page_title: History of the Latter Day Saint movement
section_title: Movement in Illinois
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Latter Day Saint movement / Leadership of Joseph Smith / Movement in Illinois
caption_attribution_description: Depiction of Joseph Smith at head of the Nauvoo Legion. Notice Nauvoo Temple in the background.
context_page_description: The Latter Day Saint movement is a religious movement within Christianity that arose during the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century and that led to the set of doctrines, practices, and cultures called Mormonism, and to the existence of numerous Latter Day Saint churches. Its history is characterized by intense controversy and persecution in reaction to some of the movement's doctrines and practices and their relationship to mainstream Christianity. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of the different groups, beliefs, and denominations that began with the influence of Joseph Smith.
  The founder of the Latter Day Saint movement was Joseph Smith, who was raised in the burned-over district of Upstate New York, and claimed that, in response to prayer, he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ, as well as angels and other visions. This eventually led him to a restoration of Christian doctrine that, he said, was lost after the early Christian apostles were killed. In addition, several early leaders made marked doctrinal and leadership contributions to the movement, including Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Brigham Young.
context_section_description: With the help of sympathetic non-Mormons in Illinois, in the spring of 1839 the Latter Day Saint refugees regrouped and began to establish a new headquarters in Nauvoo.  Smith and other leaders were allowed after several months of harsh treatment to escape Missourian custody, and they rejoined the main body of the movement in April, 1839.  In 1841, construction began on a new temple, significantly more elaborate than the one left behind in Kirtland.  The Nauvoo city charter authorized independent municipal courts, the foundation of a university and the establishment of a militia unit known as the "Nauvoo Legion."  These and other institutions gave the Latter Day Saints a considerable degree of autonomy.
  Nauvoo saw the final flowering of Joseph Smith's vision for the movement, including some of Mormonism's more controversial practices.  It was here that Smith introduced Baptism for the dead, Rebaptism, the Nauvoo-era Endowment, and the ordinance of the Second Anointing.  In addition, he created a new inner council of the church — containing both men and women — called the Anointed Quorum.  Although, according to some reports, Smith himself had been secretly practicing what he later called plural marriage for some time, in Nauvoo he began to teach other leaders the doctrine.
  In March 1844, Smith was said by William Law to have organized a secret council of the church called the "Council of the Kingdom".  Practices of this council included acclaiming Joseph Smith as "Prophet, Priest, and King" in addition to polygamy.  These secrets were threatened to be released in a newspaper called the Nauvoo Expositor. Smith, acting in his capacity as mayor and head of the municipal court, responded by having the newspaper declared a "public nuisance" and by ordering the destruction of the press.
caption: Joseph Smith marshalling the Nauvoo Legion
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