Posted on 02/14/2009 10:50:27 AM PST by greyfoxx39
The Mysteries of Godliness-A History of Mormon Temple Worship Part Two
The traditional origin of Freemasonry (which "enlightened" Masons view as mythological or legendary) is the construction of Solomon's temple by Master Mason Hiram Abiff. Actually Freemasonry was a development of the craft guilds during the construction of the great European cathedrals during the tenth to seventeenth centuries.22 After the Middle Ages, lodges in Scotland and Great Britain began to accept honorary members and worked out rudimentary ceremonies to distinguish members of trade organizations. In 1717 four fraternal lodges, perhaps actual masons' lodges, united as the Grand Lodge of England, considered the beginning of organized Freemasonry or "speculative Masonry." The order spread quickly to other countries and included such prominent adherents as Mozart, Voltaire, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin. Some historians believe that Masons staged the Boston Tea Party.
Latter-day Saints may feel that Masonry constitutes a biblical-times source of uncorrupted knowledge from which the temple ceremony could be drawn. However, historians of Freemasonry generally agree that the trigradal system of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason, as practiced in Nauvoo, cannot be traced further back than the eighteenth century. According to Douglas Knoop and G. P. Jones, two knowledgeable twentieth-century historians, it is "high probable" that the system of Masonry practiced at the organization of the Grand Lodge in London "did not consist of three distinct degrees." They warn, "It would probably not be safe to fix a date earlier than 1723 or 1725 for the origin" of the trigradal system. "Accepted Masonry underwent gradual changes throughout a period of years stretching from well before 1717 to well after that date. . . . The earliest speculative phase of Freemasonry may be regarded as beginning about 1730. . . . Though some symbolism had doubtless crept into Masonry by that date, it would not appear to have reached its full development for another forty or fifty years."23
The fundamental ceremonies of modern (American) York Rite and Scottish Rite Masonry occur on three distinct levels: (1) Entered Apprentice, (2) Fellow Craft, and (3) Master Mason. Each level contains instruction in morals and Masonic symbolism, coupled with secret signs, passwords, handshakes, and penalties for revealing secrets to non-Masons. Advanced degrees exist for both orders. Nevertheless, the three initial degrees constitute the principal ceremonies experienced by active Masons.
Hyrum Smith's exact involvement on these levels is not known. Any early enthusiasm, however, may have been temporarily checked by widespread anti-Mason feelings which pervaded upstate New York during the late 1820s. This wave of public sentiment was precipitated by the announced publication of William Morgan's exposé of Masonic ceremonies and by his mysterious disappearance and presumed murder in September 1826. A public outcry against Masons who were thought to put themselves above the law followed. For a few years, American Masonic lodges were, for all practical purposes, inactive. Many lodges closed. Renouncements of affiliation were widespread. A number of newspapers dedicated to exposing Masonry were established in New York and other states. The anti-Masonic movement led to the creation of an independent political party where its energies were ultimately diffused. It was disbanded in 1832.24
Some scholars feel that anti-Masonry may be seen in the Book of Mormon and interpret some passages (for example, Alma 37:21-32; Hel. 6:21-22; Ether 8:18-26) as anti-Masonic. These passages condemn secret combinations, secret signs, and secret words in a manner which may be interpreted as reminiscent of anti-Masonic rhetoric prevalent during this period.
A few references from contemporary newspapers confirm an early anti-Masonic perception of the Book of Mormon. On 15 March 1831, the Geauga Gazette of Painesville, Ohio, stated that "the Mormon Bible is Anti-masonick" and that "every one of its followers . . . are anti-masons." This newspaper quoted Martin Harris as saying that the Book of Mormon was an "Anti-masonick Bible." A similar story appeared in The Ohio Star in Ravenna, Ohio, on 24 March 1831. Another Painesville paper, The Telegraph, ran an article on 22 March 1831 challenging the 15 March story and claiming that the Book of Mormon was printed by a "Masonic press" in Palmyra, New York. It further asserted that there was "a very striking resemblance between masonry and mormonism. Both systems pretend to have a very ancient origin, and to possess some wonderful secrets which the world cannot have without submitting to the prescribed ceremonies" (see also 24 Mar. 1831). Interestingly, Mormon converts in northeastern Ohio were identified by the press as being as fanatical as the region's anti-Masons.26 Notably the first anti- Mormon book, Mormonism Unvailed, referred to ancient Book of Mormon Nephites as "Anti-masons."27 Despite these Book of Mormon passages and press coverage, no evidence exists to convincingly prove that early converts paid serious attention to anti-Masonry.28
Perhaps more decisively, Freemasonry had little or no discernible influence on the rites practiced in the Kirtland Temple, 1835-36. Reed C. Durham, Jr., has noted, however, that some Masonic influence can be seen in the temple's architectural patterns.29 One quotation in the History of the Church records Smith in 1835 using Masonic terms to condemn the "abominations" of Protestants and praying that his "well fitted" comments "may be like a nail in a sure place, driven by the master of assemblies."30 Smith's familiarity with and positive use of Masonic imagery is paradoxical in light of his anti-secret society rhetoric during the Missouri period.31
A full examination of the complex history of the church's transition to Nauvoo and its subsequent embrace of Masonry is beyond the scope of this discussion. Smith's involvement with Masonry is well documented, but the events leading him to consider joining the fraternity and endorsing its practice in Nauvoo are not. His ever-present fear of enemies may have led him to believe that affiliation would give some form of protection to church members. Perhaps he saw an additional level of protection from internal enemies resulting from the secrecy demanded of all initiates.32 It is also possible that amid the translation and publication activities of the book of Abraham in spring 1842, Smith's preoccupation with ancient mysteries may have triggered an interest in tapping Masonic lore.
The influence of personal friends cannot be ignored. In 1838, for example, Smith stayed briefly in Far West, Missouri, with George and Lucinda Harris, eventually becoming close friends with Lucinda.33 Lucinda had first been married to William Morgan in New York, when he was abducted for threatening to publish Masonic secrets. She became one of Smith's first plural wives.34 Other prominent Freemasons who converted to Mormonism included Deputy Grand Master of Illinois James Adams, Heber C. Kimball, kept locked up."35 Newel K. Whitney, George Miller, John C. Bennett, John Smith, and Brigham Young.36
Of these associates, the most influential in accelerating Smith's interest in Freemasonry was John C. Bennett.37 Bennett has typically been characterized as an opportunistic scoundrel whose brief (eighteen-month) sojourn with the Saints at Nauvoo was unfortunate and embarrassing. Actually, Bennett was a powerful confidante to Smith and a key figure in Nauvoo. His accomplishments included: "Assistant President" of the church, first mayor of Nauvoo, Major General in Nauvoo Legion, and secretary of the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge. He was instrumental in gaining the Illinois legislature's approval of the Nauvoo Charter, Nauvoo Legion, and the University of Nauvoo.38 Although his own status as a Mason in good standing prior to Nauvoo has been called into question,39 Bennett may well have advised Smith to adopt Freemasonry as a means to end persecution.40 Ebenezer Robinson, editor of the Times and Seasons until February 1842, reminisced: "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."41
Smith's official experience in Freemasonry began five months before the first Nauvoo endowment. He petitioned for membership in the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge on 30 December 1841. The favorable results of the lodge's investigation in his petition were reported on 3 February 1842.42 Smith was initiated as an entered apprentice Mason on 15 March 1842 and received the fellow craft and master degrees the next day. Since the customary waiting period before receiving a new degree is thirty days, Smith's elevation to the "sublime degree" (Master Mason) without prior participation was unusual.43 During the organization of the Female Relief Society one day later in the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge room, Smith filled his founding address with Masonic allusions: "Let this Presidency serve as a constitution"44; Smith "proposed that the Society go into a close examination of every candidate....that the Society should grow up by degrees....he was going to make of this Society a kingdom of priests as in Enoch's day."45 Kent L. Walgren, a student of Mormon/Masonry connections, concluded from reading other early Female Relief Society minutes that Smith's aim in establishing the Society was to "institutionalize secrecy."46 He cites an entry from the minutes where Emma Smith, probably during the organizational period, read an epistle signed by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and four others: "there may be some among you who are not sufficiently skill'd in Masonry to keep a secret....Let this Epistle be had as a private matter in your Society, and we shall learn whether you are good Masons."47
Over the next several weeks Smith participated in other lodge meetings, witnessing the Entered Apprentice degree five times, the Fellow Craft degree three times, and the Master Mason degree five times—all prior to his introduction of the extended endowment.48 An important sermon on 1 May 1842 contained references carrying Masonic overtones:
The keys are certain signs and words...which cannot be revealed...till the Temple is completed—The rich can only get them in the Temple....There are signs in heaven, earth, and hell, the Elders must know them all to be endowed with power....The devil knows many signs but does not know the sign of the Son of Man, or Jesus. No one can truly say he knows God until he has handled something, and this can only be in the Holiest of Holies.49
On 4 and 5 May, forty-nine days after his Masonic initiation, Smith introduced the new endowment ceremony to trusted friends in the upper story of his red brick store.50
The clearest evidence of Masonic influence on the Nauvoo temple ceremony is a comparison of texts. Three elements of the Nauvoo endowment and its contemporary Masonic ritual resemble each other so closely that they are sometimes identical. These are the tokens, signs, and penalties. The two accounts which may be most useful for the purposes of comparison are those of Catherine Lewis and William Morgan. Morgan's 1826 account was an exposé of his local York Rite's "Craft" degrees (the same rite introduced in Nauvoo, though the wording differed from state to state).51 Catherine Lewis joined the LDS church in 1841 in Boston. After Smith's death in 1844, she moved to Nauvoo and was among those who received their endowment in the new temple. Lewis received the ordinance at the urging of Heber Kimball and one of his wives. Repulsed by Kimball's subsequent proposal of plural marriage, she left Nauvoo and published a book in 1848 which includes a description of the temple ceremony.52
NAUVOO ENDOWMENT CEREMONY RITES COMPARED
TO CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHED FREEMASONIC RITES
(DELETED - MAY BE FOUND AT LINKED SITE)
http://www.signaturebooks.com/excerpts/mystery.htm#ch3
Other similarities with Masonic rites include the prayer circle which required Masonic initiates to assemble around an altar, place their left arm over the person next to them, join hands, repeat the words of the Most Excellent Master, and give all the signs from the initial ceremonial degrees.53 Historian D. Michael Quinn has pointed out that nineteenth-century American Protestant revivals also had prayer circles in which, "when the invitation was given, there was a general rush, the large ‘prayer ring’ was filled, and for at least two hours prayer ardent went up toe God."54 Two other Masonic elements with Mormon echoes are initiates' receiving a new name and donning a white apron as part of the rite.55 An explanatory lecture always follows the conferral of each Masonic degree ceremony, a practice not unlike the Mormon temple endowment's lecture at the veil.
This pattern of resemblances indicates that Smith drew on Masonic rites in shaping the temple endowment and specifically borrowed tokens, signs, and penalties, as well as possibly the Creation narrative and ritual anointings. Still, the temple ceremony cannot be explained as wholesale borrowing, neither can it be dismissed as completely unrelated. As Mervin Hogan, a Mormon Mason, explained in 1991, "[L]ittle room for doubt can exist in the mind of an informed, objective analyst that the Mormon Temple Endowment and the rituals of ancient Craft Masonry are seeming intimately and definitely involved."56
An interesting question is the response of Smith's contemporaries to the temple ceremony, since many were also familiar with Masonry. How did they understand the resemblances? Although modern Latter-day Saints are generally unfamiliar with Masonry, this was not the case in Nauvoo. According to the Manuscript History of Brigham Young, Heber Kimball later said, "We have the true Masonry. The Masonry of today is received from the apostasy which took place in the days of Solomon, and David. They have now and then a thing that is correct, but we have the real thing."57
Another of Smith's close friends, Joseph Fielding, wrote in 1844: "Many have joined the Masonic Institution this seems to have been a Stepping Stone or Preparation for something else, the true Origin of Masonry."58 According to one of Brigham Young's ex-wives, Young "delight[ed] to speak of it [the endowment] as ‘Celestial Masonry.’"59 Young's brother Phineas thought that a part of the ceremony referred directly to the "marks of a Master Mason."60 John D. Lee, in narrating his duties as a worker in the Nauvoo temple after Joseph Smith's death, used explicitly Masonic words (italicized below) to describe his entrance into the temple:
Tuesday Dec 16th 1845 about 4 oclock in the morning I entered the Poarch in the lower court where I met the Porter who admitted me through the door which led to the foot or nearly so of a great flight of Stairs which by ascending led me to the door of the outer court which I found tyled within by an officer. I having the proper implements of that degree gained admittance through the outer and inner courts which opened and led to the sacred departments....Having entered I found myself alone with the Tyler [guard] that kept the inner courts set about and soon got fires up in the different rooms and setting things in order—for the day—at about 9 oclock in the morning the washing and anointing commenced...61
More than sixty years later Elder Franklin D. Richards explained to his colleagues in the Quorum of Twelve Apostles,
A Masonic Lodge...was established in Nauvoo and Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Willard Richards, John Taylor, Lorenzo Snow, Orson Hyde, F. D. Richards, and about 1000 others in all became Masons. Joseph, the Prophet, was aware that there were some things about Masonry which had come down from the beginning and he desired to know what they were, hence the lodge. The Masons admitted some keys of knowledge appertaining to Masonry were lost. Joseph enquired of the Lord concerning the matter and He revealed to the Prophet true Masonry, as we have it in our temples.62
The LDS First Presidency went so far in 1911 as to refer publicly to the "Masonic characters [of] the ceremonies of the temple."63 Apostle Melvin J. Ballard64 and historian E. Cecil McGavin65 were among early twentieth-century Mormons who believed that Masonry's trigradal degree system of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason dated back to Solomon's temple or to the time of Adam.
To summarize Mormon participation in Freemasonry during the Nauvoo period, it is useful to note that in 1840 only 147 men in Illinois and 2,072 in the United States were Masons.66 By the time of the exodus to Utah in 1846-47, approximately 1,366 Mormon males in Nauvoo had been initiated into the Masonic order.67 While it is uncertain exactly why Freemasonry was initially embraced, its activities undoubtedly provided fraternal benefits and its ceremonies clearly provided part of the specific wording for the Nauvoo temple endowment, although most nineteenth-century Masonic rituals have no resemblance to early temple ceremonies. It is significant that, following conferral of endowment rites on Nauvoo adults and their subsequent relocation to Utah, Masonry never regained the prominence among Mormons it received in Nauvoo.
Footnotes:
18. Joseph Smith, Sr., was a member of Ontario Lodge No. 23, Canadaigua, New York, having been initiated an Entered Apprentice Mason on 26 December 1817, passed to the degree of Fellow Craft on 2 March 1818, and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason on 7 May 1818 (Mervin B. Hogan, "Freemasonry and Mormon Culture," Miscellanea 12 [1991], Pt. 10:75-94; Art deHoyos brought this to my attention).
The definitive examination of Mormonism and Freemasonry has yet to be written. The best to date is Michael W. Homer, "‘Similarity of Priesthood in Masonry’: The Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 27 (Fall 1994). For a general introduction, see Reed C. Durham, Jr., "Is There No Help For the Widow's Son?" This was delivered as the presidential address to the Mormon History Association, 20 April 1974. See the version published in Mormon Miscellaneous 1 (Oct. 1975): 11-16. See also Kenneth W. Godfrey, "Joseph Smith and the Masons," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 64 (Spring 1971): 79-90; S. H. Goodwin, Mormonism and Masonry: A Utah Point of View (Salt Lake City: Grand Lodge, F. & A. M. of Utah, 1925); and Additional Studies in Mormonism and Masonry (Salt Lake City: Grand Lodge, F. & A. M. of Utah, 1927). Also Mervin B. Hogan, The Origin and Growth of Utah Masonry and Its Conflict with Mormonism (Salt Lake City: Campus Graphics, 1978); Mormonism and Freemasonry: The Illinois Episode (Salt Lake City: Campus Graphics, 1980); Anthony W. Ivins, The Relationship of "Mormonism" and Freemasonry (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1934); Gavin, Mormonism and Masonry; Allen D. Roberts, "Where Are the All-Seeing Eyes? The Origin, Use and Decline of Early Mormon Symbolism," Sunstone 4 (May-June 1979): 22-37; John E. Thompson, The Masons, the Mormons and the Morgan Incident (Iowa Research Lodge No. 2 A. & A.M., 1981); and Robin L. Carr, Freemasonry and Nauvoo, 1839-1846 (Bloomington, IL: Masonic Book Club, 1989).
19. Dorothy Ann Lipson, Freemasonry in Federalist Connecticut (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977), 4, 143-440. After 1832 Masons concentrated on social and fraternal activities and, by reaching beyond the limitations of religious, political, and economic creeds, had grown to more than 3.25 million in the United States alone by the early 1980s.
20. Ibid., 117-21, 248-49.
21. Ibid., 9, 75; see also Wilson Carey McWilliams, The Idea of Fraternity in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973).
22. I appreciate the advice of Art deHoyos on this point.
23. Douglas Knoop and G. P. Jones, The Genesis of Freemasonry: An Account of the Rise and Development of Freemasonry in its Operative, Accepted, and Early Speculative Phases (Manchester, Eng.: Manchester University Press, 1949), 274, 275, 321, 322. Knoop and Jones have produced the most balanced scholarly historical studies of Freemasonry to date. Their publications by the Quatuor Coronati Lodge (the English Masonic research lodge) identify two schools of Masonic history dating from the 1870s: "verified" or institutional history, and "mythical" or philosophical speculations. Their most valuable works include collections of early Masonic catechisms (1943) and pamphlets (1978) as well as institutional histories through the early eighteenth century (1940, 1949). See also A Short History of Freemasonry to 1730 (Manchester, Eng.: Manchester University Press, 1940); The Early Masonic Catechisms (Manchester, Eng.: Manchester University Press, 1943); and Early Masonic Pamphlets (London: Quatuor Coronati Correspondence Circle, Ltd., 1978).
John Hamill prefers the terms "authentic" and "non-authentic," rather than "verified" and "mythical." He explains, "The non- authentic school has four main approaches, which might be categorized as the esoteric, the mystical, the symbolist, and the romantic. All four approaches have two factors in common: a belief that Freemasonry has existed from `time immemorial' and the apparent inability to distinguish between historical fact and legend" (The Craft. A History of English Freemasonry [Wellingborough: Crucible, 1986], 15-25; again Art deHoyos brought this source to my attention).
Other important careful histories include Robert Freke Gould, A Concise History of Freemasonry (New York City: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co., 1904); H. L. Haywood and James E. Craig, A History of Freemasonry (New York: John Day Co., 1927); Bernard E. Jones, Freemasons' Guide and Compendium, rev. ed. (London: Harrap, Ltd., 1950, 1956); Henry Wilson Coil, Sr., Freemasonry Through Six Centuries, 2 vols. (Richmond, VA: Macoy, 1967); Alex Horne, King Solomon's Temple in the Masonic Tradition (Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, Eng.: Aquarian Press, 1972); Norman MacKenzie, ed., Secret Societies (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967); Arthur Edward Waite, A New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry and of Cognate Instituted Mysteries: Their Rites, Literature and History, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: David McKay Co., ca. 1923); David Stevenson, The First Freemasons: Scotland's Early Lodges and Their Members (Aberdeen, 1988); and David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century, 1590-1710 (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
24. Charles McCarthy, "The Antimasonic Party: A Study of Political Antimasonry in the United States, 1827-1840," Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902 1: 365-574; William Preston Vaughn, The Anti-Masonic Party in the United States, 1826-1843 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1983).
25. Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith 2d ed. (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1973), 65-66; Goodwin, Mormonism and Masonry, 9; Additional Studies in Mormonism and Masonry, 3-29; Thomas F. O'Dea, The Mormons (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), 23, 35; Blake Ostler, "The Book of Mormon as a Modern Expansion of an Ancient Source," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20 (Spring 1987): 73-76); Walter Franklin Prince, "Psychological Tests for the Authorship of the Book of Mormon," American Journal of Psychology 28 (July 1917): 373-95. The best study to date is Dan Vogel, "Mormonism's `Anti-Masonick Bible,'" The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 9 (1989): 17-30.
26. The Wayne Sentinel (Palmyra, NY), 23 Aug. 1831; The Churchman (NY), 4 Feb. 1832.
27. E. D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed: or A Faithful Account of that Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Times, etc. (Painesville, OH: E. D. Howe, 1834), 81, 89.
28. Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984), 131; Grant Underwood, "The Earliest Reference Guides to the Book of Mormon: Windows into the Past," Journal of Mormon History 12 (1985): 69-89.
29. Durham, "The Widow's Son," 15-33. See also Laurel B. Andrew, The Early Temples of the Mormons: An Architecture of the Millennial Kingdom in the American West (Albany: SUNY Press, 1978).
30. HC, 2:347; Dean C. Jessee, ed., The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1984), 120.
31. HC, 3:178-82, 303.
32. Compare Heber C. Kimball's observation, 2 August 1857: "You have received your endowments. What is it for? To learn you to hold your tongues" (Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [Liverpool: Latter-day Saints' Booksellers Depot, 1854-86], 5:133 [hereafter JD]), with Brigham Young's comment in 1860: "[T]he mane part of Masonry is to keep a secret" (in Scott G. Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff's Journal, 9 vols. [Midvale, UT: Signature Books, 1983], 5:418). A classic discussion on the sociology of secrecy and secret societies is by Georg Simmel in Kurt H. Wolff, trans. and ed., The Sociology of Georg Simmel (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1950), 330-76.
33. HC, 3:9; Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1984), 70.
34. Brodie, No Man Knows, 459-60.
35. Stanley B. Kimball, Heber C. Kimball: Mormon Patriarch and Pioneer (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981), 12. Kimball's daughter, Helen Mar Kimball Whitney, later reminisced: "I remember once when but a young girl, of getting a glimpse of the outside of the Morgan's book, exposing Masonry, but which my father always kept locked up."
36. Godfrey, "Joseph Smith and the Masons," 81-82; Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), 99; James J. Tyler, "John Cook Bennett, Colorful Freemason of the Early Nineteenth Century," reprinted from the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Ohio (n.p., 1947), 8.
37. Robert Bruce Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965), 247.
38. Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1982), 10-14.
39. Mervin B. Hogan, John Cook Bennett and Pickaway Lodge No. 23 (n.p., 1983); and Mervin B. Hogan, John Cook Bennett: Unprincipled Profligate Cowan (Salt Lake City: Campus Graphics, 1987).
40. "Joseph Smith and the Presidency," Saints' Herald 68 (19 July 1921): 675.
41. The Return 2 (June 1890): 287.
42. Mervin B. Hogan, comp., Founding Minutes of Nauvoo Lodge, U.D. (Des Moines, IA: Research Lodge No. 2, 1971), 8, 10.
43. Smith's accelerated advancement came at the hand of Abraham Jonas, Grandmaster of the Illinois Lodge. Given that Jonas was running for political office, it is possible that he thought his action would secure him the Mormon vote.
44. Relief Society, Minutes of the Nauvoo Female Relief Society, 17 Mar. 1842, italics added, LDS archives.
45. Ibid., 30 Mar. 1842, italics added. Freemasons are enjoined to study their Book of Constitutions which contain fundamental Masonic principles; every man considering becoming a Mason is called a "candidate" and must pass a character examination before being approved for initiation; new initiates progress in Masonry through a system of ceremonial degrees; and several officers in a lodge have different titles employing the word "Priest." See R. W. Jeremy L. Cross, The True Masonic Chart, or Hieroglyphic Monitor; Containing All the Emblems Explained in the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, Master Mason, etc. (New Haven, CT: Jeremy L. Cross, 1824), 7, 15-19, 63, 65, 157; William Morgan, Freemasonry Exposed (1827; reprint ed., Chicago: Ezra Book Publications, Inc., n.d.), 16-18.
46. Kent L. Walgren, "James Adams: Early Springfield Mormon and Freemason," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 75 (Summer 1982): 131.
47. Ibid., 132n49; recorded after minutes for 28 Sept. 1842.
48. Hogan, Minutes of Nauvoo Lodge, 12-18.
49. Ehat and Cook, Words of Joseph Smith, 119-20, emphasis added; D&C 129:4-9. Before passing each degree, every Masonic candidate is tested in his knowledge of special signs and words by the presiding lodge officer. See Cross, The True Masonic Chart, 97; Morgan, Freemasonry Exposed, 18-27, 49-61, 70-89.
50. HC, 4:550-53, 570, 589, 594, 608; 5:1-2, 446; 6:287.
51. Morgan, Freemasonry Exposed, see esp. 23-24, 53-54, 76-77, 84-85.
52. Catherine Lewis, Narrative of Some of the Proceedings of the Mormons, etc. (Lynn, MA: the Author, 1848), 9-10; see also, Warsaw Signal, 15 Apr. 1846, 2; Increase McGee Van Dusen and Maria Van Dusen, The Mormon Endowment; A Secret Drama, or Conspiracy, in the Nauvoo-Temple, in 1846 (Syracuse, NY: N. M. D. Lathrop, 1847), 6, 9.
53. David Bernard, Light on Masonry: A Collection of All the Most Important Documents on the Subject of Speculative Free Masonry, etc. (Utica, NY: William Williams, 1829), 116-17; Jabez Richardson, Richardson's Monitor of Free-Masonry; Being a Practical Guide to the Ceremonies in All the Degrees Conferred in Masonic Lodges, Chapters, Encampments, etc. (1860; reprint ed., Chicago: Ezra Cook, 1975), 61, 66.
54. Rev. James Erwin, Reminiscences of Early Circuit Life (Toledo, OH: Spear, Johnson & Co., 1884), 68, in Quinn, "Latter-day Saint Prayer Circles," 81-82.
55. The reception of the new name was a feature of William Morgan's 1826 New York exposé but did not form part of the Masonic ritual practiced in Nauvoo. Art deHoyos pointed this out to me.
56. Mervin B. Hogan, Freemasonry and Mormon Ritual (Salt Lake City: author, 1991), 22.
57. "Manuscript History of Brigham Young," 13 Nov. 1858, 1085, LDS archives; see also Stanley B. Kimball, "Heber C. Kimball and Family, The Nauvoo Years," Brigham Young University Studies 15 (Summer 1975): 458.
58. Andrew F. Ehat, ed., "‘They Might Have Known That He Was Not a Fallen Prophet’: The Nauvoo Journal of Joseph Fielding," Brigham Young University Studies 19 (Winter 1979): 145.
59. Ann Eliza Webb Young, Wife No. 19: Or, The Story of a Life in Bondage (Hartford, CT: Dustin, Gilman and Co., 1876), 371.
60. In Kimball, On the Potter's Wheel, 166.
61. John D. Lee Diary, 16 Dec. 1845, LDS archives (emphasis added).
62. Stan Larson, ed., A Ministry of Meetings: The Apostolic Diaries of Rudger Clawson (Salt Lake City: Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, 1993), 42.
63. Statement of the First Presidency (Joseph F. Smith, Anthon H. Lund, and John Henry Smith), 15 Oct. 1911, in Oakland Tribune, 15 Oct. 1911, and in Deseret News, 4 Nov. 1911; see also James R. Clark, ed., Messages of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1970), 4:250.
64. Conference Report of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, Apr. 1913), 126; Salt Lake Tribune, 29 Dec. 1919, in S. H. Goodwin, Mormonism and Masonry, 49-50.
65. McGavin, Mormonism and Masonry, 192.
66. Godfrey, "Joseph Smith and the Masons," 83.
67. Durham, "Help for the Widow's Son," 15-33.
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Thanks a LOT; but I must REALLY do some work around the house this weekend!
Smith copied/drew from sooooooo many sources to cobble the belief system together. Masons provided temple rites. View to the Hebrews (as well as other 18th and 19th century writings and the bible) contributed to the bom. The list goes on and on.
Never heard so much poppycock since the mishies tried to persuade me that garmies are fireproof in a plane crash.
“Milk before the meat”
Unfortunately that sounds like it went way beyond the milk before meat aspect of the missionaries. Fortunately for them, you didn't take them up on a demonstration and see how well they would be protected if they were set on fire LOL
Heh, heh, this was during Vietnam; I was in Army flight training and they had just begun issuing fire retardant Nomex flight suits. The mishies told me tales of garmie-wearing pilot converts who crashed and burned in Vietnam but were unscathed where the garmies covered them.
Hmm, I thought: head, arms and legs burned to a crisp, but leaving an intact torso (Nomex just gives you a few extra seconds to escape). Sorry, no thanks, I said.
Flight school consisted of lots of overpaid new lieutenants like me (unlike the warrant officer candidates who were sequestered in barracks) and we were all targets for Mormon mishies, encyclopedia salespeople, and agents selling Florida real estate.
A different time.
;^)
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