The City of the Saints, and Across the Rocky Mountains to California

by Sir Richard Francis Burton

The form of Mormon government is not new: it is the theocracy of the Jews, of the Jesuit missions in Brazil, Paraguay, and elsewhere, and briefly of all communities in which, contrary to the fitness of things, Church is made to include, or, rather, exclude State. In opposition to El Islam, they maintain that a hieratic priesthood is necessary to the well-being of a religion. They divide it into two grand heads, of which all other officers and authorities are appendages. The first is called the MELCHISEDEK PRIESTHOOD.Melchisedek priesthood, “because Melchisedek was such a great high priest.”[211] The second, which is a supplement to the former, and administers outward ordinances, is the Aaronic or Levitical, “because it was conferred upon Aaron and his seed throughout all their generations.” To the Melchisedek belong the high priest, priests, and elders; to the Aaronic the bishops, the teachers or catechists, and the deacons.

[211] These and the following quotations are borrowed from sections 2 and 3 of “Covenants and Commandments.”

“The power and authority of the higher, or Melchisedek priesthood, is to hold the keys of all the spiritual blessings of the Church, to have the privilege of receiving the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, to have the heavens opened unto them, to commune with the general assembly and Church of the first-born, and to enjoy the communion and presence of God the Father, and Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant.

“The power and authority of the lesser, or Aaronic priesthood, is to hold the keys of the ministering of angels, and to administer in outward ordinances the letter of the Gospel—the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins—agreeable to the covenants and commandments.”

The apex of the Mormon hierarchy is the First Presidency, now Messrs. Young, Kimball, and Wells, who have succeeded to Peter, James, and John in the Gospel Church, and who correspond on earth to the Trinity in heaven—numero Deus impare gaudet. The presiding high priest over the high priesthood of the Church—par excellence, “the” President, also ex-officio seer, revelator, translator, and prophet, is supreme. The two sub-chiefs or counselors are quasi-equal: the first, however, takes social precedence of the second. This quorum of the presidency of the Church, elected by the whole body, is the centre of temporal as of ecclesiastical power. It claims, under God, the right of life and death; it holds the keys of heaven and hell, and from its decrees there is no appeal except to the general assembly of all the quorums which constitute the spiritual authorities of the Church.

The second in rank is the Patriarch. The present incumbent is a nephew of the first seer, who succeeded Mr. Joseph Smith, sen., the father of Mr. Joseph Smith, jun.[212] As the sire of the Church, his chief duty is to administer blessings: it is an office of dignity held for life, whereas all others expire after the semestre.

[212] So called in revelation until the death of Mr. Joseph Smith, sen.

Follows the “Second Presidency,” the twelve traveling counselors, “called to be the twelve apostles or special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world,” modeled with certain political modifications after the primitive Christian Church, and abbreviatively termed “The Twelve.” The President of the High Apostolic College, or, in his default, one of the members, acts as coadjutor, in the absence of a member of the First Presidency. The Twelve come nearer the masses, and, acting under direction of the highest authority, build up the Church, ordain and set in order all other officers, elders, priests, teachers, and deacons: they are empowered to baptize, and to administer bread and wine—the emblems of the flesh and blood of Christ; to confirm those who are baptized into the Church by the laying on of hands for the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost; to teach, expound, exhort, baptize, and watch over the Church, and to take the lead in all meetings. They preside over the several “Stakes of Zion;” there is one, for instance, to direct, under the title of president, the European, and another the Liverpool mission. If there be several together, the eldest is the standing president of the quorum, and they act as councilors to one another.

The fourth body in rank is the Seventies. The “Seventy” act in the name of the Lord, under direction of the “Twelve,” in building up the Church, and, like them, are traveling ministers, sent first to the Gentiles, and then to the Jews. Out of the “Seventy” are chosen seven presidents, of whom one presides over the other six councilors: these seven choose other seventy besides the first seventy, “and also other seventy, until seven times seventy, if the labor in the vineyard of necessity requires it.” In 1853 the minutes of the Mormon General Conference enumerated the “Seventies” at 1572. Practically the seventy members are seldom complete. The chief of these traveling propagandists, the working bees of the community, is the “President of all the Seventies.”

The fifth body is composed of “high priests after the order of the Melchisedek priesthood, who have a right to officiate in their own standing, under the direction of the Presidency, in administering spiritual things,” and to “officiate in all the offices of the Church when there are no higher authorities present.” Thus charged with the execution of spiritual affairs, they are usually aged and fatherly men. Among the high priests are included, ex-officio, the bishops and the high council.