Oct 1902= Hazrat Mufti Muhammad Sadiqra was always on the lookout for western news and reports as he subscribed to many western newspapers and journals. Mufti sahib informed the Promised Messiahas about the claims of both Dowie and Pigott. Al Hakam reports two occasions where ‘The Freethinker was read out to the Promised Messiahas informing him about Pigott’s claim.
The Promised Messiahas on numerous occasions spoke about Pigott and desired that he comes forward to the challenge. Simialrly the announcement entitled A Warning to A Pretender to Divinity was sent on the 24th of November 1902 and widely published in the British Press yet there came no response from Pigott. The Promised Messiahas sent his companion Shiekh Rehmatullah Sahib to Pigott’s residence to get a reply on his challenge to Pigott but he was denied any meeting. There was no response whatsoever from Pigott as compared to Dowie who did reply with disrespect and prayed for the destruction of Islam.
Post 1902 after making his initial claim which resulted in public retaliation and ultimately the warning of the Promised Messiahas, Pigott fled to Spaxton Somerset and thereafter lived a life of complete secrecy away from the public, making no further public claims of Messiahship or Divinity.
A case is brought forward against him in March 1909 by the Bishop of Bath and Wells (George Wyndham Kennion) under Clergy Discipline Act 1892 where he was found guilty under all charges brought agaisnt him. The entire court proceedings and the judgement of the Bishop establish that Pigott post 1902 stopped making any further public claims. The Bishop in his final judgement mentions reasons as to why the charge of Blasphemy was not brought against Pigott which had been the preferred choice of Church for centuries.
The Bishop also declared all newspaper reports about inner happenings of Agapemone as mere stories that only existed in the imagination of the writers alone. Dr Schwieso in his Phd Deluded Inmates wrote: “The authorities had to proceed cautiously. They seem to have decided that it would be impossible to achieve a conviction on the grounds of blasphemy.”(Read Detail Here)
