AGAPEMONITES (ἀγαπηνή-μονή: “Dwelling of Love”). — English Protestants who were followers of H. J. Prince. Prince (1811–90), originally a physician, became a pastor and preacher. An attempt in May 1843 to pass himself off as the Holy Spirit led the Anglican bishops to forbid him from preaching. In 1849, together with Starky, he began to proclaim the imminent end of the world and to inculcate the sharing of goods. He gathered a certain number of adherents. The movement centered on a communal house (Agapemone) which acquired a poor reputation owing to the irregularities committed there.
In 1890 the sect received a notable infusion of energy from a group of adherents of the Salvation Army. Among these was Smyth-Pigott, who succeeded Prince as leader of the Agapemonite movement and claimed to be a divine person (Jesus Christ). By the early 1900s the community had dwindled to a handful of people.