THE AGAPEMONITES

Evening Star, Issue 12602, 6 September 1905, Page 6

THE AGAPEMONITES

WAITING FOR AN OPENING. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON. September 5. (Received September 6, at 8.43 a.m.) The Bishop of Bath and Wells (Dr Kennion) states that, though he has beon advised not to notice the notorious proceed- ! ings of the Agapeinonites, he will inquire if there is any new departure or anything that will give him proper causo for interference, in which case he will not fail fo take• advantage of it. [Smyth Piggott. on Sunday, September 7, 1902, at the chapel of the "Abode of Love," Clapton, London, announcel himself as the successor of Henry James Prince, the founder of the Agapemonites, that he was the Messiah, and that the ark of the covenant was at Clapton. Several ladies in the congregation testified that Mr Piggott's clain. was correct On the Monday ! Mr Piggott met with a hostile demonstration from 200 unbelievers, and on the following Sunday, September 14, the roars of a crowd of 0.000 people, who called him, blasphemer, so frightened him that he left Clapton, greatly to the dismay of his followers. The sect, if so it may be called, was founded bv Prince, formerlv a clergyman of the Cfmrch of England, in 1845, near Bridgwater, and immediately attained a local notoriety, which in 1860 was widely extended by the trial of an action brought against him on behalf of former disciples named Nottige for a disgorgement of money he had obtained from them. Previously what had been known of the doings in the " Abode of Love" had l»en by rumor only, but the revelations made at the trial were sufficient to show that immorality of a gross description was practised. Most of the prophet's disciples were women, whom he selected in a iminner in which it would be difficult to say whether the ludicrous or the horrible more prevailed. He instructed his dupes that the Judgment had arrived, that the day of prayer and supplication was over, sclfhutniiiatinn and self-denial bad lost their virtues, and nothing remained but the necessity for pure enjoyment. The latest scandal in connection with Piggott will be fresh in memory. After leaving Clapton lie went to Bridgwater, and last month the 'Morning Leader' exposed the doings of these immoral cranks. A youDg woman named Ruth Preece gave birth to a child of which the man Piggott was the father. The child was christened in the presence of tho whole congregation, Pipgott's legal wife and the woman Preece being present. Piggott is still at large.]