The Mormon επισκοποςTHE MORMON BISHOP. is a steward, who renders an account of his stewardship both in time and eternity, and who superintends the elders, keeps the Lord’s store-house, receives the funds of the Church, administers to the wants of those beneath him, and supplies assistance to those who manage the “literary concerns,” probably editors and magazine publishers. The bishopric is the presidency of the Aaronic priesthood, and has authority over it. No man has a legal right to the office except a literal descendant of Aaron. As these, however, are non inventi, and as a high priest of the Melchisedek order may officiate in all lesser offices, the bishop, who never affects a nolo episcopari, can be ordained by the First Presidency, or Mr. Brigham Young. Thus the episcopate is a local authority in stakes, settlements, and wards, with the directorship of affairs temporal as well as spiritual. This “overseer” receives the tithes on the commutation-labor, which he forwards to the public store-house; superintends the registration of births, marriages, and deaths, makes domiciliary visits, and hears and determines complaints either laical or ecclesiastic.
THE HIGH COUNCIL.The High Council was organized by revelation in Kirtland (Feb. 17, 1834) for the purpose of settling, when the Church or the “Bishop’s” council might fail, important difficulties that might arise between two believers. Revelation directed it to consist of twelve high priests, ascertained by lots or ballot, and one or three presidents, as the case might require. The first councilors, when named, were asked if they would act in that office according to the law of heaven: they accepted, and at once, more Americano—“voted.” After deciding that the President of the Church should also be President of the Council, it was laid down that the duty of the twelve councilors should be to cast lots by numbers, and thereby ascertain who of the twelve shall speak first, commencing with number one, and so in succession to number twelve. In an easy case only two speak; in a difficult one, six. The defendant has a right to one half of the council, and “those who draw even numbers, that is, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12, are the individuals who are to stand up in behalf of the accused, and to prevent insult or injustice.” After the evidence is heard, and the councilors, as well as the accuser and the accused, have “said their say,” the president decides, and calls upon the “twelve” to sanction his decision by their vote. When error is suspected, the case is subject to a “careful rehearing;” and in peculiar difficulties the appeal is to revelation. I venture to recommend this form of special jury to those who have lost faith in a certain effete and obsolete “palladium of British liberty” that dates from the days of Ethelbert. After all, it is sometimes better, jurare in verba magistri, especially of an inspired master.
The High Council is a standing council. It bears the same relationship to the federal power as the university Sex viri to a court of civil law in England, and it saves the saints the expense of Gentile proceedings, which may roughly be set down at fifty per cent. The sessions take place in the Social Hall. Such an institution, which transfers to St. Peter all the duties, salaries, and honors which Justinianus gives, is, of course, most unpopular among the anti-Mormons, who call it Star-Chamber, and other ugly names. I look upon it rather as the Punchayat (quinque viri) Court of East India, a rough but ready instrument of justice, which, like spontaneous growths generally, have been found far superior to the exotic institutions forced upon the popular mind by professional improvers.
The Latter-Day Saint, when in a foreign land, can be punished for transgression by his own people. The presiding authority calls a council to examine the evidence for and against the offense; and if guilt be proven, the offender, after being officially suspended from his missionary functions and the fellowship of the Church, is sent, with a special report, to be tried by his own presidency at Great Salt Lake City.
The elders are those from whom the apostles are taken; they are, in fact, promoted priests charged with all the duties of that order, and with the conduct of meetings, “as they are led by the Holy Ghost, according to the commandments and revelations of God.” They hold Conferences once in every three months, receive their licenses from the elders or from the Conferences; they are liable to be sent on missions, and are solemnly enjoined, by a revelation of January, 1832, to “gird up their loins and be sober.”
The priest is the master mason of the order. It is his duty to preach, teach, expound, exhort, baptize, administer the sacrament, visit domiciliarily, exhort the saints to pray “vocally and in secret,” ordain other priests, teachers, and deacons, take the lead of meetings when there is no elder present, and assist the elder when occasion requires.
Of the Aaronic order, the head are the bishops; under them are two ranks, who form the entered apprentices of the Mormon lodge.
1st. The teachers, who have no authority to baptize, to administer the sacrament, or to lay on hands, but who “warn, expound, exhort, teach, and invite all to come unto Christ, watch over the Church, and take the lead of meetings in the absence of the elder or priest.” Of these catechists one or two is usually attached to each bishop.
2d. The deacon, or διακονος, an assistant teacher. He also acts as treasurer to the missions in the several branches of the Church, collects money for the poor, and attends to the temporal wants of converts.
The rise of the “Church of Christ in these last days dates from 1830, since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:” thus, A.D. 1861 is Annus Josephi Smithii 31. In that year Mirabilis the book of Mormon appeared, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was organized, and the Body Ecclesiastic, after the fashion of those preceding it, was exodus’d or hegira’d to Kirtland, Ohio.