SPIRITUAL WIFERY

'Spiritual wifery' is a term first used in America by the followers of Jacob Cochran as early as 1818 to describe their religious doctrine of free love. Often confused with polygamy, ''spiritual wifery'' describes a method where communal mates are temporarily assigned and reassigned, either by personal preference or religious authority. The term was later introduced to Mormonism by John C. Bennett, who openly applied it to the doctrine of plural marriage. According to Helen Mar Whitney, "At the time [in Nauvoo] spiritual wife was the title by which every woman who entered into this order was called, for it was taught and practiced as a spiritual order."^[1] Bennett was soon excommunicated for such offenses. The term ''complex marriage'' was later used by the Oneida Community in the 1840s to describe a free marriage practice similar to spiritual wifery. The term ''spiritual wife'' is often used modernly to redefine the practice of plural marriage in early Mormonism, inferring non-physical relationships.

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References

1. Todd Compton, ''In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith'' (Signature Books, 1997)