The Mormon Church, formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has quietly posted a series of essays on church history and practices on its Web site, and in so doing, admitted that Joseph Smith had up to 40 wives, one as young as 14 years old. The revelation is a cosmic shift from the church’s earlier teachings, which position Smith as a devoted husband to Emma.

The essays were posted without fanfare or an announcement, and were highlighted on Tuesday by The New York Times. In one, titled “Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo,” the author explains that polygamy, as practiced in the early days of the church, included marriages or “sealings” for both time on Earth and all of eternity. “Sealings for time and eternity included commitments and relationships during this life, generally including the possibility of sexual relations,” the essay reads. “Eternity-only sealings indicated relationships in the next life alone.”

“Evidence indicates that Joseph Smith participated in both types of sealings,” the essay continues, with a footnote that claims “careful estimates” place the number of wives Smith took between 30 and 40.

Smith’s oldest wife, Fanny Young, was 56 years old. His youngest, Helen Mar Kimball, was 14 years old. Smith was also “sealed” to a number of women who were already married to other men. That apparently didn’t cause much concern among the other husbands, as the essay makes clear: “most if not all of the first husbands seem to have continued living in the same household with their wives during Joseph’s lifetime, and complaints about these sealings with Joseph Smith are virtually absent from the documentary record.”

There was, however, one person the church admits struggled with Smith’s plural marriages. “For Joseph Smith’s wife Emma, it was an excruciating ordeal,” the essay on plural marriage reads. “After Emma opposed plural marriage, Joseph was placed in an agonizing dilemma, forced to choose between the will of God and the will of his beloved Emma.”

The church maintains that plural marriage was commanded by God to Smith, and that “some Saints also saw plural marriage as a redemptive process of sacrifice and spiritual refinement.” The essay also notes that polygamy led to the birth of a high number of Mormon children. Many early members of the church wrote about how difficult it was for them to come to terms with plural marriage. Brigham Young wrote that he “desired the grave” after hearing of it.

Elder Steven Snow told the Times that work on the essays began in 2012, and that many were written by outside scholars before being edited and approved by church leadership.

Other topics, such as the church’s fraught history with regard to race (blacks were banned from the priesthood until 1978), are covered in the series of essays. In one passage, the essay’s author claims the church wanted badly to lift its ban on black priesthood, but needed a sign from God to do so:

Nevertheless, given the long history of withholding the priesthood from men of black African descent, church leaders believed that a revelation from God was needed to alter the policy, and they made ongoing efforts to understand what should be done. After praying for guidance, President McKay did not feel impressed to lift the ban.

As the Times notes, the essays are difficult to find, and are not promoted on the church’s Web site homepage. Nor are they easily available on the church’s Web site for media relations, which does highlight a video on “temple garments” some Mormons wear under their clothing.