wilford Woodruff, and George Albert Smith, successive leaders of the Church, to name a few. Equally puzzling to me, was the masonic prohibition some of the Fraternities Grand Lodges, had against LDS church members joining the fraternity.

As to the first point, I've satisfied myself that there has never been a general statement by the Church specifically discouraging its members from joining the Masonic Fraternity. There may be some local church leaders who discourage it for whatever reasons, but those local leaders speak only to their own congregations, and not to the general membership of the church. Even then it is usually to individual circumstances and not in broad generalities.

On the second point, concerning the Masonic prohibition, it is indeed a fact that the Fraternity excluded members of the "Mormon" Church, from joining. This prohibition, although un-masonic because it was based upon a religious preference, may have had some justification based upon history and the Masonic experience. This situation has since been corrected, at least in the Utah Lodges.

Unfortunately, there's still much misunderstanding from members of both organizations towards the other. Why do these misunderstanding persist? The answer may be found by examining the persecutions which were experienced by both organizations around the 1830's and 1840's. I've concluded that individual members, not incompatible dogma instigated and perpetuated the schism that has existed.

I hope to explain from the points of view as both a Mason and a Mormon, some of the events which created the schism between these two organizations. This is not meant to be an examination of belief and practices of the Church or Fraternity, although certain aspects may need to be touched upon as background.

In my research to present a factual history, I've found that most of the literature dealing with this subject is out-dated. Most of the publications dealing with the subject written by Masons, point out the various reasons why that particular author thinks the Mormons are incompatible with the fraternity, and attempt to show why the fraternity was justified in denying membership to LDS members. Others are extremely critical of the Utah Lodges for not allowing LDS members the privileges of membership in the Fraternity based upon their religious beliefs. The resources which I've found for either position, fail to reflect the current practice of the Fraternity of admitting all honorable men regardless of their creed, so long as they have an unfeigned belief in Deity. Similarly, there are many misunderstandings as to the purposes of the Masonic Fraternity among LDS members, who attach an erroneous "Secret Society" definition to it.

I believe it is uninformed individuals, not organizational teachings, that perpetuate these erroneous misunderstandings and the blind acceptance of false information. For example according to The Salt Lake Tribune:

"...There is no specific Mormon prohibition of masonry, but church spokesman Don LeFever said the church discourages it members from joining it or similar groups. 'The church strongly advises its members not to affiliate with organizations that are secret, Oath- bound, or would cause them to lose interest in church activities.'"(1)

Taken literally, this would seem to indicate that holding any public office which requires an oath would be discouraged. Yet the real facts are that members are encouraged to be politically and civically active. Or that joining the Boy Scouts, which has the Scout Oath would also be discouraged, yet the LDS Church is an ardent supporter of that organization.

The oaths administered in the Masonic Ceremonies bind one to be honorable, honest, to obey civil law, and to keep confidences. Encouragement is also given to search out and live the teachings of Holy Scripture, specifically the Holy Bible in the United States. All of this is compatible with LDS teachings and beliefs.

In fact, one of the statements of belief taught by Joseph Smith to the church was: " ... If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."(2)

From my experience and knowledge of the Freemasons, this is certainly a praiseworthy organization.

Since the Fraternity openly publishes its membership list, states its purposes, gives public tours of its buildings, openly contributes civically to the community, and donates books containing much of this information to public libraries, It can't truthfully be called a secret society. when a Mason promises to keep secrets, what he is promising, is to keep all confidences "sacred and inviolable". A laudable trait in any moral organization or society!

A statement made by a member of the First Presidency of the Church in 1934, also clearly shows that there is not a Mormon prohibition against masonry: "The Mormon Church has no quarrel with Freemasonry or any other organization which is formed for a righteous purpose ... A Mason who may become a member to the Mormon Church is in noway restrained from affiliation with his lodge..."(3)

This statement has never been refuted, or retracted.

Most of the LDS authors who write on this subject, seem to focus on why its members shouldn't be denied masonic membership, based upon their adherence to the tenets of the LDS Church.

However, most of these works were written prior to 1984, during a time when there was a Masonic prohibition against Mormon membership in the Utah lodges. Nowhere did I find an LDS author suggesting that and LDS member shouldn't join.

Early Utah Freemason sentiment was expressed by Grand Master J.M. Orr in 1878:

"We say to the priest of the Latter-day Church, you cannot enter our lodge rooms ... Stand aside, we want none of you. Such a wound as you gave Masonry in Nauvoo is not easily healed, and no Latter-day Saint is, or can become a member in our jurisdiction."(4)

This statement is important and revealing because I think it will give us a basis for understanding the feelings that existed on both sides of the issue. I believe that this "wound" refers to a series of events which will be treated in more detail later, but generally refers to young LDS Lodges violating some of the fraternities ancient landmarks and a general belief and accusations by Mormon's at the time, that it was the Masonic Fraternity who was responsible for the murder of Joseph Smith, or at least for the failure of the killers to be brought to justice.

In researching this subject, it has been my experience that the interpretation of events and the cause and effect relationship, differs depending upon the experiences and background of the person examining those events. I might use the analogy of three blind men describing an elephant through their sense of touch for the first time. The one on the side describes it as a wall, the one at the trunk, as a snake, and the one at the tail, as a rope. Of course each was right in relating his own experience, yet each was wrong because they were limited in their total experience.

In interpreting several cause and effect incidents, I have always tried to take the most charitable of possible interpretations towards the organization being considered. Kind of "The benefit of the doubt" type approach.

To understand some of the feelings which exist today, it will be necessary to present some history of the period in which the conflicts began. Although persecution of the church started in earnest in Missouri, the schism between the Masons and the Mormons seems to have had its beginnings in Illinois.

The early LDS Church suffered numerous persecutions and hatred in Missouri, which became increasingly bitter as the church grew. The Church was anti-slavery in a slave state, and as it grew, so did its political clout. While it's true that the hierarchy didn't dictate to the members how they should vote on any particular issue, those that were joining the church found themselves to be like minded people, and in-spite of the absence of direct guidance from church leaders on political matters, the indirect influence was certainly there, and having a common belief system they tended to vote as a group. Also the encouragement of foreign converts to emigrate and join with the church in Missouri, resulted in a steady growth of its political power base.

This, combined with some of the unique doctrines of the church led to an intense public resentment. This resentment and the resulting persecution grew more severe as time went on, eventually culminating in the Governor of Missouri, Lilburn W. Boggs declaring in 1838 that all Mormons were to either be driven from the State or exterminated. He apparently felt that the only way to end the feuds and near civil war conditions between the Mormons and Non-Mormons, would be to eliminate one of the sides in the dispute, even if it was by genocide.

It was under these conditions that the church members fled from Missouri to Quincy, Illinois where they were welcomed with opened arms and immediately taken in with a great deal of hospitality. Ironically, this warm reception was largely for the same reasons which had caused them to be driven from Missouri, that is their political influence. Many leading candidates for public office felt that if the Mormons could be swayed to their agendas, they would have a great advantage over their opponents. But whatever the reason, it was a welcome change from what had been left behind in Missouri.

In May 1839, the Church began purchasing land in Commerce, Illinois a farm or two at a time at first, until very large tracts of land were owned. This soon became the central gathering place for the Church and eventually the name was changed to Nauvoo. A liberal Charter was obtained from the State Legislature, granting it official recognition as a city. The Charter also granted broad authority to pass laws, establish district courts, police departments, city councils, a standing militia (giving official and lawful sanction to the Nauvoo Legion), etc.

With the privileges granted in the Charter by the State Legislature, and with the majority of the residents being Mormon, the constitutional separation of church and state relationship was unintentionally, but predictably violated.

The principle leaders of the church were also elected to the most important city positions, giving them almost exclusive political as well as ecclesiastical authority over the church and community. As might be predicted, many civil laws were enacted which reflected the religious beliefs and values of the majority, often to the displeasure of the minority of non-LDS residents of the city. Nauvoo grew so rapidly that by the time the church started it's western exodus it is reported to have been three times the size of the then current Chicago.

Again, the resentment of local citizens grew as a result of the political clout the church was gaining, still tending to vote as a group but inconsistently for any one party at any particular time. "Leaders of the opposition considered Mormonism much more than religion as that term was generally understood. Mormonism meant a rapidly expanding close-knit economic and political group which, if not checked, might possibly gain complete control of the state. As the largest single organization occupying the state's most populous city, the Mormons had gained the balance of political power in Hancock County by 1843. It was this threat of economic-political control more than any specific religious doctrine that unified the anti-Mormons into vigorous militant groups.

Before 1844, church leaders denied any ambition of a political nature, but outsiders noted that Mormons tended to vote more or less solidly although not consistently for the same party."(5)

The Masons had experienced some of the same public resentment and suffered many of the same persecutions, but for different reasons than the Mormons. The Masons had received a lot of attention and criticism for what the public called "blood oaths". By way of explanation, the oaths which are administered during the initiation rituals describe certain penalties for violation of a Masons promises not to make public the Fraternities modes of recognition, ritual, etc. These penalties, however are only symbolic and date back to situations that existed in the middle ages when the violation of these promises could have put many lives in jeopardy. The most severe punishment which could be inflicted by a lodge in the 1800's, and today, would be expulsion from membership. The public however, had no understanding of the symbolic nature of these penalties, nor even what they were, except that they included the taking of life. Most people mistook them to be very literal. It was during these circumstances, that events known today as the "Morgan Affair", ignited the anti-Masonic feelings of the period.

In about 1825, William Morgan, a Freemason in New York, announced that he would publish an expose' on Freemasonry, revealing its rites, rituals, modes of recognition, etc. Shortly after he made this announcement, Mr. Morgan mysteriously disappeared, never to be heard from again. With nothing but rumor and speculation to go on, the Masonic Fraternity was accused of his kidnapping and murder for violating his oaths to the Fraternity. As tension built anti-Masonic political parties began to spring up, and met with so much success among an outraged and misinformed population, that a national "Anti-Masonic Party" was officially organized. On two occasions they even had legitimate candidates for the office of United States President. The persecution became so severe that many lodges folded and went out of existence for lack of membership. But by 1835 the storm had passed and the Fraternity began the process of healing and recovery.

The indignities these two organizations suffered would naturally make them suspicious of outsiders, no matter who the outsiders were. While the Masons had been thus persecuted, and understandably sensitive to public opinion, hearing all kinds of false accusations about their Fraternity being a secret society, administering blood oaths, and protecting its members from prosecution for crimes they committed, the LDS Church published its Book of Mormon. A passage from that book was taken by many to be speaking about the Masonic Order.
}"But behold, Satan did stir up the hearts of the more part of the Nephites, insomuch that they did unite with those bands of robbers, and did enter into their covenants and their oaths, that they would protect and preserve one another in whatsoever difficult circumstances they should be placed, that they should not suffer for their murders, and their plunderings, and their stealings. And it came to pass that they did have their signs, and their secret words; and this that they might distinguish a brother who had entered into the covenant, that whatsoever wickedness his brother should do he should not be injured by his brother, nor by those who did belong to his band, who had taken this covenant. And thus they might murder, and plunder and steal, and commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness, contrary to the laws of their country and also the laws of their God."(6)

Except for the recent persecutions and a similarity to the publics accusations of the time, Masons probably would never have thought that this had been written about them, since anyone even superficially familiar with the Masons, know that the Fraternity would itself condemn any such behavior by its members, and they would immediately be expelled from the Lodge and turned over to Legal authorities for lawful disposition.

The acts described in this passage would be as loathsome to any Mason, Mormon, or any other God fearing citizen. But since these things had been so widely spoken against the Fraternity by ignorant people, to see them in print again by a sect who was claiming it to be scripture, would naturally incite a great deal of resentment.

It can easily be seen why it would create fears of renewed persecution, and why it would be interpreted as a statement of the Church against Freemasonry. However, had this actually been the case Joseph Smith and most of the early church leaders would never have joined the Fraternity, most of whom joined after the Book of Mormon was published.

It was during this rebuilding period for Freemasonry, the persecution of the LDS Church, and this era of political clout in the Church, that all these circumstances combined into a series of events that would end in a schism between the Masons and Mormons, leaving a feeling of bitterness and misunderstanding between the two organizations for over a century and a half.

Let's now examine the interest Joseph Smith had in the Masonic Fraternity and why he joined. As previously stated, he and his new church had suffered numerous persecutions and had many atrocities committed against them. Early in his ministry, as the church was being organized, Joseph lamented: "I continued to pursue my common vocations in life... all the time suffering severe persecution at the hands of all classes of men, both religious and irreligious ... and persecuted by those who ought to have been my friends and to have treated me kindly, and if they supposed me to have been deluded to have endeavored in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me..."(7)

These persecutions continued to build and become more violent in intensity. Joseph fervently wanted them to end, for both himself and the Church. Several of his associates, including his brother Hyrum, were Masons and familiar with the Fraternities teachings of a belief in God and the brotherhood of man. They convinced Joseph that the fellowship they would find within its Lodges would give them solace and respite from the persecutions and prejudices, as well as a degree of protection from the violence.

"If ever a man was in need of sympathy and the friendship of good men, that man was Joseph Smith. It was under these circumstances that Joseph Smith became a member of the Masonic Fraternity. He hoped to find there the friendship and protection which he so much craved, but which had been denied him outside of his few devoted adherents."(8)

If the foregoing establishes any valid reasons for the Mormon interest in Freemasonry, we should now examine why the Masons allowed the Mormons to establish Lodges under the authority of the Grand Lodge of Illinois. To discover this, we must look towards the Grand Master at the time, one Abraham Jonas A "Master Politician" , Abraham Jonas became the Grand Master of the Illinois Grand Lodge through a series of unlikely events, as described by one noted Masonic Author, Mervin B. Hogan, concerning Illinois Grand Lodge elections.

"As a result of evident dissension among the ... lodges, the six lodges represented were unable to elect anyone present to the principal office. Rather obvious speculation suggest that as a desperate last move an absent dark horse was introduced into the picture. This personage was Abraham Jonas. ... Since Jonas was not present, Adams adjourned the Grand Lodge until Tuesday, April 28, 1840 as the announced date for the regular installation of the newly elected and appointed officers. At this later date, Jonas again was not present so Adams... installed Jonas by proxy.... It appears to be virtually certain that Abraham Jonas was totally without interest, concern, or the slightest aspiration relating to the Illinois Grand Mastership. ... (Adams) attended to the Organization of the Grand Lodge, and persuasively enlisted Jonas to their common cause of individual political preferment."(9)

Mr. Jonas had a political agenda in running for various public offices, and bad been convinced by Adams that by courting Mormon favor, he could more effectively promote his own civic aspirations.

Additionally, as Grand Master involved in the post "Morgan Affair", he undoubtedly hoped to stimulate the growth of the Fraternity after its precipitous decline during the anti-masonic era. The Mormon Lodges would greatly increase the size of the Illinois Grand Lodge.

Unfortunately, many of the older, established Lodges in the State felt that the Dispensations granted to the Mormon lodges had not been done according to Masonic regulations. That, combined with the hard-feelings which existed among Masons because WGM Jonas had made Joseph Smith a "Mason at Sight", cost the Mormon lodges much of the needed support from their closest sister Lodges.

Initially the young church embraced the Fraternity, and enthusiastically set about to establish Lodges in their communities. So many new lodges were being created that the distances, modes of transportation, and means of communication, made it difficult for a new lodge to be properly supervised in its work. Additionally, the closer non-Mormon lodges felt no desire to assist the Mormon Lodges, feeling they were "inadequately familiar with them".

In their zeal to grow and prosper, many mistakes were made and many Landmarks violated. While the Nauvoo Lodge was under Dispensation, from March 15, 1842 to August 11, 1842, the Lodge Initiated 286 candidates, and Passed and Raised nearly as many. Additionally, the Mormon Lodges, balloted on several candidates at one time, which was a serious violation of masonic protocol. Other violations included using the masonic Lodge for city offices, a church warehouse, and as a meeting place for the newly organized Mormon Women's Relief Society.

Many of the violations were not uncommon among new lodges of the period, Mormon and non-Mormon alike. However, the seriousness of these errors in judgment were amplified by the nature and general perception of the church as an organization. The church seemed a radical organization. They didn't feel an obligation to follow the established conventions of the time, but boldly established many new doctrines, practices, and rituals. The counsel and correction which was offered by Masonic authority to correct some of these irregularities, undoubtedly was seen by the Mormons as interference and as jealousy from their sister Lodges, as well as additional persecution.

This attitude culminated in the Mormon Lodges being declared "Clandestine" and they were no longer recognized by the Illinois Lodges. Even this was seen as harassment and largely ignored by Mormon Lodges who continued to Initiate, Pass, and Raise candidates. Their determination and inflexibility was considered by many as hardheadedness and arrogance.

It's hard to say with certainty that Masonic jealousy didn't play some small role in the revocation of the Mormon Charters. The persecutions of previous years, the zeal with which the Masonic Fraternity guards its ancient land marks, combined with the tide of public opinion against the Church, and seeing the rapid growth of the lodges in LDS communities, the neighboring Lodges feared that the Grand Lodge would eventually be controlled by Mormon Masons, possibly destroying the Fraternity as an ancient institution with new innovations, thereby destroying its usefulness, and reducing it to the mere status of a local men's club.

The lodge membership figures for the year 1842 in Illinois is telling, and in hindsight makes the rising tide of ill will somewhat predictable. Mormon Lodge membership in two of the lodges were: Nauvoo, 285 and the Rising Sun Lodge at Montrose, Iowa Territory, 45. Comparatively, non-LDS Lodge Membership at this same time by Lodge, Bodely No. 1, 25; Harmony No. 3, 23; Springfield No. 4, 43; Columbus No. 6, 16; Macomb No. 8, 22, Juliet No. 10, 25; Rushville, UD, 10; Warren, UD, 8. (10)

This gave the growing Mormon Lodges 330 members while the older established non-Mormon Lodges had only 172.

With the events of this period as a back drop, let's examine the alleged involvement of the Masonic Lodges in the martyr of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.

During this period of anti-Mormon sentiment, Thomas C. Sharp from the City of Warsaw, assumed leadership of the anti-Mormon movement. Mr. Sharp edited the influential Warsaw Signal, a prominent newspaper of the time.

'To counter Mormon political power sharp organized an anti-Mormon political Party in 1841, urging Whigs and Democrats to come to his support. Searching for issues upon which to challenge Mormon power, Sharp criticized the establishment of the Nauvoo Legion, the city charter, the prophets expansive land transactions, and the solid Mormon vote.(11) Thomas Sharp was so key in agitating the public against the Mormons, I will here include several of his quotations, which he published by the Warsaw Signal in 1844.

May 29th: "We have seen enough to convince us that Joe Smith is not safe out of Nauvoo, and we should not be surprised to hear of his death by violent means in a short time."

June 5th: "If one portion of the community sets the law at defiance, are we bound to respect the laws in our reaction to it?...,,

June 12th: "War and extermination is evitable! CITIZENS ARISE, ONE AND ALL!!! Can you stand by and suffer such INFERNAL DEVILS!... We have no time for comment! Every man will make his own. LET IT BE WITH POWDER AND BALL!" JUNE 19th: "STRIKE THEM! for the time has fully come. We hold ourselves at all times in readiness to cooperate with our fellow citizens... to exterminate, utterly exterminate, the wicked and abominable Mormon leaders."

The above editorial comments will serve to show that Thomas Sharp was bitterly anti-Mormon, and the reader may surmise how the Mormons felt towards him.

There was enough evidence after the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith to be convinced that Mr. Sharp had played a key role in inciting the actions which led to the murders. Several witnesses testified that Thomas Sharp had been among the party that traveled to Carthage and committed the murder.

Sharp was arrested for the murders with others of note, Jacob Davis and Levi Williams. However, none of these men were ever convicted. Not because of a lack of evidence, but because of legal wrangling. (which wrangling did not involve the masons, so far as I know.) It was during the pre-trial preparations that the Masonic Fraternity became entangled in the controversy which brought Mormon accusations of a cover-up.

In an apparent effort to garner public support, the defendants attempted to find refuge in the Warsaw lodge while awaiting trial. To the Fraternities credit, the Grand Lodge of Illinois called the Warsaw lodge to an accounting for its actions. The following describes the circumstances.

"In the meantime, the defendants were apparently trying to strengthen their position by new allegiances within the influential Masonic order. Mark Aldrich was a member of Warsaw Lodge No. 21, founded in January 1843. With an immediacy and urgency that cannot have been coincidental, Jacob Davis, Thomas Sharp, and Levi Williams were all initiated into the small Warsaw Lodge in October and December 1844. Before spring all three had been passed to the second degree, and Davis and Williams had been raised to Master Masons. How much advantage the defendants expected to derive from this association is unclear, though it is a fact that many of the most influential men in the County and State at this time were masons. The list includes Justice Richard M. Young of the Illinois Supreme Court, who was to be the judge at the trial; James H. Ralston, former states attorney; Judge Stephen A. Douglas; former circuit judge O.C. Skinner, who was to be among the defense counsel at the trial; George W. Thatcher, the anti-Mormon clerk of the county commissioners court; and various members of the Warsaw Militia, such as Charles Hay, Henry Stephens, and several of the Chittenden family.

"Whatever uncertainties may exist in the benefits the defendants expected to derive from their Masonic affiliation, there is no doubt that the state officers in the Masonic order identified an impropriety in this maneuver and took decisive disciplinary action. In its annual meeting in 1845 the Grand Lodge of Illinois appointed a select committee to investigate reports that the Warsaw lodge had violated Masonic regulations by conferring degrees upon persons who were under indictment. In response to this investigation, officials of the Warsaw Lodge admitted that the degrees had been conferred on Davis, Williams, and Sharp, but pleaded that the men in question were 'worthy members of society, and respected by their fellow citizens.' Their standing in the community 'had not been at all impaired by the indictment, but, on the contrary, they were regarded with greater consideration than before, from the fact that they had been particularly selected as the victims of Mormon vengeance.' The Grand Lodge was apparently unimpressed with the defense. A year after this report was submitted, the Warsaw Lodge surrendered its Charter, ostensibly because 'the members of Warsaw Lodge No. 21 have no suitable room to work in...' This voluntary relinquishment of a Charter because of supposed housing shortage in Warsaw was undoubtedly a face-saving disposition in lieu of involuntary suspension for violation of regulations of the order."(12)

The death of the Mormon leader, Joseph Smith Jr. did nothing to stop the persecution experienced by the members of the faith. In fact rumor, and the expectation that non-Mormons would be made the targets of Mormon vengeance, further incited the non-Mormon population and the persecution continued to mount, rather than subsiding in any degree. What was seen by some as arrogance by the remaining Mormon leader's, could also have been defensiveness in an effort to protect the members of the newly established Church.

With increasing mob action and public misinformation against the Mormons, it soon became apparent that it would again be necessary to leave their homes behind. Brigham Young, the new leader of the sect, turned his eye's to the Salt Lake Valley. It was probably the hope that such a place would never be chosen by travelers as a desirable place to be settled by others, and that such a place would offer isolation and protection from the rest of the world. It appeared to be a barren wasteland. Jim Bridger, a scout and explorer once declared that he would give, a thousand dollars for every ear of corn that could be grown in the Salt Lake valley.

In spite of its barren appearance, it was a place of tremendous resources. The only thing lacking was water to cultivate its rich soil. Irrigation systems were devised to bring the water down from the mountains, and settlements were established throughout the territory. The Mormon's, were determined to make this "desert blossom as the rose".

As was previously mentioned, it was their hope that in a place so remote uninviting, they might be isolated and be able to establish their "Zion" and practice their new religion free from outside interference and influence. Likewise, they were determined never to be driven from their homes again.

Once in the Salt Lake valley, rumors, embellished by time and distance, traveled back and forth across the plains. The telling of Mormon insurrections and impending rebellion flourished in the east. Johnston's Army was dispatched by President Buchanan to investigate and put down any insurrection or rebellion and to install the New Territorial Governor and other Federal Officers.

Word reached the Mormon's that the army was coming to exterminate members of the church. The personal diary of a resident of the valley, echoes the rumor. "The news is that the president of the U.S. is going to send on enough soldiers to kill all of the Mormons off."(13)

In what Brigham Young saw as measures of self-defense, was seen in the east as rebellion and defiance. Mormon harassing raids were ordered against on the supply wagons of the Army, hoping to slow them down, and keep them out of the Valley. Further, he placed team of militia at the various passages of Emigration Canyon, with the intention of ambushing the army as they entered the valley.

Seeing how volatile the situation was, and certainly thinking clearly enough to know what the outcome of these attacks would be, a federal army officer who had befriended the Mormon's at various times in the past, entered the valley from the southern part of the territory. Upon his arrival, he requested a meeting with Brigham Young and managed to convince him of the folly in what was about to take place. Colonel Thomas Leiper Kane, succeeded in convincing Brigham Young that the Army's purpose was not to destroy the Saints, but to assure the peaceful transfer of governmental power in the area, and to protect territory residents.

"Not unexpectedly, Kane assured his old friend that the federal troops were sent to Utah to guarantee the installation of the new federal officials, to construct necessary forts within the territory needed to control the Indians, and to regulate overland emigrant travel."(14)

Brigham withdrew from his intended fight with the army. That done, Colonel Kane traveled and met the approaching army and dissuaded its commander from taking actions against the Mormons for the harassing raids.

The soldier's entered the valley unopposed, traveling to a site which they designated as Camp Floyd.

Generally there was an uneasy and watchful co-existence, but the animosity continued between the Mormons and non-Mormons, in large part because of the political power the Church still exerted in the territory, and the apparent mixture of politics with religion.

After leaving Nauvoo, the Mormon Church took no action to continue any affiliation the any Masonic Lodges, although there is an account of Lucius N. Scovil using his masonic Ties to help secure supplies and favors for a group of new converts traveling to the Utah Territory from the port of New Orleans in 1848.

It is interesting to note that in the Journal of Wilford Woodruff, fourth President of the Mormon Church, under the date of August 19, 1860, Brigham Young is quoted as saying, "G. A. Smith would like to go to England and obtain five Charters for Lodges, which would give us a Grand Lodge which would make us independent of all other Grand Lodges in the world. This is what Brother Scovil would like to do and this could be done..." Apparently Brigham Young didn't think it was a good thing and the Church never organized a Lodge after leaving Nauvoo.

Amid the monotonous duty in the middle of the desert at Camp Floyd, a group of Master Mason Soldiers organized a Lodge, under a Dispensation granted on March 6, 1860 with a Charter issued to Rocky mountain Lodge No. 205 on June 1, 1860 by the Grand Lodge of Missouri. This short lived lodge was not without critics among non-Masons. But in this case, the criticism was not from the Mormons.

"For many soldiers, membership in the "Rocky Mountain Lodge" of Masons provided a refreshing diversion, although controversy over its secret meetings and signs rocked the military outpost almost to its foundations. 'There is an effort being made to get up a secret society among the soldiers and officers. one of the privates of my company is, I understand, an important member of a lodge to which officers belong. The soldier should have his head shaved and be drummed out of service and the officer be cashiered.'"(15)

The Lodge was short lived in Utah and the Charter was surrendered in July of 1861, because of the onset of the Civil War. Johnston's Army received order's to leave Camp Floyd. (Which had been re-named Fort Crittenden.)

Masonry again came to Utah in 1866. A group of Master Mason's petitioned the Grand Lodge of Nevada for a dispensation to work, which was granted on the 25th of January 1866. "...but recalling the difficulties with the Mormons at Nauvoo, Illinois, and more recently with Mormons in Nevada, he attached to the Dispensation an edict requiring the 'Lodge to exclude all who were of the Mormon Faith.' The Lodge-objected to the restriction, not because they wanted to admit Mormons, but because they believed any such rejection should be theirs and not some out-of-state authority. After a stormy period, and failing to receive a Charter from Nevada, they finally obtained one from Kansas on October 21, 1868.

... During the difficulty ... with the Grand Lodge of Nevada, a... group of Masons from Salt Lake City and Camp Douglas ... petitioned the Grand Lodge of Montana for a Dispensation to open King Solomon Lodge, U.D.. Montana granted the Dispensation on October 22, 1866, but felt that 'King Solomon', being identified as a polygamist, was not an appropriate name for the new lodge, so they named it Wasatch Lodge, after the Wasatch Mountains, which partly ring Salt Lake City. This Dispensation had no restriction on Mormons, such as the Nevada Grand Lodge had imposed..."(16)

With both organizations clinging to the memories of both real and imagined wrongs, and determined to be vigilant in preventing any recurrences, they have for the most part continued to politely ignore each other. As the population grew, the conflicts between Mormon's and their non-Mormon neighbors hence, the Mason's also escalated. The main source of animosity being the strict control of the Church over the affairs of the area in which they lived through their continued political influence, and volatile issue of polygamy.

The Church had repeatedly petitioned for Statehood, and had been turned down as often as they applied, the Congress having passed laws against polygamy, and the Church being adamant that it was their right to practice their religious beliefs. The situation of the Church worsened as their adherence to this doctrine remained inflexible. As a result the Government was ready to disenfranchise the Church, confiscating all of its property and assets.

After much consideration, Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto in October 1890, abandoning the practice of polygamy as doctrine and forbidding the Church to practice it any further. With this done, the situation started improving for the Church generally, and Statehood was finally achieved in 1896.

Of all the unique doctrines of the Church, polygamy was probably the one that caused the most division both within the Church, and with their non-Mormon neighbors. The Church saw it as their right to practice their religious principles, and the Government saw it as outright defiance of the law. Rank and file citizens generally viewed the practice as a barbaric custom, motivated by lust.

Through all of these events, there still had been no formal prohibition against any Mormon visiting or joining a masonic Lodge, although an informal ban was generally adhered to. In 1879, John 0. Sorenson, a Mason and member of Argenta Lodge No. 3, was suspended from the Craft because he joined the Mormon Church.

In explanation for the suspension based upon religious affiliation, the Grand Secretary of Utah prepared a circular and sent it to all the Grand Lodges and leading Masons in America by way of explanation to the Fraternity outside of Utah, who had no understanding of the local situation.

(While every Craftsman was free) "to join any church and embrace any creed he chooses, and (Freemasonry) demands of him only that he shall admit the theological belief taught on the threshold of our sacred Temple, and further, that he should be loyal to the government under which he lives, and yield a willing obedience to all its laws, the Masons in Utah contend that the latter important prerequisite is wanting in Mormons, because one of the chief tenets of their church in Utah is polygamy, which the United States Statute has declared to be a crime, and which all civilized nations consider a relic of barbarism."(17)

This unofficial prohibition continued through the turn of the century into the 1900's. In his 1904 report Grand Secretary Diehl wrote, "The pioneers of Utah Masonry knew what they were doing when they taught the Unwritten Law of Utah Masonry, and the present generation has experienced enough to teach that law to the next one."(18)

In 1923, it was noted in a meeting of the Grand Lodge that Utah Mormons living in other jurisdictions could, and some did gain membership in the Fraternity, and that being denied visitation rights in Utah resulted in "humiliation" and "embarrassment". In January 1924 a Resolution was presented to the Grand Lodge forbidding members of the LDS Church from joining any Utah masonic Lodge. The resolution was laid over for one year and the following reworded resolution was presented and adopted by the Grand Lodge in 1925.

"Whereas, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly called the Mormon Church, is an organization, the teachings and regulations of which are incompatible with membership in the Masonic Fraternity, therefore: "Be It Resolved: That a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints, commonly called the Mormon Church, is not eligible to become a member of any Lodge F.& A.M. in this State and membership in such Church shall be sufficient grounds for expulsion."

An attempt was made to repeal the Anti-Mormon Resolution in 1927, but the Grand Lodge rejected the appeal and what had been unwritten law became written law.(19) Other attempts at repeal occurred in 1965 and 1983. These attempts also failed, and this was the state of affairs between the Church and the Fraternity for the next fifty-seven (57) years, until 1984.

In 1984, the masonic Fraternity took the first steps towards ending the long standing rift. A resolution was presented to eliminate the prohibition, and make members of the church eligible to join and visit Utah Masonic Lodges. The Report of the Jurisprudence Committee, examining this resolution is interesting, in that I think it reveals some of the issues members of the Fraternity had struggled with for those many years.

"...Certainly there is great merit in the proposal, since the Resolution and Decision are contrary to fundamental Masonic law.

"...Certainly, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has little or no concern for or fear of the Masonic Fraternity. They do, however, strongly urge their members not to join organizations such as ours, insisting that any time and energy available beyond their daily vocation and their hours of rest, be spent in furthering the interest of their Church.

"...Your Committee on Jurisprudence suggest that you consider very carefully before you cast your ballot on this highly emotional subject. Would abolishing the Standing Resolution have any impact on membership, for good or for ill? Could members of the LDS Church become active and valuable members, thereby strengthening the Craft, and at the same time remain loyal to their faith? Would such Church members fully respect our Ancient Landmark which prohibits any discussion of religion in a Masonic Lodge? Would such members apply individual pressure on our devotees to join their Church? Is the aim of abolishing the Resolution and Decision solely for the purpose of enlarging our membership? Is there any point in our taking unilateral action, without any change in the position presently held by the leadership of the LDS Church? Are you willing to continue to defend this deviation from Masonic law by retaining this restriction?(20)

"The answer to these and other questions you may have in your minds are in your hands."(20)

One portion of the report I here quote separately, reveals the sincere struggle and a belief of many Masons, but with which I personally disagree. That there are conflicts within the basic dogmas of these two organizations.

"Anyone reading LDS literature quickly discovers that some of their (LDS) dogma is contrary to the tenets of Freemasonry. "(21)

In my experience, I have found nothing in either's teachings that would be mutually exclusive of the other, or in conflict with any basic tenets. While individual members may differ in their belief systems, I can find nothing which excludes the other, in the moral teachings, when fully examined.

Over the years, there has been no mass movement of Mormons joining Masonic Lodges, indeed, none was expected. The Fraternity was making internal adjustments to align its practice with its teachings. There have been many that have joined the Fraternity who are active LDS, and are welcomed so long as the regulations of the Order are observed and respected. Many of the misconceptions and misunderstandings are being dispelled, one on one by individuals. I believe both are enriched by the experience. Certainly, it is one of my cherished affiliations, and never have I been asked to compromise my beliefs, or my associations in either institution.

I have heard of life-long Masons who have joined the LDS Church, and have unquestionably yet mistakenly accepted as fact that the Church prohibits membership with the Masonic Fraternity and demitted from their lodges.

Likewise some LDS Members who petition Masonic lodges, get cold feet and drop out because some superficial similarities in the ritual which exist between some small portions of the LDS Temple rites and in the first few degrees of Masonry.

Both of these situations are saddening and senseless. They occur because of a misunderstanding of the facts. What the church discourages are affiliations which would cause a person to lose interest in church activities. I have found just the opposite to be the case. Freemasonry in no way that I've seen, detracts from church participation, but rather encourages one to be fully active in his own peculiar creeds.

It must be remembered by all that Masonry readily announces and warns, that it offers no path to salvation, only brotherhood. Salvation must be sought out in our own places of worship and houses of faith.

I add my own voice to that of Mervin B. Hogan:

"It is clearly evident to anyone who acquaints himself with this creed (Mormonism) that there are no conflicts or incompatibilities whatsoever between the teachings, theology, and dogma of Mormonism and the philosophy, principles and tenets of Universal Freemasonry."(22)

(1)masons use Service, Repect to Build Friendships. The Salt Lake Tribune, Section D1, Monday February 17, 1992.

(2)THE ARTICLES OF FAITH of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. History of the Church, Vol 4, pages 535

(3)The Relationship of Mormonism and Freemasonry. Anthony W. Ivens, The Deseret News Press, Salt Lake City, Utah. Copyright 1934. Page 8. (President Ivins was a counselor in the First Presidency of the LDS Church under President Heber J. Grant.)

(4)Mormonism and Masonry. By Cecil McGavin. Bookcraft, S.L.C., Utah. 1949. Page 187

(5)Nauvoo: The City of Joseph. David E. Miller and Della S. Miller. Copyright 1974. Peregrine Smith, Inc.

(6)Book of Mormon, Helaman, Chapter 6, verses 21-23

(7)The Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith - History, 1:27-28

(8)See (3) above. Page 179.

(9)Mormonism and Freemasonry: The Illinois Episode, Mervin B. Hogan, Copyright 1977.

(10)See (4) above. Pages 111-112.

(11)Carthage Conspiracy, The Trial of The Assassins of Joseph Smith. Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, University of Illinois Press. Copyright 1975 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Second Printing 1976.

(12)See (11) above. Pages 66-67

(13)Andrew J. Allen, Diary. February 3, 1958 (Transcript), University of Utah, page 32.

(14)Camp Floyd and The Mormons - The Utah War. Donald R. Moorman with Gene A. Sessions. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah. Copyright 1992

(15)See (14) above.

(16)First 100 Years of Freemasonry In Utah, Vol 1, 1872- Gustin 0. Gooding, Past Master of Utah Research Lodge. Published by Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons of Utah. Page 5.

(17)See (16) above.

(18)See (16) above. Page 31.

(19)See (16) above. Page 51.

(20)Proceedings of Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons of Utah. 1984, Odendahl, Salt Lake City, Utah. Page 63

(21)See (20) above.

(22)Mormonism and Freemasonry: The Illinois Episode. By Mervin B. Hogan. Copyright 1977 by McCoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company Inc. Richmond VA. Additional material and arrangement Copyright 1980 by Campus Graphics, Salt Lake City, Utah. Page 270.

Whatever one concludes about the varied hints of scattered early associations with Hermeticism, Joseph Smith had well-documented connections with one of the tradition's major legacies, Masonry. The prophet's associations with the Masonic tradition are thoroughly documented and discussed by Michael W. Homer in this issue of Dialogue. It is unlikely that Smith would have so fully involved himself and his church with the Masonic tradition if he had not sensed therein some intrinsic compatibility with his own religion-making vision. As Homer demonstrates, the prophet said that Masonry was "taken from priesthood," and his followers continued quoting that observation for fifty years after.104 It is possible that Joseph's interpretation of Masonry as a legacy of ancient priesthood was based in his own understanding of a history extending back hundreds of years, a history entwined with the Hermetic mythos and with Kabbalah, alchemy, and Rosicrucianism. The alliance of this occult legacy with Masonry was well understood by esoterically-inclined Masons; assertions of such links were bandied about by American anti-Masonic publications in the late 1820s.105

As noted, Joseph's own history several times touched Hermetic-Kabbalistic traditions. One could argue that he even interacted with them in a creative, visionary sense. Joseph's contacts with the Hermetic mythos were sufficient to generate vague assumptions about Masonry's earlier roots, and these assumptions could have been an historical subtext to his remarks about Masonry being a remnant of ancient priesthood. Interestingly, modern historical examination of the occult tradition suggests a shadow of truth in Joseph's statement: Kabbalah and Hermeticism, as representatives of a historical stream of occult knowledge (or as reservoirs of Gnosticism) did claim ancient lineages of "priesthood." Joseph had every reason to take those claims seriously, as do historians today, albeit within a narrower interpretive context. In this light, Joseph's connection to Masonry takes on several different shades of meaning. The ubiquitous influence of Kabbalah upon the occult traditions of the nineteenth century has been stressed, but its specific import in Masonry requires repeated emphasis. Noted historian of occultism Arthur Edward Waite suggested in his 1923 encyclopedia of Freemasonry that much of the "great" and "incomprehensible" heart of Masonry came from Kabbalah, "the Secret Tradition of Israel."106

He finds such important Masonic symbols as the Lost Word, the Temple of Solomon, the pillars Jachin and Boaz, the concept of the Master-Builder, and restoration of Zion, all derived from the lore of Kabbalah. The organizer of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in America, Albert Pike, manifested a similar sentiment and indexed over seventy entries to the subject of Kabbalah in his classic nineteenth-century study, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.107 Though Pike's work was published in 1871, his views reflected lore already established in Masonry during the period of Joseph Smith's Masonic initiations three decades earlier. Indeed, one of the earliest documentary mentions of Masonry appearing in 1691 specifically linked it with these Jewish traditions.108

As Homer notes, the Scottish Rite developed by Pike was an evolution of the eighteenth-century French Masonic Rite de Perfection, which in several degrees was influenced by Kabbalah.109

Kabbalah's importance in Masonic lore is also witnessed by Maritnez de Pasqually and his late-eighteenth century Kabbalistic-Masonic restoration of ancient priesthood in the Order of Les Elus Cohen. Much of this Kabbalistic influence upon Masonry may have come from Rosicrucianism (again recalling their close association), infused as it was with alchemical and Kabbalistic symbolism. But some additional influence might be attributed to esoteric sources like the Frankist movement. The Frankist--followers of Jacob Frank, and successors to the Kabbalistically inclined Sabbatean heresy--had become active in Central European Masonic organizations in the late eighteenth century.110

Given the wide diffusion of a Christianized and Rosicrucian version of Kabbalah into Masonry, Joseph Smith probably heard something about the tradition during the course of his almost twenty-year association with Masons and Freemasonry. It might be argued that these occult Masonic inclinations were all part of a sophisticated, esoteric form of European Masonry foreign to the world of frontier America. To the contrary--and though not yet fully investigated--there are several reasons to believe that what Joseph Smith encountered in Nauvoo was an esoteric interpretation of Masonry. As mentioned earlier, between the mid-eighteenth and the beginnings of the nineteenth century a multitude of occult orders rose from Masonry. Each of these tended to develop its own interrelated system of symbolic ceremonies for conveying distinct esoteric visions. The different rites also often claimed variant "authentic" Masonic origins: in ancient Egyptian mysteries; in the lineages of the medieval Knights Templar; in Kabbalistic transmissions; and in Hermetic-alchemical-Rosicrucian traditions. Robert Macoy's 1872 encyclopedia of Freemasonry cataloged over forty-five distinct systems of Masonic rites developed during the period from 1750 to 1820.111

In retrospect one might suggest that during this unusual epoch a creatively elite group of individuals coming from many sectors of society encountered in the Masonic mythos a new medium for expressing their visions. Though basic York rite (or Blue Lodge) Masonry with its three degrees was a common grounding for most of these, around that foundation appeared many layerings of esoteric accretions. With the tools of allegory, symbol, and imagination, and in a format suggesting great mysterious antiquity, men touched by the Masonic mythos began producing new "ancient" rituals. One is reminded of Ireneaus' complaint about the Gnostics responding to the creative muse of their times: "every one of them generates something new, day by day, according to his ability; for no one is deemed mature, who does not develop . . . some mighty fiction."112

John C. Bennett, one of the more enigmatic figures in Mormon history, was the indisputable impetus to Masonry's introduction in Nauvoo. Bennett's mercurial career among the Mormons has fascinated and bewildered historians. Seemingly from out of the blue, Bennett appeared in Nauvoo and was baptized into the Mormon church in the summer of 1840. Within less than a year he became mayor of Nauvoo, chancellor of the University of Nauvoo, major general of the Nauvoo Legion, Assistant President of the Mormon church, and an intimate friend and counselor to Joseph Smith. In June 1841, less than three months after becoming Assistant President, he began attempts to organize a Mormon Masonic Lodge. But the Masonry he brought to Nauvoo had several unusual occult aspects. Less than a year later, he made an equally dramatic exit, excommunicated amid a flurry of allegations suggesting widespread sexual improprieties. By the time he arrived in Nauvoo, the thirty-five-year-old Bennett had attended Athens state university; studied medicine with his uncle, the prominent frontier doctor and Ohio historian, Dr. Samuel Hildreth; helped to found educational institutions in West Virginia, Indiana, and Ohio; organized at Willoughby College the medical school and served as first dean and professor of gynecology and children's diseases; been a licensed preacher in Ohio; been appointed brigadier general of the Illinois Invincible Dragoons; and in 1840 become quartermaster general of Illinois state militia.113

He had also apparently abandoned a wife and children, been ejected from at least one Masonic Lodge for unbecoming behavior, and been accused of selling medical degrees. Bennett's interests, including religion, medicine, the military, and Masonry, suggest a person inclined towards investigating the more esoteric aspects of Masonry. His apparent libidinous proclivity may also have aroused his curiosity about unorthodox sexual practices associated with more creative Masonic rites. Given the relation between Bennett and Smith, Bennett probably had communicated some Masonic ideas to Smith before petitions were made for the formation of a Nauvoo Masonic Lodge in mid-1841. That the temple endowment ceremony developed by Smith in May 1842 was influenced by Masonry cannot escape notice. But beyond the temple endowment, several other components were developing in Joseph's vision during this period that sounded an even stranger resonance with ideas from esoteric Masonic quarters. Two stand out: organization of an "Order of Illuminati" or political Kingdom of God, and introduction of "Spiritual Wifery."114

Bennett claimed that in a revelation dated 7 April 1841--the day before he was made Assistant President of the church--Joseph Smith personally commissioned him to establish an "Order of the Illuminati" in Nauvoo.115

Though the organization was not then specifically called by this name, a revelation received by Joseph on 7 April 1842 commanded formation of "The Kingdom of God and His Laws with the keys and powers thereof and judgment in the hands of his servants."116

More commonly called the Council of Fifty, the organization finally took form in March 1844. Joseph was soon thereafter ordained King of the Kingdom, a ritual of coronation also performed for each of the next two presidents of the church, Brigham Young and John Taylor. Whether Bennett got the idea for an order of Illuminati from Smith, or Smith from Bennett, is open to argument. But Ebenezer Robinson, editor of the Nauvoo Times and Seasons until February 1842 and a contemporary observer, thought the stimulus arrived with Bennett: "Heretofore the church had strenuously opposed secret societies such as Freemasons . . . but after Dr. Bennett came into the Church a great change of sentiment seemed to take place."117

Subsequent history links the idea with Bennett. After Smith's death, Bennett sought out the charismatic claimant to Smith's prophetic mantle, James Strang, and convinced him to establish an "Order of the Illuminati."118

The Council of Fifty in Nauvoo manifest a distinctly Masonic character, and Masonic ceremonial elements were incorporated in the council's meetings. A similar tenor emerged in Strang's Order of the Illuminati. It was only a few months after the claimed revelation commissioning him to organize the "Illuminati" at Nauvoo that Bennett initiated efforts to form the Masonic lodge. But Mormon historians have yet to specifically explored implications of another fact: both the name given by Bennett for the organization, "Order of the Illuminati," and the political concept embodied by the organization had a clear Masonic heritage.119

The parallel is so close that one wonders whether Bennett might have brought this and other more esoteric Masonic concepts with him into Nauvoo. At about this same time the practice of "Spiritual wifery" or plural marriage was also introduced. Bennett made several exaggerated claims in his later exposés about libertine sexual practices, claiming the women of Nauvoo were inducted into three ritual orders based on the sexual favors expected of them. Such claims are not tenable, but nonetheless recent historians have noted the apparent association of the Relief Society with Masonry. And Bennett's more slanderous claims aside, it is a fact that the female leaders of the Relief Society in Nauvoo were at one time all wives of Joseph Smith. Whatever the actual relationship to the practices in Nauvoo, Masonic lodges had existed which did indulge in such practices, the most specific example being Cagliostro's Egyptian rite.120 

By all reports, Bennett would have intimate interest in this sort of Masonry--or this sort of Mormonism--and it would be hard to imagine him not encouraging Joseph's ideas about new forms of ritual marriage. In this context, another question lingers: Is it possible Bennett's meteoric rise to prominence in Nauvoo was related to some unsuspected Masonic factor? Did he arrive in Nauvoo claiming independent esoteric lineages of Hermetic or Masonic priesthood, or some ancient and occult knowledge--declarations that Joseph, because of prior life experiences and associations, choose to honor? Though Bennett finally may have been nothing but a talented charlatan, it must be granted that a complex legacy of spiritual insight was embedded in Masonic rituals, myths, and symbols; they had a history and a lineage reaching back many centuries into Hermetic, Kabbalistic, and alchemical Gnosis. John C. Bennett may have brought something more than Blue Lodge Masonry to Nauvoo. And, regardless of his true intentions, what he brought may have been useful to a prophet. In Nauvoo, in 1842 and after, I suggest Joseph Smith encountered a reservoir of myths, symbols, and ideas conveyed in the context of Masonry but with complex and more distant origins in the Western esoteric tradition. They apparently resonated with Smith's own visions, experiences modulating his spiritual life from the time of his earliest intuitions of a prophetic calling. He responded to this stimulus with a tremendous, creative outpouring--the type of creative response Gnostic myth and symbol were meant to evoke, and evidently had evoked across a millennium of history. But, leaving Masonry, there was still another, more primary transmission of this esoteric tradition that would touched Joseph's creative imagination during his last years in Nauvoo.

Joseph Smith and Kabbalah in Nauvoo

By 1842 Joseph Smith most likely had touched the subject of Kabbalah in several ways and versions, even if such contacts remain beyond easy documentation. During Joseph's final years in Nauvoo, however, his connection with Kabbalah becomes more concrete. In the spring of 1841 there apparently arrived in Nauvoo an extraordinary library of Kabbalistic writings belonging to a European Jew and convert to Mormonism who evidently new Kabbalah and its principal written works. This man, Alexander Neibaur, would soon become the prophet's friend and companion. Neibaur has received little detailed study by Mormon historians, and his knowledge of Kabbalah has earned only an occasional passing footnote in Mormon historical work.121

Neibaur was born in Alsace-Lorraine in 1808, but during his later childhood the family apparently returned to their original home in eastern Prussia (now part of Poland). His father, Nathan Neibaur, was a physician and dentist, who family sources claim, was a personal physician to the Napoleon Bonapart and whose skill as a linguist made him of "great value" to Napoleon as an interpreter (claims perhaps inflated by posterity). Like his father, Alexander became fluent in several languages, including French, German, Hebrew, and later, English. He also read Latin and Greek. Family tradition claims that as the first child and eldest son, his father wished him to become a rabbi, and that the young Neibaur was begun in rabbincal training. However, at age seventeen he instead entered the University of Berlin to study dentistry, and completed his studies around 1828. Sometime shortly afterwards, he converted to Christianity and migrated to Preston, England. There he established a dental practice and married in 1833. In mid-summer 1837, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, and Joseph Fielding arrived in Preston. Neibaur had been troubled by several dreams about a mysterious book, and his first question for Joseph Smith's apostles was whether they had a "book" for him--which of course they did. He was baptized with his family the next spring. On 5 February 1841 they departed for Nauvoo, arriving in Quincy, Illinois, on 17 April. Four days later Neibaur met Joseph Smith, and on 26 April he notes in his journal, "went to work for J. Smith." Two day later he acquired a quarter-acre lot in Nauvoo, and on 1 June moved his family into their newly complete Nauvoo home on Water Street, a few blocks from Joseph Smith's residence.122

Where and how Neibaur first came in contact with Kabbalah remains a mystery, though a careful evaluation of his history and personal travels offers a few hints. Given his father's position, his childhood in western Poland, his studies in Berlin and his subsequent conversion to Christianity, some contact with a reservoir of Kabbalistic knowledge among Sabbatean or Frankist Jews should be considered.123

If he did indeed undertake rabbical studies in Poland prior to his university education, he could not have avoided some exposure to the subject. That Neibaur brought a knowledge of Kabbalah to Nauvoo has been mentioned in several studies of the period. For instance, Newel and Avery note in their biography of Emma Smith, "Through Alexander Neibaur, Joseph Smith had access to ancient Jewish rites called cabalism at the same time he claimed to be translating the papyri from the Egyptian mummies [which became his Book of Abraham]."124

That he not only knew something of Kabbalah, but apparently possessed a collection of original Jewish Kabbalistic works in Nauvoo, is however documented in material almost totally overlooked by Mormon historians. In June 1843, Neibaur published in Times and Seasons a short piece entitled "The Jews." The work ran in two installments, in the issues of 1 June and 15 June. As to why he wrote this piece, he states only that his effort was inspired by a talk he had heard Joseph Smith present.125

His essay deals ostensibly with the concept of resurrection held by the Jews. What he discusses for the most part is, however, the Kabbalist concept of gilgul, the transmigration and rebirth of souls.126

The essay is interesting not because of his comments on resurrection, but because of his repeated citations of classic Jewish Kabbalistic texts. In the course of his four-page piece, Neibaur cites over two dozen texts and authors. Of the citations I have been able to identify, at least ten are to Kabbalistic authors or works.127

The tone of the entire piece, and the authoritative use of Kabbalistic materials, suggests Neibaur's respect for Kabbalah. Neibaur's notations to these Medieval and Renaissance Jewish works illustrates that he probably both possessed the texts and had a general knowledge of their contents. Although transliterations of Hebrew into English remain variable even in modern publications, Neibaur's renderings into English of the titles and authors cited are fairly consistent and accurate to the original Hebrew. The general precision of his numerous citations suggest Neibaur had access to the works he quoted.128

Included among his citations are several "classic" Kabbalistic texts--the most important Jewish Kabbalistic manuscripts circulated between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries--works such as the Zohar, Midrash Ha-Neelam, Menorat ha Ma'or, Emek ha-Melekh, and the 'Avodat ha-Kodesh, as well as a few rarer documents. Much of the material he cites was available only in Hebrew, and to this date has not been translated and published. By any standard, these were unusual works to possess on the American frontier, and certainly an extraordinary collection of texts to be found in the prophet Joseph's Nauvoo. Joseph Smith and Alexander Neibaur were frequent associates. Neibaur had been engaged by Joseph a few days after his arrival in Nauvoo in April 1841. During the last months of the prophet's life, both his and Neibaur's diaries indicate that Neibaur read with and tutored Smith in Hebrew and German.129

Given this friendly relationship, the interests of the prophet, and the background of Neibaur--and perhaps even the books in Neibaur's library--it seems inconceivable that discussions of Kabbalah did not take place. Kabbalah was the mystical tradition of Judaism, the tradition which claimed to be custodian of the secrets God revealed to Adam. These secrets were occultly conveyed by the oral tradition of Kabbalah throughout the ages--so it was claimed--until finally finding written expression in the Zohar and the commentaries of the medieval Kabbalists, books Neibaur possessed. Kabbalah was the custodian of an occult re-reading of Genesis and the traditions of Enoch, it contained the secrets of Moses. And it was a subject that Joseph Smith had probably already crossed in different versions several times in his life. Can anyone familiar with the history and personality of Joseph Smith--the prophet who restored the secret knowledge and rituals conveyed to Adam, translated the works of Abraham, Enoch, and Moses, and retranslated Genesis--question that he would have been interested in the original version of this Jewish occult tradition? And here, in Neibaur, was a man who could share a version of that knowledge with him. Whatever the reasons for the similarities, it should be remembered that the Hermetic-Kabbalistic world view parallels Joseph's vision of God in many particulars. Not only might Joseph have been interested in this material, but he would have noted how similar this sacred, secret tradition was with his own restoration of ancient truth. And perhaps Neibaur, on a religious quest--from Judaism and Kabbalah, Europe and England, to Christianity and Mormonism and a new home in Nauvoo--saw or even amplified that intrinsic sympathy in his explications of the tradition for Joseph. Certainly the first text Joseph Smith would have confronted was the Zohar, the great heart of the Kabbalah. This is one of the works Neibaur cited repeatedly in his article and, as the central text of Kabbalah, is the key book any individual with Kabbalistic interests would have preserved in his library. Familiarity with the Zohar was a given for a Kabbalist, particularly one with knowledge of works as divergent as those cited by Neibaur, all of which expounded in some degree upon themes in the Zohar. If Neibaur had read to Joseph from any single text, or explained Kabbalistic concepts contained in a principal book, the Zohar would have been the book with which to start. This might explain why in 1844 Smith, in what may be his single greatest discourse and in the most important public statement of his theosophical vision, apparently quotes almost word for word from the first section of the Zohar.

Kabbalah in Mormon Doctrine: The King Follett Discourse

On Sunday afternoon, 7 April 1844, Joseph Smith stood before a crowd estimated at 10,000 and delivered his greatest sermon, the King Follett Discourse.130

Dissension, rumor, accusation, and conspiracy all abounded in Nauvoo on that pleasant spring day, and Joseph was at the center. This would be Joseph's last conference, ten weeks later he lay murdered at Carthage Jail. In this atmosphere of tension, many in the congregation probably expected a message of conciliation, a retrenchment. Instead, the prophet stunned listeners with his most audacious public discourse--a declaration replete with doctrinal innovations and strange concepts that many of the Saints had never before heard. As Fawn Brodie noted, "For the first time he proclaimed in a unified discourse the themes he had been inculcating in fragments and frequently in secret to his most favored saints: the glory of knowledge, the multiplicity of gods, the eternal progression of the human soul."131

Van Hale, in his analysis of the discourse's doctrinal impact, notes four declarations made by Joseph Smith which have had an extraordinary and lasting impact on Mormon doctrine: men can become gods; there exist many Gods; the gods exist one above another innumerably; and God was once as man now is.132

Interestingly, these were all concepts that could, by various exegetical approaches, be found in the Hermetic-Kabbalistic tradition. But even more astoundingly, it appears Joseph actually turned to the Zohar for help in supporting his introduction of these radical doctrinal assertions. The prophet begins his discussion of the plurality and hierarchy of the Gods with an odd exegesis of the first words of Genesis, Bereshith bara Elohim:

I suppose I am not allowed to go into an investigation ofanything that is not contained in the Bible. . . . I will go to the old Bible and turn commentator today. I will go to the very first Hebrew word--BERESHITH--in the Bible and make a comment on the first sentence of the history of creation: "In the beginning. . . ." I want to analyze the word BERESHITH. BE--in, by, through, and everything else; next, ROSH--the head; ITH. Where did it come from? When the inspired man wrote it, he did not put the first part--the BE--there; but a man--a Jew without any authority---put it there. He thought it too bad to begin to talk about the head of any man. It read in the first: "The Head One of the Gods brought forth the Gods." This is the true meaning of the words. ROSHITH [BARA ELOHIM] signifies [the Head] to bring forth the Elohim. If you do not believe it you do not believe the learned man of God. No learned man can tell you any more than what I have told you. Thus, the Head God brought forth the Head Gods in the grand, head council.133

By any literate interpretation of Hebrew, this is an impossible reading. Joseph takes Elohim, the subject of the clause, and turns it into the object, the thing which received the action of creation. Bereshith ("in the beginning") is reinterpreted to become Roshith, the "head" or "Head Father of the Gods," who is the subject-actor creating Elohim.134

And Elohim he interprets not as God, but as "the Gods." Louis C. Zucker, who published an insightful examination of Smith's study and use of Hebrew, notes that this translation deviates entirely from the interpretative convention Joseph had learned as a student of Hebrew in Kirtland. Joshua Seixas, the professor who had instructed Joseph and the School of the Prophets in early 1836, used in his classes a textbook he had written, Hebrew grammar for the Use of Beginners.135

In the Seixas manual (p. 85), this Hebrew text of Genesis 1:1 is given along with a "correct" word-for-word translation: "In the beginning, he created, God, the heavens, and the earth." Seixas would not have introduced in his oral instruction a translation entirely alien to the conventions of his own textbook. Zucker comments on Smith's strange translation of the verse: "Joseph, with audacious independence, changes the meaning of the first word, and takes the third word `Eloheem' as literally plural. He ignores the rest of the verse, and the syntax he imposes on his artificial three-word statement is impossible."136

But Zucker (along with Mormon historians generally) ignored another exegesis of this verse--an exegesis which was a basic precept of Jewish Kabbalah from the thirteenth century on and which agrees, word for word, with Joseph's reading.137

In the tradition of Kabbalah, Bereshith bara Elohim was most emphatically not an "artificial three-word statement," as Zucker implied. Gershom Scholem, in the middle of a long discussion, explains this other view:

The Zohar, and indeed the majority of the older Kabbalists, questioned the meaning of the first verse of the Torah: Bereshith bara Elohim, "In the beginning created God"; what actually does this mean? The answer is fairly surprising. We are told that it means Bereshith--through the medium of the "beginning," [Hokhmah, or "Wisdom," the primordial image of the Father God in the Kabbalistic Sefiroth]--bara, created, that is to say, the hidden Nothing which constitutes the grammatical subject of the word bara, emanated or unfolded,--Elohim, that is to say, its emanation is Elohim. It [Elohim] is the object, and not the subject of the sentence.138

Scholem's point is perhaps made clearer by restatement. In the Zohar, and in the commentaries of the majority of older (that is, thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Kabbalists), the verse Bereshith bara Elohim is grammatically turned around. Bereshith is understood to refer to the Sefirah of Hokhmah, translated as "Wisdom" and identified in Kabbalistic theosophy as the Supernal Father--the figure who is usually interpreted in Kabbalah as the First of the Godhead. Hokhmah then emanates, or "creates" in the sense of unfolding, the Elohim.139

As Scholem notes, the interesting thing here is that Elohim has become the object of the sentence, and is no longer the subject. This is precisely Joseph Smith's reading. This interpretation of Genesis 1:1 is not deeply hidden in the Zohar, but constitutes its opening paragraphs, and is the central concern of the entire first section of this long book. The Zohar begins with a commentary on Bereshith bara Elohim:

It is written: And the intelligent shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness like the stars for ever and ever. There was indeed a "brightness" [Zohar].140

The Most Mysterious struck its void, and caused this point to shine. This "beginning" [Reshith] then extended, and made for itself a palace for its honour and glory. . . . Thus by means of this "beginning" [Reshith] the Mysterious Unknown made this palace. This palace is called Elohim, and this doctrine is contained in the words, "By means of a beginning [Reshith, it,] created Elohim."141

So far this is exactly Joseph Smith's reading. In his exegesis Joseph takes Elohim, the subject of the clause, and turns it into the object which received the action of creation from the first god-image (here called Reshith), just as does the Zohar. Indeed, his words as transcribed by William Clayton, "Rosheet signifies to bring forth the Eloheim," are almost identical with the Zohar's phrasing of the interpretation.142

In his next step of translation, Smith interprets Bereshith to become Rosh, the "head" or head God. As Zucker objected, orthodox standards of translations do not yield the word Rosh, or "head," from Bereshith. But it was not "audacious independence" alone that led Smith to changed the meaning. A basis for this reading is actually found in the next verse of the Zohar:

By a Kabbalistic cipher of letters--a technique used in Kabbalah to conceal deeper esoteric meanings--the Zohar explains that the word Reshith "is anagrammatically Rosh (head), the beginning which issues from Reshith."143

(To understand the fuller intent of this phrase, one must again remember that Rosh or reshith is here interpreted by Kabbalah to be Hokhmah, the first god-image, the Supernal Father.) Thus in this text Reshith has been interposed as an anagram for Rosh--who is understood to be the "Head God," Hokhmah. Could this be what Joseph means when he says "a man, a Jew without authority" changed the reading of the word, perhaps by failing to understand this ancient Kabbalistic anagram? Finally, Smith translates Elohim in the plural, as "the Gods." The word is indeed in a plural Hebrew form, but by the orthodox interpretative conventions Joseph was taught in his Kirtland Hebrew class (which remain the norm) it is read as singular. In the Zohar, however, it is interpreted in the plural. This is witnessed throughout the Zohar and appears clearly in the following paragraph from the opening sections of the work, where the phrase "Let us make man" (Gen. 1:26) is used as the basis for a discussion on the plurality of the gods:

"Us" certainly refers to two, of which one said to the other above it, "let us make," nor did it do anything save with the permission and direction of the one above it, while the one above did nothing without consulting its colleague. But that which is called "the Cause above all causes," which has no superior or even equal, as it is written, "To whom shall ye liken me, that I should be equal?" (Is. 40:25), said, "See now that I, I am he, and Elohim is not with me," from whom he should take counsel. . . . Withal the colleagues explained the word Elohim in this verse as referring to other gods.144

Within this passage is both the concept of plurality and of the hierarchy of Gods acting "with the permission and direction of the one above it, while the one above did nothing without consulting its colleague." This interpretation is of course echoed in the King Follett discourse and became a foundation for all subsequent Mormon theosophy. Two months after giving the King Follett Discourse, Joseph returned to these first Hebrew words of Genesis and the subject of plural Gods. Thomas Bullock transcribed his remarks on the rainy Sunday morning of 16 June 1844. This was to be Joseph's last public proclamation on doctrine; eleven days later he lay dead. Joseph first introduced his subject--the plurality of Gods--then again read in Hebrew the opening words of Genesis and repeated his interpretation of Bereshith bara Elohim, using much the same phrasing recorded two months earlier in the King Follett Discourse. He then turned to Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man," the same passage interpreted in the Zohar to imply a plurality of Gods. After reading the verse aloud in Hebrew, he interpreted the text and found in it the same occult import given by the Zohar:

The God "which has no superior or equal" (the Zohar's words), the "Head one of the Gods" (Joseph's term) addressed the "other Gods," Elohim in the plural translation, saying "let us make man." Bullock transcribed his remarks thus: "if we pursue the Heb further it reads [here he apparently read in Hebrew Genesis 1:26] The Head one of the Gods said let us make man in our image. . . . in the very beginning there is a plurality of Gods--beyond power of refutation--it is a great subject I am dwelling on--the word Eloiheam ought to be in the plural all the way thro."145

As he began his exegesis of the opening Hebrew phrase of Genesis in the King Follett Discourse, Joseph stated that he would go to the "old Bible." In Kabbalistic lore, the commentary of the Zohar represented the oldest biblical interpretation, the secret interpretation imparted by God to Adam and all worthy prophets after him. Joseph certainly was not using the knowledge of Hebrew imparted to him in Kirtland nine years earlier when he gave his exegesis of Bereshith bara Elohim, or plural interpretation of Elohim. Was then the "old Bible" he used the Zohar? And was the "learned man of God" he mentioned Simeon ben Yochai, the prophetic teacher attributed with these words in the Zohar? Joseph wove Hebrew into several of his discourses during the final year of his life. In these late Nauvoo discourses, however, he interpreted the Hebrew not as a linguist but as a Kabbalist--a reflection of his own predilections and of the fortuitous aid of his tutor, Alexander Neibaur.146

But in conclusion, we need to step back from this discussion of words and see that behind them resides a unique vision, a vision characteristic of the occult Hermetic-Kabbalistic tradition. Harold Bloom called the King Follett Discourse "one of the truly remarkable sermons ever preached in America." It is also a remarkable evidence of the prophet's visionary ties to the archaic legacy of Jewish Gnosticism and to the single most influential force in the evolution of Christian occultism: the Kabbalah.

Kabbalah after Joseph: A Legacy Misunderstood

Kabbalistic theosophy was, if nothing else, complex. Different interpretations abounded among Christian Kabbalists removed from the original Kabbalistic foundations of Jewish culture and halakhic observance. We can imagine how easily such ideas might have been misunderstood by a concretely minded Yankee disciple of Joseph Smith. This may help explain a troubling conundrum of early Mormon theology: Brigham Young's assertion that "Adam is God." Brigham claimed that Joseph had taught him this doctrine--although there is no evidence that Joseph ever publicly avowed such a view.147

In Kabbalah the theme is, however, prominent: Adam Kadmon is indeed "God," and His form is in the image of a Man--as noted earlier. Given the evidence that Joseph did know some elements of Kabbalah and had access both to the Zohar and to a Jew familiar with a wide range of Kabbalistic materials, it seems probable that Brigham heard this concept in some form from Joseph. The Adam-God doctrine may have been a misreading (or simplistic restatement) by Brigham Young of a Kabbalistic and Hermetic concept relayed to him by the prophet. More than one element in early Mormon theology suggests that subtle visions could be made grossly concrete. Perhaps the most striking example is sacral nature of marital sexual union and the human potential for multiple sacred marriages, a potential shared in Joseph's time by both women and men. As Bloom noted, in Kabbalah and perhaps in Smith's practice "the function of sanctified human sexual intercourse essentially is theurgical."148

This was an important undertone in the wider circles of Christian occultism, eventually manifest in several occult Masonic societies. How Joseph interacted with this tradition and vision is the single most interesting and important issue awaiting historians of Mormonism. That this was an issue early in his life is witnessed by the need to marry and have Emma with him prior to obtaining the golden plates of the Book of Mormon.149

That the preoccupation persisted throughout his life needs little argument. Ideas of sacred sexuality permeated Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and alchemy, perhaps touching even the mystical vision of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in his overtly Masonic opera, The Magic Flute: "Mann und Weib, Weib und Man; Reichen an die Gottheit an!" ("Man and Woman, Woman and Man, Together they approximate the Divine!").150

By investigating in depth the legacy of ideas and experiences of Kabbalah and Christian occultism, we might begin to understand this perplexing vision shared by the prophet Joseph Smith. That Kabbalistic ideas persisted among Joseph's disciples is suggested in an intriguing piece of evidence appearing three years after the prophet's martyrdom. To understand this item, a more detailed understanding of Kabbalah as Joseph may have heard it is necessary. Briefly summarized: the most important symbolic representation of the structure of "the Kingdom of God" in Kabbalah was the "Tree of the Sefiroth" (See Figure 1 and 2.). The Tree was re-drawn by Robert Fludd (an important English Kabbalist and Rosicrucian of the seventeenth century) in a slightly different fashion.151 (See Figure 12.) 

In his figure, Fludd uses the allegorical image of a Tree with roots in heaven above and palm-like "branches" at the bottom (in the Sefirah of Malkhuth, meaning "Foundation"), extending into the earth. The tree is crowned; the crown representing Kether (meaning "Crown"), the first Sefirah and primal god-image. Below this crown, the tree branches into the other nine Sefiroth. In the Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star in 1847 an interesting figure appears, titled "A Diagram of the Kingdom of God" (Figure 12).152

The artist and author of this small piece was probably Orson Hyde. Hyde's tree is also crowned, and branches in precisely the fashion of Fludd's tree. The only difference is that the Hyde tree has twenty-two branches. This is a remarkable choice of numbers, as any student of Kabbalah will recognize. In Kabbalah there are two important numerical aspects of the Tree of Sefiroth: the first is the number ten, the number of Sefiroth, the second is the number twenty-two, the number of paths between the Sefiroth, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Thus Joseph Smith may have conveyed to one his apostles--or Hyde may have independently found compatible with the prophet's teachings--the most essential symbolic element of Kabbalah, the "mystical shape of the Godhead" contained in the image of the Sefiroth as redrawn by a principal and very influential seventeenth-century Christian Kabbalist, Fludd. That interest in the subject of Kabbalah and Hermeticism persisted in at least one disciple of Smith's is witnessed by William Clayton. Clayton was Smith's personal secretary and one of his intimate associates during the prophet's last years in Nauvoo.153

Few, if any, individuals had a closer view of Joseph Smith in the Nauvoo period. This may explain Clayton's otherwise unusual interest in Kabbalah and alchemy manifest in his later years. In 1864 someone in Utah loaned Clayton a guidebook of "Cabala," a tract apparently containing several advertisements for esoteric materials relating to "Cabala" and alchemy. As one of Clayton's biographers write, "Though the record is not clear, it may be that . . . he wanted . . . something akin to the so-called Philosopher's Stone of the ancient alchemists--a substance that supposedly enabled the adept, when applied correctly, to transmute metals." Clayton subsequently organized an alchemical society in Salt Lake City, with himself as corresponding secretary, and purchased several mail-order alchemical outfits. The group, which numbered at least twenty-six members, spent months attempting to transmute metals without success before finally abandoning their project.154

Though it appears Clayton was simply duped by a mail-order shyster, his esoteric interests and his faith in them might also be explained by some recollection he harbored about Kabbalah and the prophet in Nauvoo.

Conclusion: Joseph and the Occult Connection

In attempting to understand Joseph Smith and his religious vision, historians have examined both the religious sparks kindled by his time and the social soils from which the young prophet sprang. As useful as some of these efforts have been, I still agree with Paul Edwards: our methods so far have been too "traditional and unimaginative" to comprehend Joseph's history; we remain, even now, blinded by the fears of yesterday--or biased by its erroneous judgments. Chief among the subjects that might be "feared" in Mormon history is Joseph's apparent recurrent association with the "occult" traditions of Western spirituality, and this remains the area of his history least examined and understood. It is impossible for me to present fresh evidence which seemingly links Joseph Smith to what might be interpreted as "the occult" without addressing this wider issue. The historical record witnesses that Joseph Smith had some intercourse with at least three important manifestations of the alternative and non-orthodox religious traditions that blossomed in the Renaissance and post-Renaissance period, traditions sometimes labeled as "the occult": ceremonial magic, Masonry, and Kabbalah. These associations extended throughout his life, and his liaison with each constituted more than casual acquaintance. This is an area of history to which Mormon historians have been hesitant to turn full attention--an area where our fears (or ignorance) have delimited our understanding. It would be foolish at this late date to maintain that any single tradition engendered Joseph Smith's religious vision. Joseph was an American original--and we need not fear him being cast as a Masonic pundit, folk magician, Rosicrucian mystic, medieval Kabbalist, or ancient Gnostic. Nonetheless, we must recognize that something in the nature of the prophet, some element of his own intrinsic vision, did resonate with the occult traditions of the Western spiritual quest. Into the spirit and matter of his religious legacy, he wove these sympathies. Joseph carried his silver talisman, inscribed with the sigil of Jupiter and Hebrew letters cast in a magic square, upon his person to his death. He called Masonry a remnant of true priesthood, and over a thousand of his men in Nauvoo, including nearly every then current or future priesthood leader of his nascent church, went through the three separate steps of ritual initiation leading to the degree of Master Mason. In his last months, amid dissension and danger, he found time to sit and read Hebrew and perhaps study Kabbalah and the Zohar with Alexander Neibaur. In April 1844, when his congregation expected retrenchment and reconciliation, he turned to that Hebrew, and bequeathed to his disciples an extraordinary vision of God--a theosophical pronouncement which echoed the tones of Kabbalah even to the ear of a critic so far removed in time and culture as Harold Bloom. It is this last link--Joseph's sympathy for Kabbalah--which may be the key that finally unlocks a pattern, and opens a new methodology for understanding the prophet Joseph Smith. As Richard Bushman noted:

The power of Enlightenment skepticism had far less influence on Joseph Smith. . . . Joseph told of the visits of angels, of direct inspiration, of a voice in the chamber of Father Whitmer, without embarrassment. He prized the Urim and Thummim and the seerstone, never repudiating them even when the major charge against him was that he used magic to find buried money. His world was not created by Enlightenment rationalism with its deathly aversion to superstition. The Prophet brought into modern America elements of a more ancient culture in which the sacred and the profane intermingled and the Saints enjoyed supernatural gifts and powers as the frequent blessing of an interested God.155

Joseph Smith did indeed bring into America elements of an ancient culture--but that culture was not temporally very distant from the prophet. When Joseph was introduced to Jewish Kabbalah in its classic form in Nauvoo, he found--consciously or unconsciously--the fiber of a thread woven throughout the fabric of his life. The magic he met as a youth, the prophetic reinterpretation of scripture and opening of the canon to divine revelation, the Masonic symbol system: all of these were reflections of an heterodox Hermetic religious tradition that had persisted in various occult fashions within the Western religious tradition for centuries, a tradition of which Kabbalah was a most important part. Call the tradition "occult" if you wish--certainly to survive it was at times hidden--but do not error by seeing it as simply a legacy of ideas from which the young prophet might pick and choose. This tradition--as is now well accepted by scholars--was driven by the phenomenon of a rare human experience. As interwoven into Hermeticism, Kabbalah was a tradition not just of theosophic assertions, but of return to prophetic vision. For a millennium or more--perhaps dating all the way back to the suppressed heresy of the Gnostics--men and women within this larger tradition asserted the reality of their vision--and sometimes even used what now seems modern psychological insight in dealing with their experiences.156

Individuals caught in this experience not uncommonly saw themselves as prophets, though the force of the tradition sought to maintain a balance in the face of such realizations. Many of them thought themselves kings and queens before God, and some openly proclaimed their royalty.157

They probed the mystery of Adam and Eve, and primal creation, they embraced rituals and symbols as non-verbal expressions of ineffable insights. Their sexuality was sacralized, and not infrequently their sacred sexual practices ranged beyond the bounds of expression accepted by the societies of their times. Their most sacred mystery, the great mysterium coniunctionis, was sometimes ecstatically mirrored in the holy union of a man and a women. They authored pseudoepigraphic works, invoking ancient voices as their own. They told new stories about God because for them God was a living story: and they found their own lives mingled within a story being told by a living God. When Joseph sought a mirror to understand himself he found reflections in a history not so distant as that of ancient Israel. His story, the prophet's story, lived within the occult legacy of his time. He touched that legacy often, and he saw in it the image--even if dimmed and distorted--of a priesthood he shared. Joseph Smith's life reflected the nature of an unusual human experience, and to understand his history we must understand his experience in the context of history. The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung dedicated the last half of his long life to elucidating the nature and psychological insights of the Kabbalistic-Hermetic-alchemical tradition. He felt it held the pearl of great price, the treasure forgotten by Christianity in its enlightened Protestant evolution. It was at the Eranos conferences dominated by Jung, that Gershom Scholem, the preeminent pioneer of Kabbalistic studies, opened the eyes of Western scholarship to the tradition's import in our history.158

Moshe Idel, Scholem's brilliant and independent protégé, has subsequently reaffirmed the value of a psychological perception in understanding its phenomena.159

With insights augmented by Scholem's work, the historian Francis Yates pioneered a new understanding of the vast influence of the occult tradition in Renaissance and Reformation culture.160

And recently Harold Bloom has pointed to its import in the creative vision of more modern times.161

Perhaps the thrust of this scholarship is now reaching the cloisters of Mormon history. But should that indeed be the case, Mormon historians must understand that they are embarking into a different methodology of history. A prophet's history flows from two springs, one above and one below, both melding in currents of his life. What story from above the prophet may have heard will remain his secret, the history no man knows. But by turning to the larger realm of prophetic history and its occult legacy, the record of its aspirations, its symbols and lore, and the enigmatic histories of the women and men who have been caught in this unique human experience, we may begin to find a methodology that leads us with new wonder into the unknown history of Joseph Smith.

Appendix: Alexander Neibaur's Library

Below is a summary of citations given by Alexander Neibaur in his article "The Jews," Times and Seasons 4 (1 June 1843): 220-22, and 4 (15 June 1843): 233-34. They are listed in order of first occurrence in his text. When an author or text is cited more than once, only the first is listed. These citations include several of the "classic" Kabbalistic texts circulated between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries--works such as the Zohar, Menorat ha Ma'or, Emek ha-Melekh, and the 'Avodat ha-Kodesh--as well as a few rarer documents. I have noted several citations to these important texts in recent of Kabbalah by Moshe Idel and Gershom Scholem.

"Rabbi Manasse Ben Israel says in Nishmath Cajim": R. Manasseh Ben Israel, Nishmat Hayyim, a work published in Amsterdam in 1652 in defense of the Kabbalistic concept of gilgul, the transmigration of souls. (Neibaur specifically mentions the term "Gilgool".) (Scholem, Kabbalah, 349.)

"R. Issac Aberhaph in his Menorat Hamorr": Israel al-Nakawa is the true author of this important fourteenth-century work, Menorat ha Ma'or. I have not yet identified the author cited by Neibaur, "R. Aberhaph," which is apparently in error. (Scholem, Kabbalah, 66.)

"R. Baccay" (later cited as "R. Bacay" and "Rabbi Bachay"): Possibly R. Samson Bacchi of Casale Monferrato. A seventeenth-century Italian Jew and Kabbalist, and a disciple of the leading Kabbalist in Italy, R. Moses Zacuto. R. Bacchi had intimate knowledge of the Sabbatean movement and several associations with followers of Sabbatai Sevi. (Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 501-3) He had studied Lurianic Kabbalah with one of Luria's disciples, Joseph ibn Tabul. (Scholem, Kabbalah, 424.) Another possibility is the twelfth-century philosopher Bachya Ben Joseph ibn Pakuda.

"R. Isaac Abarbanel": R. Isaac Abrabanel (or Abravanel) was a prominent commentator on Kabbalistic eschatology and messianism active in late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Idel notes Abarvanel as one of the commentators who tended to add a Platonic interpretation to Kabbalistic ideas. (Idel, Kabbalah, 3, 144, 281; Scholem, Kabbalah, 71; Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 14.)

"R. D. Kimchi": R. David Kimchi, a thirteenth-century grammarian and biblical commentator.

"Rabbi Naphtali in Emakhamelek": Emek ha-Melekh by Naphtali Bacharach, published in 1648 and considered "one of the most important kabbalistic works." A German kabbalist active in the first half of the seventeenth century, "Bacharach appears as an enthusiastic and fanatical kabbalist, with a special flair for the mystical and non-philosophical traits of Kabbalah. . . . The book Emek ha-Melekh had a great impact on the development of the late Kabbalah. It was widely recognized as an authoritative source on the doctrine of Isaac Luria, and kabbalists from many countries . . . quoted him extensively. His influence is also noticeable in Sabbatean literature" (Scholem, Kabbalah, 394-95).

"Jalkut Kodosh" (later cited "Jalkut Kadash" and "Talkut Kadash"): Yalqut Khadash, a seventeenth-century anthology of Kabbalistic material. This anthology contained a most interesting text on the mystical and salvific intention of sexual union between male and female (Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 61-62).

"Medrash Neelam": Midrash Ha-Neelam is a principal section of the Zohar, the central Kabbalistic collection of esoteric teachings. Scholem argues that it may be temporally one of the oldest constituent sections of the Zohar (Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, 181-88).

"R. Joseph Albo": Spanish philosopher and Kabbalist (ca. 1380-ca. 1435) whose principal work, Sepher ha-Ikkarim, achieved considerable popularity with both scholars and laymen. (Idel, Kabbalah, 144.)

"Aphkat Rackel" (later also cited as "Ophkat Rochel"): Abkat Rokhel, a Kabbalistic book in circulation in the seventeenth century (Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 661n.)

"R. Jacanan": R. Yohanan ben Zakkai is a Talmudic figure, and this reference is most likely to him. "Talmuh Tract Sanhedrin": Talmudic text. (Idel, Kabbalah, 403.)

"Bereshith Rabba": The Bereshith rabbati by R. Moses ben Isaac ha-Darshan of Narbonne, France (eleventh century). (Scholem, On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead, 156). R. Moses was a primary source of early gematriot, the cipher of letters to find hidden meanings in scripture. (Scholem, Kabbalah, 338.)

"R. Levi ber Gerohonon": Levi ben Gershon (also Gershom or Gersonides) lived in the South of France (1288-1344), and is often considered the greatest Jewish philosopher after Maimonides. Working in an intellectual atmosphere charged with Kabbalistic and Aristotelian influences, he authored philosophic and scientific works which had a wide influence.

"R. Jonathan": Not yet identified.

"Talmud Tract Resokim": Talmudic text.

"R. Elias": Not yet identified.

"Rabbi Akiba": R. Akiba (or, R. 'Akiva), a second-century Jewish hero and early midrashic commentator, revered in later commentary to have been a source of both halakhic and esoteric knowledge. (Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 78-79).

"Avodath Hakodash" (also cited as "Abodah Hakadash"): 'Avodat ha-Kodesh, by R. Meir ibn Gabbay. Written in 1531 in "Palestine or Egypt by the leading kabbalist of the generation before Luria" (Scholem, Sevi, 47), this is a "classic exposition of theosophical kabbalah" (Idel, Kabbalah, 399), and "made an especially impressive summary of the teachings of the earlier Kabbalists" (Scholem, On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead, 81). It was published in Venice in 1566 (Scholem, Sevi, 47). Ibn Gabbay in this and other works developed the theurgic concept of man as divine in form, influencing the divine. (Idel, Kabbalah, 176).

"Talmud Tract Ketuboth": Talmudic text.

"Sohar": The primary text of Kabbalah, the Zohar. The first printed edition of the Zohar appeared almost simultaneously in two different place, Mantua and Cremona, in 1588-90. Several later editions appeared, but the Mantua edition had the widest influence, and most subsequent editions were based on its text. Portions of the Zohar appeared in Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin Kabbalah Denudata, first published at Sulzbach in 1677.

"Rabbi Simeon, son of Jacay": R. Simeon b. Yochai, the central figure in the text of the principal Kabbalistic text, the Zohar.

"Pesikta Raba": This is the Pesiqta Rabbathi, one of the late midrashim, notable for the impressive eschatological sections and messianic exegesis. This particular midrash was important to Sabbateans, who used sections of it to explain the messianic burden born by Sabbatai Sevi. (Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 54, 146, 175.)

"Rabbi Jehuda": Not yet identified.

"Rabbi Joshua ben Menaser": Not yet identified.

"The Book Siphri": Sifrei, a midrashic-talmudic text. (M. Idel, Kabbalah, 403.)

"Book Rad Hakemah": Possibly Kad ha-Kemah by Bachya Ibn Pakuda, a thirteenth-century philospher whose work had a strong spiritual affinity with the Arab mystics, and influenced subsequent Jewish mysticism.

Why Did Joseph Smith Became a Mason?

W. John Walsh
Elder John A. Widtsoe
by Elder John A. Widtsoe

Nauvoo, the city beautiful, was founded by the Latter-day Saints in 1839, nearly ten years after the Church had been organized. The decade had been one of unreasoning persecution of the members of the Church. The forces of evil seemed to be combined against the restoration of the simple gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Prophet, to save his life, was obliged to flee from Kirtland, Ohio, headquarters of the Church where a lovely temple and many progressive enterprises had been built. The Saints as a body were expelled from Missouri, under an "exterminating" order by the governor of the state, despite several successful settlements by the Church within the state. In seeking a city of refuge, Nauvoo, then a squalid village called Commerce, was founded.

The settlement in Nauvoo was effected in the hope that the people might now live in peace to worship the God of heaven in their own way. There they built well, for soon Nauvoo was the most populous and thriving city in Illinois. But soon after their arrival there, neighbors began to question the doctrines of the Church, notably revelation. The prosperity of the industrious Saints also incited jealousy on the part of those who would not pay the price of toil for success, or who were speculating in lands and other properties. Persecution began to rise there as in other places. Political differences and hopes also entered into the picture.

The Saints knew well enough the sufferings from mob persecution. Joseph Smith, the leader, looked for means to quell the rising tide of opposition.

Many of the Saints were Masons, such as Joseph's brother Hyrum, Heber C. Kimball, Elijah Fordham, Newel K. Whitney, James Adams, and John C. Bennett. These members called attention to the spirit of brotherhood and brotherly love which are the foundations of Masonic fraternity and which characterize Masonic activities: -- as, for example, from this writer, On the rolls of Masonry, those lodges will stand highest in which not some few, but each and every member cheerfully gives of his time and labors to make the others happier, not some of the time but all of the time.

This ideal agreed well with the high ideals of the Prophet. Moreover, it was conceded that many of the prominent and influential men of the state were Masons who could be friends when needed. Association with such a fraternity might help to lessen the mob persecutions to which the Church had been subjected in Ohio and Missouri, so reasoned the Prophet's advisors.

The people of the Church needed friends. The work in Nauvoo would be hindered if opposition to the Church were allowed to grow. The Prophet and his brethren and sisters of the Church had suffered much without cause. They wanted peace. Perhaps Masonry would help. So, in the light of history, ran the thoughts of the people.

With the acquiescence of the Prophet, members of the Church already Masons petitioned the Grand Master of Illinois for permission to set up a lodge in Nauvoo. In answer they were granted permission, in October, 1841, to hold lodge meetings; but it was March 15, 1842, before authority was given to set up a lodge in Nauvoo and to induct new members. Joseph Smith became a member. At the time of the lodge organization, Joseph Smith received some of the degrees in Masonry. He was never an active Mason. His other work consumed his time and energy. His history shows that he was extremely busy at this time with a multitude of Church problems. Lodge matters would have to be left in other hands.

Meanwhile, large numbers of Nauvoo citizens were inducted into the fraternity. Soon the Nauvoo lodge had more members than all the other Illinois lodges together. It became the largest in the state. In this rapid growth, some lodge errors appear to have been made. These however could easily have been corrected.

However, Joseph's Masonic membership did not lessen the persecution. The religious claims of the Mormons were ridiculed; their political power seemed a threat; and their prosperity nettled the less successful neighbors.

The attempt to win sufficient friends through Masonry to stop persecution failed. The Masons after all were only a small fraction of the people of the territory surrounding Nauvoo. And no one knows with certainty whether any of them took part in the "Mormon" persecutions. The whole terrible affair leading to the assassination of the Prophet and his brother Hyrum was a local affair within the Nauvoo territory, where lived people of many faiths and allegiances.

Evidences and Reconciliations, p.357

Copyright © by Bookcraft
by W. John Walsh

It is rather common for enemies of the Church to attack Latter-day Saints because some of our early Church leaders, including Joseph Smith, were associated with the Freemasonry movement. Many of these critics hate Freemasons with the same degree of passion with which they loath Latter-day Saints. Therefore, it seems appropriate to make a few comments about Freemasons. The following is information received from a local lodge:

Freemasons are respectable citizens who are taught to conform to the moral laws of society and abide by the laws of the government under which they live. They are men of charity and good works. They remain unchallenged as "the world's greatest philanthropy!"

The Freemasons of America contribute almost two million dollars every day to charitable causes which they, alone, have established. These services to mankind represent an unparalleled example of the humanitarian commitment and concern of unique and honorable Fraternity.

Many of our nation’s early patriots were Freemasons, as well as thirteen signers of the Constitution and fourteen Presidents of the United States, beginning with George Washington.

Today, the more that four million Freemasons around the world come from virtually every occupation and profession. Within the Fraternity however, they all meet as equals. They come from diverse political ideologies, but they meet as friends. They come from virtually every religious belief, but they all believe in one God.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Freemasonry has been: how so many men, from so many different walks of life, can meet together in peace, never have political or religious debates, always conduct their affairs in harmony and friendship, and call each other "Brother!"

Past Masons have included some of the greatest names of the American Revolution:

John Adams - (Spoke favorably of Freemasonry - never joined)
Samuel Adams - (Close and principle associate of Hancock, Revere & other Masons)
Ethan Allen - Mason
Edmund Burke - Mason
John Claypoole - Mason
William Daws - Mason
Benjamin Franklin - Mason
Nathan Hale - No evidence of Masonic connections
John Hancock - Mason
Benjamin Harrison - No evidence of Masonic connections
Patrick Henry - No evidence of Masonic connections
Thomas Jefferson - (Deist with some evidence of Masonic connections)
John Paul Jones - Mason
Francis Scott Key - No evidence of Masonic connections
Robert Livingston - Mason
James Madison - (Some evidence of Masonic membership)
Thomas Paine - Humanist
Paul Revere - Mason
Colonel Benjamin Tupper - Mason
George Washington - Mason
Daniel Webster - (Some evidence of Masonic connections)
Summary: 10 Masons, 3 probable Masons, 1 Humanist, 2 Advocates of Freemasonry, 4 no record of connections.

SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Known Masons (8): Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Joseph Hewes, William Hooper, Robert Treat Payne, Richard Stockton, George Walton, William Whipple

Evidence of Membership And/or Affiliations (7): Elbridge Gerry, Lyman Hall, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Nelson Jr., John Penn, George Read, Roger Sherman

Summary: 15 of 56 Signers were Freemasons or probable Freemasons.

It's true that this represents only 27% of the total signers. But this 27% included the principle movers of the Revolution, most notably Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, the primary authors of the Declaration.

The former was a Freemason, the latter a deist and possible Freemason.

If one were to analyze the Declaration, he would see their humanistic influences.

SIGNERS OF THE CONSTITUTION

Known Masons (9): Gunning Bedford, Jr., John Blair, David Brearly, Jacob Broom, Daniel Carrol, John Dickinson, Benjamin Franklin, Rufus King, George Washington

Evidence of Membership And/or Affiliations (13): Abraham Baldwin, William Blount, Elbridge Gerry, Nicholas Gilman, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Lansing, Jr., James Madison, George Mason, George Read, Robert Morris, Roger Sherman, George Wythe

Those Who Later Became Masons (6): William Richardson Davie, Jr., Jonathan Dayton, Dr. James McHenry, John Francis Mercer, William Patterson, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer

Summary: 28 of 40 signers were Freemasons or possible Freemasons based on evidence other than lodge records.

MASONIC INFLUENCES IN EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY

- Lafayette, French liaison to the Colonies, without whose aid the war could not have been won, was a Freemason.

- The majority of the commanders of the Continental Army were Freemasons and members of "Army Lodges."

- Most of Washington's Generals were Freemasons.

- The Boston Tea Party was planned at the Green Dragon Tavern, also known as the Freemasons' Arms, and "the Headquarters of the Revolution."

- George Washington was sworn in as the first President of the United States by Robert Livingston, Grand Master of New York's Masonic lodge. The Bible on which he took his oath was from his own Masonic lodge.

- The Cornerstone of the Capital building was laid by the Grand Lodge of Maryland.

Therefore, when the critics attack Joseph Smith for being a Mason, they are also attacking people like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.