By Lambe Lamis 
Is it a extend of the creativity to draw parallels amongst Captain William Morgan (1774-1826), arguably the founder of the anti-Mason movement, and Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of Mormonism? What similarity of beliefs does an anti-Mason and a Mormon share? How did the paths of the two cross? The solutions will surprise you.
Captain William Morgan is commonly tied to the anti-Mason movement. He tried to develop into a charter member of a new Masonic lodge in Batavia, New York in 1826. He claimed he was a member of an additional lodge, which must have confirmed his inclusion in the new Batavia institution. However, his petition for becoming a member of the new lodge was refused. In retaliation, Morgan threatened to publish a book disclosing the strategies of Freemasonry. Tries ended up designed to take out Morgan from the citizenry. False charges had been leveled versus him, and he was arrested twice. The first time, a mate and fellow anti-Mason, David C. Miller, bailed him out of jail. Soon after the second arrest, Morgan was bailed out by an unfamiliar individual (assumed to be a Mason) and “carried absent” from Batavia. He was never ever witnessed, for specific, yet again.
Joseph Smith is identified as the founder of Mormonism. His followers thought him to be a prophet whose mission was to restore the primary Christian church. Joseph Smith was reported to have been offered “plates” by an angel, the resurrected prophet Moroni, on which a e-book was transcribed. This textual content would develop into acknowledged as the Guide of Mormon. Joseph Smith is also said to have been frequented by John the Baptist and disciples of Jesus Christ in revelations. Some people did not consider the story of the supply of the hidden plates to Joseph Smith and accused him of getting an imposter. He was in the long run killed for treason in the State of Illinois, even though a lot controversy surrounded the information of his demise.
At the time of William Morgan’s disappearance, he was married. Soon after his disappearance and alleged murder, his widow, Lucinda, married Joseph Smith and turned 1 of his numerous wives, as the Mormon faith permitted polygamy (possessing extra than 1 spouse at the similar time). The issue of polygamy was a single the Masons and Mormons disagreed wholeheartedly on. Masonic lodges in Utah and Nevada banned Mormons from joining a Masonic lodge for many a long time owing to this disagreement.
Freemasonry customers alleged that the Mormon church adopted numerous of the Masonic rituals and ceremonies as its very own – copied their “rites of passage” as it were being. Some believe that this precipitated the demise of Captain Morgan. The followers of Joseph Smith proclaim no affiliation with the Masons. They do, nonetheless, admit to “borrowing” some of the factors of ceremony but say that is exactly where the similarity finishes. Leaders in the Mormon church say the main concepts of their faith belong to reliable sources referred to in the Bible.
To current a stable affiliation among Morgan and the Mormon church, Morgan was one particular of the initially recipients of the “baptism of the lifeless” bestowed in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Working day Saints (Mormon church). Baptism of the useless is baptism by “proxy,” following the simple fact, for a person who is deceased.
In 1842, Joseph Smith was reported to have essentially joined a Masonic lodge in Nauvoo, Illinois, attained the rank of Master Mason on the next working day, was there for six months, and then the lodge was dispensed with for alleged improprieties because of to not pursuing formal Masonic policies and laws. When the chapter was initially chartered, Smith, like Morgan, was to begin with refused admittance.
Also like Freemasonry, Mormon church users did not want their ceremonies and rituals publicized. To have posted these types of product would have been an offense from the teams. To be ready to take part in Mormon temple ceremonies, you need to have a recommendation letter from area church leaders. Similarly, in get to come to be a Mason, you will have to be invited by a latest member.
Other similarities among the two men contain:
- Both equally adult men have been persecuted in 1826 in New York.
- The two adult men were attempting to publish information that other folks did not want revealed (The Illustration of Masonry by A single of the Fraternity and the Reserve of Mormon).
- Each men remaining the Condition of New York beneath duress. Joseph Smith made a decision Missouri would be a a lot more conducive environment for his new church, and was pressured to move from there to Illinois. Even though William Morgan was abducted and presumably murdered, there were alleged sightings of Morgan in Boston, Massachusetts, and as significantly absent as Smynia (modern-day day Turkey), but no strong evidence at any time turned up.
- Both of those adult men ended up claimed to have been murdered as a end result of persecution for their beliefs, but the aspects bordering each “murders” remain sketchy and crammed with differing accounts of what essentially happened.
- Each Masons and Mormons refer to every single other as “Brothers” that are in a fraternity of kinds.
Of class, a single of the important dissimilarities in between the two adult males is that whilst Joseph Smith chose to emulate some of Masonry’s rules and rituals, William Morgan (who explained to some others he as soon as was a Mason) became anti-Mason. In simple fact, Morgan’s disappearance was the catalyst for an anti-Mason motion and an entirely new 3rd political celebration, the anti-Mason get together.