A secluded country house. A rogue Anglican Priest. Ceremonial sex and mislaid fortunes. This is the almost-forgotten story of Victorian Britain’s strangest religious sect and its wealthy, mostly female, followers who believed they could ascend directly to heaven. Expertly drawing on primary sources to tell the story of the Agapemonites in detail, Stuart Flinders shines a light on the people drawin to the cult – the forced marriages; the swindled fortunes; the women condemned to asylums; and those who managed to escape from the Abode. It is also the story of two extraordinary men, whose claims of divinity were at the heart of this very British cult.