The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844
1976; Brigham Young University; Volume: 16; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2167-8472
Autores Tópico(s)Mormonism, Religion, and History
ResumoAs President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since its establishment in 1830, Joseph Smith, Jr., had been the apex of a pyramid of ecclesiastical leadership, but to many people he was viewed as though he were the keystone of the existence of Mormonism. In this view, as the removal of the keystone from an arch causes the arch to collapse, it was assumed that the entire LDS Church would collapse if at Smith's death the role of the president were not filled properly and to the satisfaction of the general membership. A small group of men, most notably the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, had received private instruction from Joseph Smith in the spring of 1844 concerning the proper mode of succession. These private instructions, however, were unknown to the general membership of the LDS Church. In fact, by the summer of 18 44 there was no explicit outline of presidential succession in print. This laid the foundation for a succession crisis among the Latterday Saints when Joseph Smith was murdered by a mob on 27 June 1844. Not only did most Mormons have only the haziest concept of what should transpire in the leadership of the LDS Church if the founding prophet were to die, but between 1834 and 1844 Joseph Smith had by word or action established precedents or authority for eight possible methods of succession: 1) by a counselor in the First Presidency, 2) by a special appointment, 3) through the office of Associate President, 4) by the Presiding Patriarch, 5) by the Council of Fifty, 6) by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, 7) by three priesthood councils, 8) by a descendant of Joseph Smith, Jr. In time, all but one of the major claimants were invalidated by their personal circumstances or the insufficiency of their claims.
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