A number of church leaders were opposed to the enforcement of the "Second Manifesto", including apostles John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley. As a result of their opposition, both resigned from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1906, and in 1911 Taylor was excommunicated for continued opposition. In 1909, Francis M. Lyman chaired a church committee to investigate plural marriages since the Second Manifesto that excommunicated people who had been involved in such practices. Although the Second Manifesto ended the official practice of new plural marriages, existing plural marriages were not automatically dissolved. Many Mormons, including prominent church leaders, maintained existing plural marriages into the 1940s and 1950s.