from death.” At that period the Agapemonites counted their adherents at 600, and it was no doubt a grievous shock to them when their deathless founder died on the 8th of March 1899, four years after he had opened a branch church at Clapton, London, which is said to have cost £20,000. This church, decorated with elaborate symbolism, was styled the “Ark of the Covenant,” and in it the elect were to await the coming of the Lord.
On the death of “Brother” Prince, the Rev. T. H. Smyth-Pigott, pastor of the “Ark,” became the acknowledged head of the sect. He was born in 1852, of an old Somersetshire county family, and, after a varied career as university man, sailor before the mast, soldier, coffee-planter, curate in the Church of England and evangelist in the Salvation Army, was converted about 1897 to the views of Prince. For five years after this he was not heard of outside his own sect. On the 7th of September 1902, however, the congregation, assembled at the Ark of the Covenant for service, found the communion table replaced by a chair. In this Pigott presently seated himself and proclaimed himself as the Messiah with the words, “God is no longer there,” pointing upwards, “but here,” pointing to himself. This astonishing announcement was followed by an excellent sermon on Christian love. Pigott’s claim was at once admitted by the members of his sect, including even his own wife, as the fulfilment of the promise of Christ to appear in due time in the “Ark.” By the outside world the affair was greeted with mingled ridicule and indignation, and the new Messiah had to be protected by the police from the violence of an angry mob. After providing “copy” for the newspapers for a few days, however, the whole thing was forgotten. Pigott retired to the headquarters of the sect, the “Abode of Love” in Somerset, and all efforts to interview him or to obtain details of the life of the community were abortive. At last, in August 1905, the long and mysterious silence was broken by the announcement that a son had been born to Pigott by his “spiritual wife,” Miss Ruth Preece, an inmate of the Agapemone. This event by no means disconcerted the believers, who saw in it only another manifestation of Pigott’s divinity, and proclaimed it as “an earnest of the total redemption of man.” The child was registered as “Glory,” and, at the christening service in the chapel of the Abode, hymns were sung in its honour as it lay in a jewelled cradle in the chancel. Another child by Miss Preece, christened “Power,” was born on the 20th of August 1908. The publicity given to this event renewed the scandal, and in November an attempt to “tar and feather” Mr Pigott resulted in two men being sent to prison. Later in the month proceedings were instituted against him by the bishop of Bath and Wells under the Clergy Discipline Act.
One outcome of the disclosures connected with the Agapemone deserves passing mention, as throwing some light on the origin of the wealth of the community. Mr Charles Stokes Read, a resident at the Agapemone and director of the V. V. Bread Company, was requested by his fellow-directors to resign, on the ground that his connexion with the sect was damaging the business of the company. He denied this to be the case and refused to resign, pleading religious liberty and the large interests of Agapemonites in the concern. On the 13th of September 1905, a meeting of the shareholders of the company was held, and Read “asked them to believe that it was not in the interests of the company, but because he knew that the Lord Jesus Christ had come again and was now dwelling at the Agapemone, that he was thus cast out by his colleagues.” The motion calling on him to resign was carried on a poll being taken by 46,770 votes to 2953. (See The Times, 14th of September 1905.)
AGAPETAE, a class of “virgins” who, in the church of the early middle ages, lived with professedly celibate monks to whom they were said to be united by spiritual love. The practice was suppressed by the Lateran Council of 1139.
AGAPETUS, the name of two popes:—
Agapetus I., pope from 536 to 536. He was an enlightened pontiff and collaborated with Cassiodorus in founding at Rome a library of ecclesiastical authors. King Theodahad sent him on an embassy to Constantinople, where he died, after having deposed Anthimus, the monophysite bishop of that town, and ordained Menas his successor.
Agapetus II., pope from 946 to 955, at the time when Alberic, son of Marozia, was governing the independent republic of Rome under the title of “prince and senator of the Romans.” Agapetus, a man of some force of character, did his best to put a stop to the degradation into which the papacy had fallen, the so-called “Pornocracy,” which lasted from the accession of Sergius III. in 904 to the deposition of John XII. in 963. His appeal to Otto the Great to intervene in Rome remained without immediate effect, since Alberic’s position was too strong to be attacked, but it bore fruit after his death. Agapetus died on the 8th of November 955.
AGAPETUS, a deacon of the church of St Sophia at Constantinople. He presented to the emperor Justinian, on his accession in 527, a work entitled Scheda regia sive de officio regis, which contained advice on the duties of a Christian prince. The work was often reprinted and is included in Dom Anselme Banduri’s Imperium Orientale (Paris, 1711). There is an English translation by Thomas Paynell (1550) and a French translation, executed in 1612 from a Latin version by Louis XIII., with the assistance of his tutor, David Rivault.
AGARDE, ARTHUR (1540–1615), English antiquary, was born at Foston, Derbyshire, in 1540. He was trained as a lawyer, but entered the exchequer as a clerk. On the authority of Anthony à Wood it has been stated that he was appointed by Sir Nicholas Throckmorton to be deputy-chamberlain in 1570, and that he held this office for forty-five years. His patent of appointment, however, preserved in the Rolls Office, proves that he succeeded one Thomas Reve in the post on the 11th of July 1603. With his friends, Sir Robert Cotton and Camden, he was one of the original members of the Society of Antiquaries. He spent much labour in cataloguing the records and state papers, and made a special study of the Domesday Book, preparing an explanation of its more obscure terms. Thomas Hearne, in his Collection of Curious Discourses written by Eminent Antiquaries (Oxford, 1720), includes six by Agarde on such subjects as the origin of parliament, the antiquity of shires, the authority and privileges of heralds, &c. Agarde died on the 22nd of August 1615 and was buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, on his tomb being inscribed “Recordorum regiorum hic prope depositorum diligens scrutator.” He bequeathed to the exchequer all his papers relating to that court, and to his friend Sir Robert Cotton his other manuscripts, amounting to twenty volumes, most of which are now in the British Museum.
AGAS, RADULPH, or Ralph (c. 1540–1621), English land-surveyor, was born at Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk, about 1540, and entered upon the practice of his profession in 1566. Letters which he wrote to Lord Burghley, describing the methods of surveying, are extant, and a kind of advertising prospectus of his abilities, in which he describes himself as clever at arithmetic and “skilled in writing smaule, after the skantelinge & proportion of copiynge the Oulde & New Testamentes seven tymes in one skinne of partchmente without anie woorde abreviate or contracted, which maie also serve for drawinge discriptions of contries into volumes portable in verie little cases.” He is best known for his maps of Oxford (1578), Cambridge (1592) and London. Copies of the first two are preserved in the Bodleian Library. Of the map of London and Westminster, which was probably prepared about 1591, two copies have been preserved, one by the Corporation of London and the other in the Pepysian collection at Magdalene College, Cambridge. The map is over six feet long, printed from wooden blocks, and gives a valuable picture of the London of Elizabeth’s time. Agas died on the 26th of November 1621.
AGASIAS. There were two Greek sculptors of this name. Agasias, son of Dositheus, has signed the remarkable statue called the Borghese Warrior, in the Louvre. Agasias, son of Menophilus, is the author of another striking figure of a warrior in the museum of Athens. Both belonged to the school of Ephesus and flourished about 100 B.C.
See E. A. Gardner, Handbook of Greek Sculpture, ii. p. 475.
AGASSIZ, ALEXANDER EMANUEL (1835–1910), American man of science, son of J. L. R. Agassiz, was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on the 17th of December 1835. He came to the
