MORMONS. - A Protestant sect founded in the United States in the 19th century. They are also called Latter-day Saints (Latter-day saints) or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I. THE FOUNDER
Joseph Smith, b. in 1805 at Sharon (Vermont), d. in 1844 at Carthage. In 1815 his family moved to Palmyra (New York) and in 1820, on the occasion of one of those "revivals" that from time to time shake the American Protestant world, it partly became Presbyterian and partly Methodist. Smith relates that two angels warned him not to join any sect and to await the discovery of the golden plates in which he would find the new religion. He discovered them in 1827 on the Hill of Cumorah (four miles from Palmyra) and with them he found the two stones "Urim and Thummim," necessary for the interpretation of the strange characters in which they were written. Once the interpretation was finished (1830), it was printed under the name of The Book of Mormon. With a few others who believed in his revelations, Smith formed the first nucleus of the new Church, aided by Sidney Rigdon, who gave a great impulse to the new sect.
This presented itself as the religion of an elect and holy people, chosen to convert the world in the last days before the coming of Christ, from whom, through its head, it received special direction, and it regarded all other men as "gentiles." With these doctrines the Mormons made themselves hateful to everyone; to escape persecution, they emigrated to various places in Ohio and Missouri from 1831 to 1839 and finally settled in 1840 in Illinois, where they founded the small town of Nauvoo. Here they erected a fine temple, and there Smith proclaimed the new doctrine, revealed to him, of "celestial marriage," that is, polygamy. The peoples neighboring Nauvoo, who had at first received them favorably, persecuted them with violence on account of the new doctrine of polygamy and the system of theocratic government, to the point of massacring their founder and his brother Hyrum in the jail of Carthage (Illinois) in 1844.
II. THE BOOK OF MORMON (The Book of Mormon)
It is a collection of various books, divided into chapters and verses as in the Bible. It intends to explain the descent of the Americans from the Hebrews. After the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel, the descendants of Jared emigrated to America, but because of their wickedness God permitted many wars and public calamities, and almost all of them disappeared around 600 B.C. But at this same time the prophet Lehi of the tribe of Manasseh, warned by God of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, came with other Jews to America, where he found the last remnants of the Jaredites. After Lehi's death, dissensions arose between his two sons Nephi and Laman, who separated. The Nephites remained faithful to Yahweh, the Lamanites did not, and from these the American Indians are descended. The Nephites were visited by Jesus Christ himself, who came to America during his mortal life. Two or three centuries A.D. the Nephites too transgressed and were destroyed by the Lamanites. Their last prophet and patriarch was Mormon, who wrote the history of his people on golden plates, which he gave to his son Moroni. The latter hid them in the Hill of Cumorah, where Smith found them with the two stones Urim and Thummim necessary for their interpretation.
No one ever saw the famous golden plates. Smith interpreted the plates behind a curtain, so that his secretary Oliver Cowdery could not see them. Once the interpretation was finished, the plates were hidden by an angel. The true story seems to be this: a certain Presbyterian, Solomon Spaulding, had set out to write a novel on the origin of the Americans, making them descend from the Hebrews. The manuscript was never published, but it came into the hands of a versatile preacher, first a Baptist and then a Campbellite (v. DISCEPOLI), Sidney Rigdon, who, having joined Smith, gave the manuscript a biblical form and style, and out of it came the Book of Mormon.
III. DOCTRINES AND GOVERNMENT
The Book of Mormon, together with the Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is, according to the Mormons, the complement of the Bible, so that the latter too is one of their sacred books. In the Doctrine and Covenants are collected many revelations of Smith, among them that of polygamy, some of his successor Brigham Young, and some explanations and doctrines such as those of Orson Pratt, one of the first 12 Mormon apostles who, sent to England to convert it, defended Mormonism and published his pamphlets in Liverpool from 1849 to 1851. The Mormons have their own Creed, fairly simple, with 14 articles, but they omit what might most offend the gentiles.
In fact, in the first article it says: "We believe in God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit," but they do not add that for them the Father is of flesh and bone, with the consequence that the Son and the Holy Spirit are nothing but the emanation of the Father. In the fourth they admit Baptism, but say nothing of the Baptism of the dead, that is, of the rite of having oneself baptized for a relative or ancestor already dead, if he died a sinner or a gentile. Nothing is said of celestial marriage. Of the two marriages they profess, the earthly one has no effect whatsoever after death, the celestial one continues in the next life; the Mormon may contract according to this doctrine as many celestial marriages as he wishes and may make use of them in both lives. The priesthood is divided into the priesthood of Melchizedek and that of Aaron. In the first are included the president, who still receives revelations from God, the 12 apostles, the high priests, the 70 disciples, the elders and the patriarchs; in the second, inferior to the first, the bishops, the priests, the teachers and the deacons. In Mormonism there are very many who participate in one of these two priesthoods, and the organization is centralistic and theocratic. The initiation (endowment = endowment), necessary for the priesthood of Melchizedek and for celestial marriage, takes place in the great temple of Salt Lake City (Utah), in a part that is accessible only to the initiated.
IV. THE MORMONS AFTER THE DEATH OF THE FOUNDER
After Smith's death, the entire Mormon movement was directed by Brigham Young, b. in 1801 at Whitingham (Vermont). From being a Methodist he became a Mormon in 1831, and in 1835 he was admitted among the first 12 apostles of the new Church. His election as head of the Mormons and successor of Smith was opposed by some leaders, among them Smith's own son, who separated and founded the "Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Brigham understood that after the Carthage massacre he could not remain in Illinois. After many vicissitudes, from 1846 to 1848 he led the Mormons in emigrating toward Utah (which was then still part of Mexico and only in 1848, once the emigration was finished, passed to the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe). In the arid desert of Utah, with indomitable energy he organized his refugees, founded the city of Salt Lake, encouraged polygamy (he himself had more than 20 "celestial wives"), defended himself against the influence of the "gentiles," and died in 1877. The organization, economy and labor of the Mormons transformed the desert into a fertile and productive region. To be able to enter the American Union as a State, the doctrine of polygamy stood in the way; but when the president of the Mormons declared that the Church renounced that doctrine, Utah became a State in 1896, yet polygamy is still practiced among them, though no longer as openly as before. The Mormons have missions in various parts of the world and are highly organized economically as well. The other sects have established missions among them, but with little fruit; nevertheless they hold that the new generations, more educated and inclined to criticism, will soon become aware of the enormous deception of the Book of Mormon. The Mormons number more than half a million, and those of the Reorganized Church do not reach 100,000.
Bibliography7 works
Camillo Crivelli