MORMONS. – A Protestant sect founded in the United States in the 19th century. They are also called Latter-day Saints or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I. THE FOUNDER
Joseph Smith, born in 1805 at Sharon, Vermont, died in 1844 at Carthage. His family moved to Palmyra (New York) in 1815, and in 1820, during one of those “awakenings” that periodically shake the American Protestant world, part of it became Presbyterian and part Methodist. Smith recounts that two angels warned him not to join any sect and to await the discovery of golden plates on which he would find the new religion. He discovered them in 1827 on Cumorah Hill (four miles from Palmyra) and with them found the two stones “Urim and Thummim,” necessary for interpreting the strange characters with which they were inscribed. Once the interpretation was completed (1830), it was published under the title The Book of Mormon. With a few followers who believed in his revelations, Smith formed the first nucleus of the new Church, aided by Sidney Rigdon, who gave great impetus to the new sect.This presented itself as the religion of a holy, elect people, chosen to convert the world in the last days before the coming of Christ, from whom, through its leader, it received special guidance, and it regarded all other men as “Gentiles.” With these doctrines
the Mormons made themselves hated by all; to escape persecution, they emigrated to various places in Ohio and Missouri from 1811 to 1839 and finally settled in 1840 in Illinois, where they founded the town of Nauvoo. Here they built a fine temple and there Smith proclaimed the new doctrine, revealed to him, of “celestial marriage,” i.e., polygamy. The neighboring peoples, who had initially received them favorably, persecuted them violently for the new doctrine of polygamy and for the system of theocratic government, until they massacred the founder and his brother Hyrum in the Carthage jail (Illinois) in 1844.
II. THE BOOK OF MORMON
It is a collection of various books, divided into chapters and verses like the Bible. It purports to explain the descent of Americans from the Hebrews. After the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel, the descendants of Jared migrated to America, but because of their wickedness God allowed many wars and public calamities, and almost all of them disappeared around 600 B.C. But at that very 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, dissension arose between his two sons, Nephi and Laman, who separated. The Nephites remained faithful to Jahweh, the Lamanites did not, and from them descend the American Indians. The Nephites were visited by Jesus Christ Himself, who came to America during His mortal life. Two or three centuries A.D., the Nephites also fell into sin and were destroyed by the Lamanites. The last of their prophets and patriarchs was Mormon, who wrote the history of his people on golden plates, which he gave to his son Moroni. The latter hid them on Cumorah Hill, where Smith found them along 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 Presbyterian named Solomon Spaulding had intended to write a novel about the origins of Americans, making them descend from the Hebrews. The manuscript was never published but came into the hands of a versatile preacher, first Baptist then Campbellite (v. DISCIPLES), Sidney Rigdon, who, joining Smith, gave the manuscript biblical form and style, and thus the Book of Mormon emerged.
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, which is therefore one of their sacred books. The Doctrine and Covenants contains many revelations of Smith, among others that on polygamy, some by 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 in its articles, but omitting what might most offend Gentiles.Indeed, the first article states: “We believe in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,” but they do not add that for them the Father is of flesh and bone, with the consequence that the Son and the Holy Ghost are merely emanations of the Father. In the fourth article they admit Baptism, but say nothing of Baptism for the dead, i.e., the rite of being baptized on behalf of a deceased relative or ancestor who died a sinner or Gentile. Nothing is said of celestial marriage. Of the two kinds of marriage they profess, the earthly one has no effect after death, while the celestial one continues in the next life; according to this doctrine, a Mormon may contract as many celestial marriages as he wishes and may enjoy them in both lives. The priesthood is divided into the Melchizedek and Aaronic priesthoods. The former includes the president, who still receives revelations from God, the 12 apostles, high priests, the 70 disciples, elders, and patriarchs; the latter, inferior to the first, includes bishops, priests, teachers, and deacons. In Mormonism there are very many