Editing Agapemonites (section)

==Henry James Prince==
[[File:Rev Henry Prince.jpg|thumb|Henry Prince (1811–1899)]]
Henry James Prince, baptised on 21 February 1811, was the son of Thomas and Mary Ann Prince of [[Lyncombe, Bath|Lyncombe]] and [[Widcombe, Bath|Widcombe]], [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]].<ref>[https://mediasvc.ancestry.co.uk/v2/image/namespaces/60856/media/englb030d_d-p-wid-2-1-13_m_00089.jpg "Henry James Prince"]
in ''Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1531–1812'', accessed 9 October 2023 {{subscription}}</ref> He studied medicine at [[Guy's Hospital]],{{sfn|Evans|2006|p=21}} obtained his qualifications in 1832, and was appointed medical officer to the General Hospital in Bath, his native city.{{sfn|Stunt|2006|p=27}} Compelled by ill health to abandon his profession, in 1837 Prince entered himself as a student at [[University of Wales, Lampeter|St David's College, Lampeter]] (now the [[University of Wales Trinity Saint David#Lampeter Campus|Lampeter campus]] of the [[University of Wales Trinity Saint David]]), where he gathered about him a band of earnest religious enthusiasts known as the Lampeter Brethren.{{sfn|Evans|2006|p=21}} The vice principal of the college contacted the [[Bishop of Bath and Wells]] who, in 1840, installed Prince as the curate of [[Church of St Mary, Charlynch|Charlinch]] in [[Somerset]], where he had sole charge during the illness and absence of the rector, Samuel Starkey.<ref name="EB1911"/>{{sfn|Evans|2006|p=22}}

Attendances at the church were small until, during one of the services, Prince acted as if he was [[Spirit possession|possessed]], throwing himself around the church. Congregations grew each week as the "possession" was repeated. The congregation was then divided with separate services for men and women. Subsequently, he separated them again into sinners and the righteous, the latter of which generally included women who were wealthy. The bishop was summoned to investigate the practices.{{sfn|Evans|2006|pp=22–23}} By that time, Prince had contracted his first "spiritual marriage" and had persuaded himself that he had been absorbed into the personality of [[God]] and become a visible embodiment of the [[Holy Spirit]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Abode of Love|url=http://www.utopia-britannica.org.uk/pages/abode%20of%20love.htm|publisher=Utopia Britannica&nbsp;— British Utopian Experiments 1325 - 1945|access-date=23 January 2014}}</ref> During his illness, Starkey read one of his curate's sermons, and was not only "cured" forthwith, but embraced his strange doctrines. Together, they procured many conversions in the countryside and the neighbouring towns. In the end, the rector was deprived of his living and Prince was [[Defrocking|defrocked]]. Together with a few disciples they started the Charlinch Free Church, which had a very brief existence,<ref name="EB1911"/> meeting in a supportive farmer's barn.{{sfn|Gray|2009|pp=207–215}}

Prince used money inherited on the death of his first wife, Martha, to marry Julia Starkey, the sister of the rector.{{sfn|Dixon|1868|pp=161–166}} They all moved to [[Stoke-by-Clare]] in [[Suffolk]] where Prince started again to build a congregation, which grew over the subsequent one to two years. The [[Bishop of Ely]] then expelled them.{{sfn|Evans|2006|p=23}} Prince opened Adullam Chapel, which was also known as Cave Adullam, in the [[North Laine]] area of [[Brighton]]. Meanwhile, Starkey established himself at [[Weymouth, Dorset|Weymouth]].{{sfn|Armytage|2013|pp=272–275}} Their chief success lay in the latter town, and Prince soon moved there.{{sfn|Gray|2009|pp=207–215}}{{sfn|Grumley-Grennan|2010|pp=139–140}}