Excerpt from Prophets and Patriarchs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints The Biographies of the Apostles and Patriarchs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, by Apostle Matthias F. Cowley, were written for the "Southern Star." When that periodical suspended publication not more than half the letters from Brother Cowley had been published. The biographies which did appear, however, were very popular among the Elders and Saints of the Southern States Mission, and numerous calls came for them from the West. They are written in a simple and easy style, abounding in interesting incidents and valuable historical facts. It was the desire and original intention of the author to submit the biographies of the First Seven Presidents of Seventies and Presiding Bishopric for the readers of this little volume, but not having these prepared for publication, and the opportunity presenting itself, almost without warning, for the publication of those already prepared, it was thought best to leave them for a subsequent edition. As the articles contain much valuable information, and their publication will be instrumental in doing good, I accept as a labor of love the pleasant task of presenting, in book form, all of Apostle Cowley's biographies to the "Star" - those which appeared, those which were ready for publication when the paper suspended, and a few recently prepared. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The hereditary office of Presiding Patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, first occupied by the father of the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, had long seemed the focal point of a struggle for authority between those appointed and those born to leadership positions. Irene Bates and E. Gary Smith, who conclude that the office's demise in 1979 was inevitable, chronicle its history and find it to be a classic example of Max Weber's theory of the "routinization of charisma". From the creation of the patriarchal office in 1833 to its demise, the authors illuminate the tensions between the leadership circle of the Council of Twelve, headed by Brigham Young, and the potential rival power center of the Patriarch. This struggle is related, in turn, to the one between the Smith family and the rest of the Mormon leadership. Also illuminated are recurrent struggles between the president and the Twelve over the patriarchal issue. Bates and Smith argue that the real source of dissonance between the patriarchs and other church leaders was the impossibility of melding familial authority (the Patriarch) with official authority (the structured leadership of the growing church).