 According to the church leadership "Handbook", the purposes of church discipline are (1) to save the souls of transgressors, (2) to protect the innocent, and (3) to safeguard the purity, integrity, and good name of the church.The origins of LDS disciplinary procedures and excommunications are traced to a revelation Joseph Smith, Jr. claimed to have received on February 9, 1831, later canonized as Doctrine and Covenants, section 42 and codified in the "Handbook".The LDS Church also practices the lesser sanctions of private counsel and caution, informal probation, formal probation, and disfellowshipment.