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Show Page 89 priesthood, and was presumably tied to the conferring of certain spiritual "keys," or powers, upon the Prophet at the time of the Kirtland temple dedication. If a marriage were sealed by the pronouncement of one holding this authority, then that marriage would be of force throughout eternity. Such an endless union was centrally important to Joseph Smith's theology, for the definition of eternal progress lay in the expansion of the family into infinity. Naturally enough, the patriarchal principle of order did not preclude, and in fact encouraged, the addition of plural wives, which would redound ultimately to a vast increase of glory for all. The controversial principle obviously could not be taught publicly; but it was to be had among Joseph Smith's closest associates. There is evidence that polygamy had been discussed in the Church as early as 1831 - that Orson Pratt himself had been apprised of the teaching at the 25 beginning by fellow missionary Lyman E. Johnson. It is clear that Joseph Smith took at least one plural wife in 1841, two years before the revelation on plural marriage was set to paper; though the leaders of the Church steadfastly denied teaching plural marriage, it is beyond question that a number of them practiced it in Nauvoo, including several who were unauthorized. One of these was Dr. John Cook Bennett. Bennett had lived in Nauvoo under false pretenses from the first. He had represented himself as single, though he had abandoned his family in Ohio. His proximity to Joseph Smith no doubt led to the awareness that plural marriage was a carefully concealed fact in the lives of certain leading Mormons; and Bennett probably knew of an even more curious practice indulged by the Prophet Joseph Smith. It appears that, among the conditions for certain men to be initiated into these higher matters of the kingdom, a loyalty test to the Prophet was required. The < histoxsys-./n of Heber C. Kimball and his wife, Vilate, |