Proclamation, between 19 January and 27 August 1841
Source Note
JS, Proclamation, , Hancock Co., IL, between 19 Jan. and 27 Aug. 1841; handwriting of ; two pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes docket and notation.
Bifolium measuring 11⅜ × 7½ inches (29 × 19 cm). Each page is ruled with thirty-five lines, which are now faded. The document was later folded for filing and docketed. On the top, right side of the first page, “1842” appears in type.
The document was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865. By 1973 this document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The proclamation’s dockets and inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.
A Historian’s Office inventory includes the following under the entry for 1842: “A religious proclamation by the Prophet.” That entry likely refers to this document. (“Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [2], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.)
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Historical Introduction
Sometime between 19 January and 27 August 1841, JS dictated a religious proclamation inviting government leaders throughout the earth to gather with the and “become the elite of the kingdom” of God. JS produced the proclamation with his scribe in accordance with a 19 January 1841 revelation, which commanded JS to “make a solemn proclamation of my gospel . . . written in the spirit of meekness and by the power of the holy ghost” so that the authorities in all the world would know God’s will, “even what shall befall them in a time to come.” The revelation also directed JS to warn the world’s people and authorities of the second coming and judgment of Jesus Christ so “that they may be left also without excuse . . . when I shall unveil the face of my covering, to appoint the portion of the oppressor, among hypocrites, where there is gnashing of teeth; if they reject my servants, and my testimony, which I have revealed unto them.”
The revelation instructed JS to have help him write the proclamation, and the proclamation featured here is indeed in Thompson’s handwriting. Though the proclamation was not dated, it would have been created after 19 January, when JS dictated the revelation that called for the proclamation to be written, and before 27 August 1841, when Thompson died. No other textual clues in the document suggest a more specific date.
The proclamation was apparently not published or distributed, despite the 19 January revelation’s injunction that JS do so immediately. There is no extant evidence that the proclamation was ever completed. At the end of 1841, JS evidently spoke to about the proclamation, though no evidence suggests any effort was made to publish it in JS’s lifetime.
When Thomas Bullock filed the proclamation featured here, he wrote on the document that it was created “about, 1842,” but that appears to be a mistake.
Richards wrote the title of the proclamation and a few sentences about it on the verso of a 22 December 1841 revelation appointing John Snider to raise funds for the construction of the Nauvootemple and the Nauvoo House, which the 19 January 1841 revelation commanded to be built. (See Revelation, [Nauvoo, IL], ca. 22 Dec. 1841, Revelations Collection, CHL.)
In April 1845, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles published a sixteen-page proclamation that was far more expansive and wide-ranging than JS’s 1841 proclamation. (Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-day Saints [New York: Prophet Office, 1845].)
[Pratt, Parley P.] Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-Day Saints. New York: Samuel Brannan and Parley P. Pratt, 1845.
Page 2
or th[e] pearls of princes— it will confer upon you an excellence unsurpassed, a glory which you never knew. “God came from Teman, and the Holy one from mount Paran;” and, as his glory covered the heavens, so now will it environ the earth, and illumine the holy city, until all the obedient shall bask in the rejoice in the brightness of his coming, and bask in the sun-shine of God’s benignity. Hasten then to ! and contribute to the erection of temples, sanctuaries, and palaces, such as this world never saw— decorated with gold and pearls, and precious stones, with their walls finished with th[e] pencil of Raphahel, decorated with gold, and pearls, and precious stones, beautified by the finger of God. Tho’ your minds are yet darkened, and your eyes dim of sight, by the traditions, superstitions, and follies of the age, imposed upon you by the Papal See, and hierarchy, of Rome; th[e] Patriarch, and council ecclesiastical council, of Constantinople; and th[e] priesthood of th[e] protestant sects; the God of heaven addresses you as intelligent beings, and directs you to come out from among them, that you may become the elite of the kingdom— bright, and shining lights in your Father’s house. [p. 2]
The “pencil of Raphahel” likely refers to the sketches of Italian artist Raphael that were used in nineteenth-century art instruction or art history books. The phrase was also used colloquially and poetically to describe beautiful artwork. (Ralph, School of Raphael, 34; Orloff, “Painters and Paintings of Italy,” 157; “Carton VII. Paul Preaching at Athens,” in Cartons of Raphael D’Urbino, [37]; “John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 18 July 1794,” in Hogan et al., Adams Family Correspondence, 10:211–214; D. L. I. Hillhouse, “The Beggar of Florence,” New-York Weekly Whig, 3 Aug. 1839, 177.)
Ralph, Benjamin. The School of Raphael; or, The Student's Guide to Expression in Historical Painting. . . . London: John Boydell, 1825.
Orloff, Gregoire. “The Painters and Paintings of Italy.” In Greenbank’s Periodical Library, containing in the Cheapest Possible Form, a Republication of New and Standard Works, 145–164. Vol. 3. Philadelphia: T. K. Greenbank, 1833.
The Cartons of Raphael D’Urbino, Viz., 1. The Miraculous Draught of Fishes. 2. Christ’s Charge to Peter . . . . London: Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, 1809.
Hogan, Margaret A., C. James Taylor, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, Sara B. Sikes, Gregg L. Lint, and Sara Georgini, eds. Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 10: January 1794–June 1795. Vol. 10 of the Adams Family Correspondence series of The Adams Papers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.
The Book of Mormon tells of “writing which was upon the wall of the temple, which was written by the finger of God.” (Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., 242 [Alma 10:2].)
The “Papal See” or “Holy See” denotes the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome. (“Holy See,” in Modern Catholic Encyclopedia, 391.)
The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia. Edited by Michael Glazier and Monika K. Hellwig. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1994.
The “Patriarch” likely refers to the president or presiding authority of the Eastern Orthodox church. The First Council of Constantinople was held in 381 AD, and the Nicene Creed was amended and ratified at the council. (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1:710; 11:549; Ayres, Nicaea and Its Legacy, 254–255.)
The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church. Edited by Charles G. Herbermann, Edward A. Pace, Condé B. Pallen, Thomas J. Shahan, and John J. Wynne. 15 vols. New York: Robert Appleton, 1907–1914.
Ayres, Lewis. Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Fluhman, J. Spencer. “A Peculiar People”: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012.