1. Donna Toland Smart, Mormon Midwife: The 1846–1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions, Life Writings of Frontier Women, vol. 2 (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997), 102–3.

2. Charles M. Hatch and Todd M. Compton, eds., A Widow’s Tale: The 1884–1896 Diary of Helen Mar Kimball Whitney, Life Writings of Frontier Women, vol. 6 (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2003), 537 (March 30, 1893). Whitney noted that there were also two baby blessings.

3. Orson F. Whitney, Diary (August 1, 1877, to September 6, 1877), COLL MSS 188, box 6, fd. 19, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan, Utah.

4. D. Michael Quinn first documented these forms of baptism in his “The Practice of Rebaptism at Nauvoo,” BYU Studies 18, no. 2 (April 1978): 226–32. In contrast to Quinn, we have not found any evidence for rebaptism for the renewal of covenants until after the Nauvoo period.

5. Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine L. Wright, “‘They Shall Be Made Whole’: A History of Baptism for Health,” Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 4 (Fall 2008): 69–112.

6. “Appendix 3: ‘Articles of the Church of Christ,’ June 1829,” [3], Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 7, 2022.

7. “Articles and Covenants, circa April 1830 [D&C 20],” [4], Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 7, 2022.

8. Ryan Tobler, “‘Saviors on Mount Zion’: Mormon Sacramentalism, Mortality, and the Baptism for the Dead,” Journal of Mormon History 39, no. 4 (Fall 2013): 207–10.

9. For the history of this practice, see Lynn Mills and Nicholas J. Moore, “One Baptism Once: The Origins of the Unrepeatability of Christian Baptism,” Early Christianity 11, no. 2 (2020): 206–26.

10. Bryan D. Spinks, Reformation and Modern Rituals and Theologies of Baptism: From Luther to Contemporary Practices (London and New York: Routledge, 2017), 83–100.

11. Early on, John Wesley argued that valid baptism necessarily was performed by the episcopally ordained. He grew to accept lay baptism, and Methodists more broadly followed. Karen B. Westerfield Tucker, American Methodist Worship (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 84–85, 93–94. See also E. Brooks Holifield, The Covenant Sealed: The Development of Puritan Sacramental Theology in Old and New England, 1570–1720 (1974; Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, 2002), 66–69.

12. For excellent context and analysis of this debate as it played out between Methodists, Baptists, and Latter-day Saints, see Christopher C. Jones, “Mormonism in the Methodist Marketplace: James Covel and the Historical Background of Doctrine and Covenants 39–40,” BYU Studies Quarterly 51, no. 1 (2012): 86–90. It should also be noted that lay believers did sometimes seek out rebaptism despite institutional rejections. Baptists sometimes had their babies baptized, hoping that they would be baptized again as adults, and sometimes people baptized as infants sought baptism as adults. Jones, “Mormonism in the Methodist Marketplace,” 86–90; Janet Moore Lindman, Bodies of Belief: Baptist Community in Early America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), 117; William Pitts, The Gospel Witness (Catskill, N.Y.: Junius S. Lewis, 1818), 83, microfiche, 080 Sh64a 45343, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah (hereafter cited as HBLL).

13. Thomas Campbell, “The Mormon Challenge,” Painesville Telegraph (February 15, 1831), [2]. There are, of course exceptions to this broad consensus. English Separatist John Smyth rejected the sacraments of the Anglican church and was rebaptized. Holifield, Covenant Sealed, 66. In 1848, the German Baptist Brethren in the U.S. reaffirmed, in response to questions about accepting credobaptist converts into the church, that “it would be better to admit no person into the church, without first being baptized by the brethren.” Minutes of the Annual Meetings of the Brethren (n.p.: n.p., 1886), 124; Carl F. Bowman, Brethren Society: The Cultural Transformation of a “Peculiar People” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 212–17.

14. The Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, Now by Authority of Parliament Sitting at Westminster, Concerning a Confession of Faith: With the Quotations and Texts of Scriptures Annexed (London: Evan Tyler, 1647), 49.

15. For examples of such views, see Holifield, Covenant Sealed, 14, 26, 51, 76–77, 89, 96–98, 142–45, 151, 172–73. On Protestant covenant theology more broadly, see Guy Prentiss Waters, J. Nicholas Reid, and John R. Muether, eds., Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Perspectives (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2020).

16. “Revelation, 16 April 1830 [D&C 22],” [4], Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 9, 2022.

17. Eleven years later, Joseph Smith recognized “sectarian” objections to Latter-day Saints not accepting other Christians’ baptisms, saying that it would be like putting old wine in new bottles. “Minutes of a Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Held in Nauvoo, Ill., Commencing Oct. 1, 1841,” Times and Seasons (October 15, 1841), 578. On ordination, see “Revelation, 9 December 1830 [D&C 36],” 48–49, Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 9, 2022.

18. Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, eds., The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831–1836 (Provo, Utah: BYU Studies; Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 133, 135–36.

19. For an example document that includes all three terms, see “Letter to Wilford Woodruff, circa 18 June 1838,” [4], Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 9, 2022. Occasionally members were also “excludid from the church.” George Burket, journal, September 28, 1835, MS 10340, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City (hereafter cited as CHL). On Latter-day Saint discipline and context, see Nathan B. Oman, “Preaching to the Court House and Judging in the Temple,” BYU Law Review 2009, no. 1 (2009): 157–224.

20. Joseph Smith, in “Revelation, 2 January 1831 [D&C 38],” [51], Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 9, 2022. (Note as well the changes introduced in the 1833 printing.) See also “Revelation, 30 August 1831 [D&C 63],” Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 9, 2022.

21. “Letter to William W. Phelps, 27 November 1832,” 3, Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 9, 2022.

22. Jonathan A. Stapley, Power of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 60–61. This exclusivity was tempered by developing Latter-day Saint universalism.

23. Hyrum Smith, Diary, November 29, 1832, and January 20, 1833, MSS 774, series 1, box 1, fd. 4–6, Special Collections Miscellaneous, Digital Collections, HBLL. On antecedent ideas of baptism and the visible church, see Holifield, Covenant Sealed, 42–43, 96–98.

24. See, for example, Vermillion Branch Conference Minutes, 1832 November to 1833 July, March 18, 1833, LR 5552 21, CHL; “Letter to J. G. Fosdick, 3 February 1834,” [23–24], Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 9, 2022; Orson Hyde, Ein Ruf aus der Wüste (Frankfurt: n.p. 1842), 75. Jonathan Green published an English translation of the latter: “Ein Ruf aus der Wüste 4.8: Orson Hyde on Confession and Disfellowship,” Times and Seasons (blog), March 28, 2021, https://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2021/03/einf-ruf-aus-der-wuste-4-8-orsond-hyde-on-confession-and-disfellowship.

25. Shipps and Welch, Journals of William E. McLellin, 133, 136.

26. For example, on September 27, 1835, Edward Partridge rebaptized a penitent man “who had once belonged to the church, & had been an elder, but had withdrawn from the church.” Edward Partridge, Diary, September 27, 1835, MS 892, CHL.

27. Freedom [Illinois] Branch Conference Minutes, July 20, 1843, Historian’s Office Minutes and Reports (Local Units), 1840–1886, CR 100 589, CHL. These minutes also indicate that Davis was “restored to his former standing” during the reconfirmation.

28. See, for example, “Minutes, 30 January 1836,” [137], Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 9, 2022.

29. Salmon River Mission Journal, March 8 and 9, 1856, MS 4955, CHL.

30. Robert Glass Cleland and Juanita Brooks, eds., A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848–1876, 2 vols. (1955; Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1983), 2:22. See also the case of two men who were tried by the ward for unruly conduct, with the verdict that they “repent of their sins be rebaptized forthwith and make a satisfactory confession to the brethren and sisters of the ward or be cut off from the church.” Tenth Ward General Minutes, 1849–1977, vol. 6, 1849–1866, October 28, 1853, LR 9051 11, CHL.

31. Donald G. Godfrey and Brigham Y. Card, eds., The Diaries of Charles Ora Card: The Canadian Years 1886–1903 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993), 180–81 (March 14, 1891).

32. William B. Smart, Mormonism’s Last Colonizer: The Life and Times of William H. Smart (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2008), 63, 67.

33. Stapley, Power of Godliness, 54–55.

34. General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2020), 32.11.4; Larry D. Curtis, “After Changes to Handbook Terminology, LDS Church Members No Longer ‘Excommunicated,’” KUTV, February 19, 2020.

35. Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1855–86), 18:241 (June 23, 1874). No manuscript or shorthand version of this sermon is extant.

36. Oliver H. Olney, The Absurdities of Mormonism Portrayed (n.p., 1843), 8.

37. William Clayton, Diary, April 8 and May 9, 1841, MSS 47, Mormon Missionary Diaries, Digital Collections, HBLL; William Huntington, Journal, April 11 and 27, 1841 [p. 41], holograph, MSS 272, HBLL; Franklin D. Richards, Journals, typescript, April 11–May 2, 1841, holograph, MS 1215, CHL. Baptism for the dead records from this early period do note several cases of “first baptisms” and rebaptisms interspersed with the baptisms for the dead. See Nauvoo Baptisms for the Dead in the Mississippi River, 5, 11, 14, 38, 63, and 85, document 227681, FamilySearch Library, accessed September 9, 2022; Correspondence Baltimore Patriot, “Nauvoo,” New-York Spectator (August 23, 1843), 4.

38. Holifield, Covenant Sealed, 5; Westerfield Tucker, American Methodist Worship, 90–93, 105–6; David W. Bebbington, Baptists through the Centuries: A History of a Global People (Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2010), 188–89; Thomas L. Humphries Jr., “St. Augustine of Hippo,” in Christian Theologies of the Sacraments: A Comparative Introduction, ed. Justin S. Holcomb and David A. Johnson (New York: New York University Press, 2017), 49–50.

39. Luke 3:3; Acts 2:38; Moroni 8:11; “Revelation, circa Summer 1829 [D&C 19],” 42, Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 9, 2022; “Revelation, 7 May 1831 [D&C 49],” 82, Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 9, 2022; “Revelation, 14 June 1831 [D&C 55],” 91, Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 9, 2022. On Baptists, see Minutes of the Annual Meetings of the Brethren, 56–57, 123, 207, 219, 226; E. Brooks Holifield, Theology in America: Christian Thought from the Age of the Puritans to the Civil War (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003), 290, 299, 303–4. Some contemporaneous observers suggested that Smith was borrowing this emphasis from the Campbellites. “Candor,” letter to the editors, Christian Advocate and Journal, March 6, 1840, 115. For antecedent debates, see Holifield, Covenant Sealed, 80. It appears that the Reformed Methodists may also have advocated for baptism for the remission of sins. Pitts, Gospel Witness, 74. The remission of sins was included in prayers during the early Methodist baptism liturgy, but they were later removed. Westerfield Tucker, American Methodist Worship, 87, 92, 106.

40. “Church History,” Times and Seasons (March 1, 1842), 709. Smith frequently preached on faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, and the Holy Ghost in Nauvoo.

41. Wilford Woodruff, The Wilford Woodruff Journals, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Benchmark Books, 2020), 1:499 (March 20, 1842), braces in original.

42. Woodruff, Journals, 1:500 (March 27, 1842).

43. “Revelation, 27 July 1842, in Unidentified Handwriting–A,” [2], Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 15, 2022.

44. Woodruff, Journals, 1:483 (November 21, 1841).

45. “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons 3, no. 12 (April 15, 1842): 763.

46. Woodruff, Journals, 1:506 (May 15, 1842).

47. Woodruff, Journals, 2:133 (August 8, 1846).

48. For example, Bathsheba W. Bigler Smith, Diary, June 29 and September 2, 1849, MS 36, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City; John Oakley, Journal, June 19, 1856, microfilm of holograph, MS 1996, CHL.

49. At least some early missionaries were rebaptized before being blessed and set apart, while others were rebaptized when they arrived in their service areas. Juanita Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1844–1861, vol. 2 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1964), 454 (October 16, 1852); Las Vegas Mission Record Book, June 3, 1855, LR 5691 21, CHL; Salmon River Mission Journal, July 8, 1855, and May 18, 1856. For examples of rebaptism for the remission of sins in the Pacific Islands, see George Q. Cannon, Journal, April 19, 1851, and May 28, 1852, The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian’s Press, accessed September 7, 2022; S. George Ellsworth, ed., The History of Louisa Barnes Pratt: Mormon Missionary Widow and Pioneer, Life Writings of Frontier Women, vol. 3 (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1998), 144; Edward Leo Lyman, Susan Ward Payne and S. George Ellsworth, eds., No Place to Call Home: The 1807–1857 Life Writings of Caroline Barnes Crosby, Chronicler of Outlying Mormon Communities, Life Writings of Frontier Women, vol. 7 (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2005), 134. For examples in Britain after 1847, see Cheltenham Conference Historical Record, 1850–1855, 9, 12, 15, 19, 22, holograph, LR 1631 21, CHL; Glasgow Conference General Minutes, 1840–1856, 1840–1846, pp. 175–81, holograph, LR 3194 11, CHL.

50. Many of the rebaptisms in the first decades in the Great Basin are documented in “Historian’s Office Rebaptism Records, 1848–1876,” holograph, CR 100 591, CHL.

51. Data drawn from “Report of the Bishops,” Deseret News, October 15, 1853, 179. Note that this report does not distinguish between modes of rebaptism.

52. “Young Women Values,” Young Women Special Issue [New Era] (November 1985): 27. See also Janice Kapp Perry, “I Walk in Faith,” Young Women Special Issue [New Era] (November 1985): 14–15. For more information on the development of these values and the Young Women’s program introduced in 1985, see the forthcoming history of Young Women to be published by the Church Historian’s Press in 2024.

53. See Scott W. Hahn, Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to a Fulfillment of God’s Saving Promises (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2009), 1–33.

54. See T. Benjamin Spackman, “The Israelite Roots of Atonement Terminology,” BYU Studies Quarterly 55, no. 1 (2016): 39–64.

55. See Terryl L. Givens, Feeding the Flock: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Church and Praxis (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 14–44; Nathan B. Oman and Jonathan A. Stapley, “Covenant without Contract,” book chapter forthcoming. Note that Givens perhaps simplifies Reformed covenant theology, which views God’s covenant of grace in place throughout human history. See Waters, Reid, and Muether, Covenant Theology.

56. Samuel M. Brown, “Early Mormon Adoption Theology and the Mechanics of Salvation,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 3 (Summer 2011): 3–52.

57. See, for example, A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Europe (Manchester: W. R. Thomas, 1840), nos. 160, 162, 166.

58. Archibald Mason, Observation of the Public Covenants, betwixt God and the Church: A Discourse (Glasgow: E. Miller, 1799), 14. Note that some in these groups also militated against such covenants of duty. See also David A. Weir, Early New England: A Covenanted Society (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005).

59. “Minutes, 9 June 1830,” 1, Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 15, 2022.

60. P. Brady Leigh, An Abridgement of the Law of Nisi Prius, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: P. H. Nicklin and T. Johnson, 1838), 602; Sir John Baker, An Introduction to English Legal History, 5th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 339.

61. Oman and Stapley, “Covenant without Contract.”

62. “Agreement with Isaac Hale, 6 April 1829,” [1], Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 15, 2022. See also “Lease to Willard Richards, 4 January 1842,” Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 27, 2022; “Lease to John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, between 8 and 10 December 1842,” Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 27, 2022.

63. Henry Moore, The Life of Mrs. Mary Fletcher, Consort and Relict of the Rev. John Fletcher (New York: J. Kershaw, 1824), 119; William O. Booth, “Memoir of William Fishwick, Esq., of Long-Holme,” Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine (July 1842): 548; M. M. Henkle, The Life of Henry Bidleman Bascom, D.D., LL.D., Late Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (Louisville: Morton and Griswold, 1854), 53. In 1827, Methodist Henry Tarrant created and signed “in the presence of God” a written covenant that delineated his relationship to God, including several promises and commitments. W. Frith, “Memoir of the Later Rev. Henry Tarrant,” Wesleyan Methodist Magazine (October 1845): 418–20. Two examples that are illustrative of how legal terminology was appropriated for religious promises among Latter-day Saints are the deeds of consecration used in the early Zion period of Missouri and Wilford Woodruff’s written consecration of property before he left on a mission on the last day of 1834. The early deeds were legal agreements and covenants between individuals and Edward Partridge to transfer property. Levi Jackman, Deeds of Consecration and Stewardship, MS 3103, CHL. Woodruff’s document is a religious declaration that he did “freely covenant with my God that I freely consecrate and dedicate myself together with all my properties and affects unto the Lord.” Woodruff, Journals, 1:28 (December 31, 1834).

64. “Covenant of Oliver Cowdery and Others, 17 October 1830,” [1], Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 15, 2022.

65. They then repeated the covenant a few weeks later with the Quorum of the Twelve. “Journal, 1835–1836,” 96, 124, Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 15, 2022. See also “Revelation, 26 April 1832 [D&C 82],” 129, Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 15, 2022; “Covenant, 29 November 1834,” 87–89, Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 15, 2022.

66. Hyrum Smith, Diary, April 1, 1833.

67. Kirtland Camp Constitution and Journal, 1838 March–October, July 8, 1838, holograph, MS 4952, CHL.

68. Freedom Branch Conference Minutes, July 20, 1843. See also Freedom Branch Conference Minutes, September 3 and 4, 1843, holograph, CHL.

69. “Revelation, 27 July 1842,” Joseph Smith Papers, accessed September 15, 2022. Marriage was inherently relationship-based, and “covenant” is seen in at least one other tradition at this time, albeit associated with and not in lieu of “promise.” The Presbyterian marriage liturgy required that the bride and groom both “promise and covenant, in the presence of God and of these witnesses.” The Constitution and Standards of the Associate-Reformed Church in North America (Salem, N.Y.: Dodd and Stevenson), 1827), 452. This formulation dates back the seventeenth century. See The History of Non-conformity, as It Was Argued and Stated by Commissioners on Both Sides, in 1661 (London: B. Braggs, 1704), 110.

70. Holifield, Covenant Sealed, 5–15, 41–42, 149, 177; Westerfield Tucker, American Methodist Worship, 88. Note that some theologians also dissented from this view.

71. See Anne S. Brown and David D. Hall, “Family Strategies and Religious Practice: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in Early New England,” in Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice, ed. David D. Hall (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 41–68. For a more detailed study, see Anne Speerschneider Brown, “‘Bound up in a Bundle of Life’: The Social Meaning of Religious Practice in Northeastern Massachusetts, 1700–1765” (PhD diss., Boston University, 1995).

72. John Brown, Solemn Covenanting with God, One of the Best Means to Prevent Fatal Declensions (Boston: n.p., 1728), 19, 30, microfiche, 080 Sh64 3001, HBLL.

73. Thomas Bray, A Short Discourse upon the Doctrine of our Baptismal Covenant, Being an Exposition upon the Preliminary Questions and Answers of Our Church-Catechism (London: E. Holt, 1697), 11, 29; Brown, Solemn Covenanting with God, 7–8.

74. Westerfield Tucker, American Methodist Worship, 67–69, 77–80. The contemporary liturgy to renew the baptismal covenant is available in The General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, The Services of the Baptismal Covenant in the United Methodist Church: As Revisited to Align with the 2008 Book of Discipline and Book of Resolutions (Nashville, Tenn.: United Methodist Publishing House, 2009). See also Book of Common Worship (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993), 431–90.

75. The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacrament, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the Use of the United Church of England and Ireland (Oxford: W. Baxter, 1824), 678–79. For the Methodist vows, see The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church (New York: T. Kirk, 1804), 170.

76. Hughes Oliphant Old, The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite in the Sixteenth Century (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 201–26. Though many Reformed traditions moved away from the formal vows, Baptist Morgan J. Edwards wrote that baptism was for “those who vow obedience and holiness in a subjection to the gospel.” Morgan J. Edwards, Customs of Primitive Churches (Philadelphia: n.p., 1768), 80, microfiche, 080 Sh64 10891, HBLL.

77. Book of Common Prayer, 546, 556.

78. Editor, “For, for This Cause,” The Latter-day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate 3, no. 6 (March 1837): 470. For similar examples, see also Zebedee Coltrin, Diary, December 14, 1832, holograph, MS 1443, CHL; W. A. Cowdery, editorial, The Latter-day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate 3, no. 8 (May 1837): 508; Hyrum Smith, “Communications,” Times and Seasons 1, no. 2 (December 1839): 20; R. B. Thompson, “Communications,” Times and Seasons 1, no. 10 (August 1840): 151; J. Blakesley, “Communications,” Times and Seasons 1, no. 12 (October 1840): 179; “Highly Interesting from Jerusalem,” Times and Seasons 3, no. 15 (June 1, 1842): 805; Collection of Sacred Hymns, no. 165; “Great Discussion on Mormonism between Dr. West and Elder Adams, at the Marlboro Chapel,” Times and Seasons 3, no. 19 (August 1, 1842): 864; “Mormonism, a Heresy,” Times and Seasons 4, no. 14 (June 1, 1843): 211; “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons 4, no. 15 (June 15, 1843): 238.

79. Levi B. Wilder, letter, February 15, 1835, quoted in “A Summary,” Latter-day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate 1, no. 5 (February 1835): 76. See also Scott H. Partridge, ed., Thirteenth Apostle: The Diaries of Amasa M. Lyman, 1832–1877 (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2016), 14–15 (February 3, 1834); Erastus Snow, Journal, November 1836, holograph, MS 1329, CHL.

80. Methodists in particular described baptism as a sign of grace but also as entrance into the visible church. Westerfield Tucker, American Methodist Worship, 87–89.

81. Today, Church members often point to Mosiah 18, a Book of Mormon passage that describes an ancient prophet, Alma, teaching about the covenant that initiates witness when entering the waters of baptism. When Latter-day Saints talked about baptism during Joseph Smith’s lifetime, they did not frame their discussion in light of that passage, and the use of Mosiah 18 to understand the baptismal covenant occurred in several stages over decades during the Utah era. This shift is documented and analyzed in the forthcoming history of the Lord’s Supper by Jonathan Stapley, David Grua, and Justin Bray.

82. Will Bagley, ed., The Pioneer Camp of the Saints: The 1846 and 1847 Mormon Trail Journals of Thomas Bullock (Spokane, Wash.: Arthur H. Clark, 1997), 171 (May 29, 1847). See also Camp Assembly Minutes, Platte River, May 29, 1847, digital images of manuscripts, CR 100 318, Historian’s Office General Church Minutes, 1839–1877, CHL; Albert P. Rockwood, Journals, 1847–1853, May 29, 1847, digital images of holograph, MS 1449, CHL. This renewal most certainly included the covenantal responsibilities outlined in D&C 136:1–4.

83. Woodruff, Journals, 2:237–40 (August 5–8, 1847), brackets in original. See also William Clayton, Diary, August 7, 1847, digital images of holograph, MS 1406, CHL; Ronald O. Barney, ed., The Mormon Vanguard Brigade of 1847: Norton Jacob’s Record (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2005), 238 (August 8, 1847); George A. Smith, Journal and Autobiography, 1845–1847, 1870, p. 252, August 6–8, 1847, digital images of manuscript, MS 30882, CHL.

84. George Reynolds to Arthur Eroppe, March 9, 1888, First Presidency Letterpress Copybook, CR 1 20, CHL. Groups outside of the Great Basin also recommitted themselves through rebaptism during this period. See, for example, Pennsylvania District General Minutes, 1885–1901, vol. 1, 1885–1897, June 12 and 19, 1881, digital images of manuscript, pp. 11–13, LR 17691 11, CHL.

85. Provo Utah Central Stake General Minutes, 1849–1977, vol. 10, 1855–1860, August 12, 1855; September 30, 1855; and December 2, 1855, digital images of manuscript, LR 9629 11, CHL.

86. See, for example, Bagley, Pioneer Camp of the Saints, 264 (August 22, 1847); Woodruff, Journals, 2:433 (July 10, 1850).

87. Erastus Snow to Brigham Young, September 21, 1854, digital images of manuscript, Brigham Young Office Files, box 42, fd. 14, CHL.

88. Stephen C. Taysom, Shakers, Mormons, and Religious Worlds: Conflicting Visions, Contested Boundaries (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011), 101–52; Paul H. Peterson, “The Mormon Reformation of 1856–1857: The Rhetoric and the Reality,” Journal of Mormon History 15 (1989): 59–87.

89. Brigham Young to George A. Smith, January 26, 1857; Brigham Young to John Taylor, January 26, 1857; and Brigham Young to Orson Pratt, January 27, 1857; all in Letterbook 3, 1856 August 20–1858 January 6, pp. 332, 342–46, and 326–27, respectively, Brigham Young Office Files.

90. Presiding Bishopric, Minutes of Bishops’ Meetings, 1851–1862, September 30, 1856, digital images of manuscripts, CR 4 2, box 1, fd. 3, CHL.

91. Woodruff, Journals, 3:55–57 (October 2, 1856); Brigham Young to Silas Smith, October 4, 1856, Letterbook 3, p. 97.

92. Brigham Young to Thomas S. Smith, October 7, 1856, Letterbook 3, pp. 107–10.

93. The Salt Lake Eighth Ward record is exemplary of a ward preparing for months and then being rebaptized together. Eighth Ward General Minutes, 1856–1976, vol. 5, entries between October 1, 1856, and March 7, 1857, digital images of manuscript, LR 2525 11, CHL.

94. Salmon River Mission Journal, November 6, 9, and 16, 1856.

95. Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich to Brigham Young, January 7, 1857, Brigham Young Office Files; San Bernardino Branch Journal, 1856 July–1857 December, November 2 and 30 and December 14–20, 1856, digital images of manuscript, LR 1594 22, CHL.

96. Brigham Young to Erastus Snow, October 31, 1856, Letterbook 3, pp. 158–63; Erastus Snow to Brigham Young, April 25, 1857, Brigham Young Office Files. Snow presented the contents of this letter to a special meeting in St. Louis on January 7, 1857, at which meeting a baptismal font was dedicated. Snow was the first to be baptized, after which he baptized those in attendance. Saint Louis Stake Record of Members, 1856–1862, 3, digital images of manuscript, LR 12388 7, CHL. Subsequent pages record the rebaptisms of hundreds of members.

97. John Taylor to Brigham Young, February 24, 1857, Brigham Young Office Files.

98. Brigham Young to Orson Pratt, October 30, 1856, and January 27, 1857, Letterbook 3, pp. 139–48, Brigham Young Office Files; Ezra T. Benson to Brigham Young, March 26, 1857, Brigham Young Office Files; Charles W. Penrose, Journals, February 25, 1857, MS 8911, CHL; Griffith Roberts, Reminiscences and diary, typescript, 18–19 (March 1857), MS 16760, CHL.

99. South Africa Mission General Minutes, 1853–1951, July 26, 1857, LR 8452 11, CHL.

100. American Fork Ward Historical Record, 1851–1883, October 21, 1856, LR 10636 22, CHL.

101. Provo Utah Central Stake General Minutes, 1849–1977, vol. 10, October 16, 1856. Another leader also suggested that Church members, all of whom voted to be rebaptized, wash themselves before being baptized so that they could be rebaptized “with clean hearts as well as Clean bodies.” Provo Utah Central Stake General Minutes, 1849–1977, October 12, 1856.

102. German Baptist Brethren in the United States during this time similarly included the purpose of the baptism in the prayer, namely “for the remission of sins.” Minutes of the Annual Meetings of the Brethren, 190.

103. Heber C. Kimball, in Journal of Discourses, 5:203 (October 12, 1856). See also George Q. Cannon, “Editorial Thoughts: The Armies of the World,” Juvenile Instructor 27, no. 7 (April 1, 1892): 217; School of the Prophets Salt Lake City Records, 1872–1874, March 3, 1873, digital images of manuscripts, CR 390 7, CHL.

104. Brigham Young to William Jefferies, January 6, 1870, Brigham Young Office Files. This letter was in response to William Jefferies to Brigham Young, December 30, 1869, Brigham Young Office Files.

105. John Taylor, sermon, October 7, 1864, transcription from George D. Watt’s shorthand by LaJean Purcell Carruth, digital images of transcript, CHL.

106. For example, a newly called bishop had his whole ward rebaptized for the renewal of their covenants in 1877 in an effort to unify them. Samaria Ward General Minutes, 1868–1973, November 23 and 27, 1877, LR 7849 11, CHL; George Dunford, Reminiscences and journal, 1879–1890, p. 91, MS 1722, CHL. The Gunlock Ward in the St. George Stake formed a Y.M.M.I.A. in 1879 and rebaptized those who joined. Gunlock Ward General Minutes, Book A, pp. 16–19, LR 3512 11, fd. 8, CHL.

107. Beaver Stake General Minutes, July 26, 1877, 1:10–11, LR 596 11, CHL. In the following month nearly every member of the stake was rebaptized. Beaver Stake General Minutes, vol. 1, September 29, 1877; October 27, 1877.

108. Belfast Branch General Minutes, 1868–1960, vol. 3, May 10, 1868, LR 615 11, CHL.

109. School of the Prophets Salt Lake City Records, January 20, 1873.

110. John Taylor to Angus M. Cannon, November 15, 1877, First Presidency Letterpress Copybook. Cannon disseminated this policy in priesthood meeting minutes, November 5, 1881, Salt Lake Stake General Minutes, 1869–1977, vol. 3, LR 604 11, CHL. For an example of rebaptism performed before endowments in the 1850s, see Donald G. Godfrey and Rebecca S. Martineau-McCarty, eds., An Uncommon Common Pioneer: The Journals of James Henry Martineau, 1828–1918 (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2008), 28 (February 5 and 20, 1854); and Woodruff, Journal, 4:407–8 (March 17–18, 1856).

111. John M. Whitaker, “Daily Journal of John M. Whitaker,” 3 vols., 1:73, photocopy, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, HBLL. Compare LaJean Purcell’s transcript of Whitaker’s original shorthand diary, September 17, 1886, John Mills Whitaker Papers, 1847–1963, MS 2, box 42, fds. 5 and 6, Marriott Library: “Brother James Letham took us in, gave us a separate Room, I took Ezra’s bathing and Ida has her own suit and I was baptized (after a word of prayer) first and then Ida followed and the Lord please see and forgive us our sins.”

112. Joseph F. Smith to O. G. Snow, November 18, 1881, Joseph F. Smith Papers, digital images of Letterpress Copybook, MS 1325, CHL. See also Beaver Stake General Minutes, December 2, 1881, LR 596 11, CHL.

113. Samuel Roskelley, Holograph record book, 14, Samuel Roskelley Papers, MS 65, box 1, book 1, Merrill-Cazier Library.

114. “Rules That Should Be Observed by Members of the United Order,” in Articles of Association, M243.1 C561a 1874, CHL.

115. Orderville United Order History, 1873–1911, July 11, 1875, p. 53, digital images of manuscript, LR 6543 29, CHL.

116. Levi Mathers Savage, Journal of Levi Mathers Savage (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Extension Division, 1955), 15.

117. A. Karl Larson and Katherine Miles Larson, eds., Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, 2 vols. (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1980), 1:413–14.

118. Brigham Young Jr., Journal, June 27, 1875, Brigham Young Jr. Journals and Papers, 1862–1902, vol. 16, MS 1236, CHL. This conforms to the version recorded in Logan Temple Letterpress Copybook, CR 308 5, fd. 2, 157, CHL, quoted in Richard E. Bennett, Temples Rising: A Heritage of Sacrifice (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2019), 200 n. 14.

119. See, for example, Cannon, Journal, August 31, 1875.

120. James M. Peterson, Diary, July 1, 1875, MSS 3870, Special Collections Miscellaneous 2, Digital Collections, HBLL.

121. Cedar Ward Aaronic Priesthood Minutes and Records, 1875–1904, Teachers Quorum Minutes, September 5 and 10, 1875, LR 1514 12, item 5, CHL.

122. See Leonard J. Arrington, Feramorz Y. Fox, and Dean L. May, Building the City of God: Community and Cooperation among the Mormons (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976), 63–78.

123. Nineteenth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Nineteenth Ward Ladies’ Prayer Meetings Minutes, 1873–1879, August 11, 1875, digital images of manuscript, LR 6092 31, CHL.

124. Nineteenth Ward, November 24, 1875.

125. See, for example, Frederick Kesler, Diary, 1874–1877, November 8, 12, 29, and 30 and December 2 and 23, 1875, MS 0049, Pioneer Diaries, Marriott Library.

126. Nineteenth Ward, December 29, 1875.

127. Nineteenth Ward, January 12, 1876.

128. Kesler, Diary, May 23, 1893. He was baptized by Nathaniel Jones. Louisa Lula Greene Richards, “Journal Page 1893 May 23,” digital images of holograph, Louisa Lula Greene Richards Collection, 1852–1940, MS 6554, CHL.

129. Kesler, Diary, January 2, 4, 17, and 19, 1894.

130. John Taylor to Moses Thatcher, September 25, 1877, First Presidency Letterpress Copybook. This rebaptismal prayer was, as Taylor wrote, for “persons who have not been cut off the Church or dealt with for their fellowship.”

131. John Taylor to R. L. Bybee, December 1, 1886, First Presidency Letterpress Copybook. Bybee had written to Taylor, asking, “In rebaptisms should the cerimony in the Doctrine and Covenants be used, or the word ‘Rebaptise’ be used instead of ‘Baptise’?” Robert L. Bybee to John Taylor, November 26, 1886, digital images of holograph, First Presidency (John Taylor) Correspondence, CR 1 180, CHL.

132. John Taylor to John Henry Smith, January 3, 1887, First Presidency Letterpress Copybook. Smith had written to Taylor asking about baptismal prayers, noting that people had asked him and that he seemed to remember Brigham Young advocating for use of the prayer in the Doctrine and Covenants. John Henry Smith to John Taylor, December 30, 1886, digital images of holograph, First Presidency (John Taylor) Correspondence.

133. Cannon, Journal, February 11, 1892.

134. “Important Questions and Answers,” Juvenile Instructor 26, no. 7 (April 1, 1891), 218, reprinted in “Important Questions and Answers,” Millennial Star 53, no. 16 (April 20, 1891), 245.

135. “Editorial Thoughts,” Juvenile Instructor 26, no. 17 (September 1, 1891), 535.

136. Cannon, Journal, September 29, 1891.

137. Edward Leo Lyman, ed., Candid Insights of a Mormon Apostle: The Diaries of Abraham H. Cannon, 1889–1895 (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2010), 273 (November 19, 1891). See Cannon, journal, November 19, 1891.

138. Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, “Female Ritual Healing in Mormonism,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 1 (Winter 2011): 67.

139. Cannon, Journal, December 3, 1891.

140. George Reynolds to Mariner W. Merrill, John D. T. McAllister, and Anthon H. Lund, December 5, 1891, First Presidency Letterpress Copybook. The letter asked for the form of baptizing new Church members, excommunicants, Church members renewing their covenants, and those being baptized for health.

141. Cannon, Journal, February 11, 1892; Lyman, Candid Insights of a Mormon Apostle, 302–3 (February 11, 1892).

142. On October 27, 1892, the president of the Hawaiian Mission instructed the missionaries: “The same prayer should be used in rebaptising as is given for the first baptism. The same rule should also be observed in reconfirmations.” Andrew Jenson, History of the Hawaiian Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (n.p.: n.p., n.d.), 311.

143. Cannon, Journal, November 29, 1893; James E. Talmage, Private journal, November 29, 1893, MSS 229, Special Collections Miscellaneous 2; Lyman, Candid Insights of a Mormon Apostle, 441–42 (November 29, 1893).

144. Minutes of weekly meeting of the First Presidency and Twelve, May 7, 1896, 2–4, in Journal History of the Church, 1830–2008, CR 100 137, CHL; Jean Bickmore Wight, ed., Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1990), 350 (May 8, 1896).

145. Cannon, Journal, May 8, 1896; Journal History of the Church, May 8, 1896; Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Cannon, and Joseph F. Smith to temple presidents, May 20, 1896, First Presidency Circular Letters, CR 1 1, CHL.

146. “Editorial Thoughts,” Juvenile Instructor 27, no. 1 (January 1, 1892): 26–27. This reticence toward easy access to rebaptism was anteceded in Scotland as early as 1850. Glasgow Conference General Minutes, 1840–1856, p. 90, March 31, 1850.

147. Cannon, Journal, April 8, 1892.

148. Stapley, Power of Godliness, 92–93.

149. Talmage, Personal journal, November 29, 1893. See Lyman, Candid Insights of a Mormon Apostle, 441–42 (November 29, 1893). See also Cannon, Journal, November 29, 1893. Talmage had previously documented his own rebaptism upon emigration and his wife, May Talmage’s, baptism for her health in the temple. Talmage, Personal journal, July 12, 1876; and November 3, 1891.

150. Godfrey and Card, Diaries of Charles Ora Card, 286 (April 8, 1895).

151. “Concerning Baptism,” Juvenile Instructor 30, no. 8 (April 15, 1895): 243.

152. J. E. Wilson, Stake Clerk, “Cache Stake Conference,” Deseret Weekly, July 17, 1897, 148.

153. George Q. Cannon, in Sixty-Eighth Semi-annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1897), 68.

154. James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith: A Series of Lectures on the Principal Doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1899), 145, 147.

155. Journal History of the Church, 675, November 18, 1902.

156. Joseph F. Smith, Special Priesthood Meeting of the General Conference, April 8, 1916, in James R. Clark, ed., Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965–75), 5:12. See also the following letters in the First Presidency Letterpress Copybook: to William A. Hyde, October 26, 1916; to John W. Hart, March 17, 1916; to Stephen L. Chipman, June 11, 1915; to Walter P. Monson, May 17, 1915; to William H. Smart, May 5, 1915; to John L. Herrick, November 28, 1913; to Lewis S. Pond, October 30, 1913; to A. Theodore Johnson, June 20, 1913; to James W. LeSueur, September 27, 1912; to William C. Parkinson, September 10, 1912; to Lucius N. Marsden, February 25, 1912; to Reuben G. Miller, March 12, 1910; to German Ellsworth, August 17, 1908; to Nephi Pratt, April 20, 1907; to Edward J. Wood, October 4, 1905; to Morris Peters, June 22, 1905; and to William A. Hyde, February 12, 1904. See also Joseph F. Smith to George J. Walser, August 17, 1914, Joseph F. Smith Stake Correspondence, CR 1 191, box 9, fd. 42, CHL. During Smith’s administration, in some cases, when ward or branch records had been lost or destroyed and there was insufficient evidence of faithful membership, people were also to be rebaptized. Annual Instructions to Presidents of Stakes and Counselors, Presidents of Missions, Bishops and Counselors, Stake Mission and Ward Clerks and All Church Authorities (n.p.: n.p., 1909), 35–36. See also General Handbook of Instructions, no. 21 (n.p.: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1976), 63.

157. See Stapley and Wright, “They Shall Be Healed.”

158. Smart, Mormon Midwife, 16, 342.

159. Smart, Mormon Midwife, 21.

160. Smart, Mormon Midwife, 208.

161. Smart, Mormon Midwife, 243.

162. Hillary Kaell, Walking Where Jesus Walked: American Christians and Holy Land Pilgrimage (New York: New York University Press, 2014), 129–30, 168–69.

163. George Albert Smith to John Taylor, April 22, 1873, in “Correspondence,” Deseret News, May 28, 1873, 268.

164. For instance, see D. Todd Christofferson, “Why the Covenant Path,” Liahona 45, no. 5 (May 2021): 116–19.

Jonathan A. Stapley

BYU Studies Publications