[Footnote B: Doc. and Cov., sec. cvii.]
In support of the Josephite assumption that the high council at Nauvoo was the proper authority to regulate the affairs of the church and not the Twelve, the following is quoted:
The standing high councils, at the Stakes of Zion, form a quorum equal in authority, in the affairs of the Church, in all their decisions, to the quorum of the Presidency, or to the traveling high council.[A]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. sec. cvii, 36.]
The answer to this assumption is, first, that the high council is a judicial and not a presiding or executive council, as is proven by the following:
The high council was appointed by revelation for the purpose of settling important difficulties which might arise in the Church, which could not be settled by the Church or the bishop's council[A] to the satisfaction of the parties.[B]
[Footnote A: That is, court.]
[Footnote B: Doc. and Cov. sec. cii, 2.]
Hence the "equality" here referred to must have reference to judicial not to administrative affairs in the church. The second answer to the assumption is that the standing high council in a stake of Zion is a local council, limited in its operations to the particular district of country comprising the stake. If any proof were needed to sustain the statement it would be found in the words of the prophet Joseph:
No standing high council has authority to go into the churches abroad and regulate the matters thereof, for this belongs to the Twelve.[A]