“The Kingdom of Matthias” encompasses the fascinating and peculiar rise and fall of Robert Matthews and his cult that is The Kingdom of Matthias. The plot, which at times seems so bizarre that it couldn’t be true, surrounds two major characters; Robert Matthews and Elijah Pierson. Robert Matthews had a modest upbringing in the Scottish community of Coila in Cambridge, New York, this is where he was first exposed to religion and was brought up in a devoutly Calvinist environment. Married with children, Matthews lived an unremarkable life until a series of bad business decisions and the death of several of his sons. At this point, Matthews began to lose it, claiming now that he was God’s prophetic agent on earth and adopting the name Matthias, this is where Pierson comes into play. Elijah Pierson was a man who would completely dedicate himself to his religion, but at the same time was fickle and would often change his religious identity. Pierson was living in New York at the time working on Pearl Street as a trader. He married his wife Sarah, the daughter of a local church leader, however as dedicated as they were to their perfectionist way of living, Sarah literally worked and fasted herself to death and died in June 1830. This was when Elijah hit a major turning point in his life. Convinced he was speaking to god and that he was given the name “Prophet Elijah of Tishbe”, he tried to bring Sarah back from the dead at her funeral. It was after these chain of events that Matthews and Pierson met. Pierson, whose psychological state was in shambles, was the perfect patsy for Matthews and was easily convinced that Matthews was the real deal and became one of his most dedicated followers. Fast forward several years of adultery and domestic abuse, Matthews became the leader of a cult which he named “the Kingdom”. With a respectable amount of followers to rule over with an iron fist, Matthews had all that he could want. Unfort