HAUGE, he'ge, HANS NIELSEN: Norwegian lay preacher and revivalist; b. on his father's farm, parish of Tune, south of Smaalenene (the s.e. corner of Norway, Apr. 3,1771; d. on his estate, Bredtvedt, near Aker (50 m. n. of Christiania), Mar. 29, 1824. His childhood and youth were spent on his father's farm, and his education included no more than the scanty learning of a Norwegian peasant's son of the time. In 1796 he was converted, and at once resolved to preach for the conversion of others. At the outset, he stayed at home, and spoke of conversion and the way of salvation to individuals; but after 1797 he appeared in public as a preacher of righteousness and an exhorter. From 1798 to 1804 he traveled through Norway, chiefly on foot, preaching twice and sometimes four times a day, also writing hundreds of letters and composing books. His speech was incisive and emotional, and made a powerful impression on those who heard him. His writings, though somewhat defect ive in form, gained wide circulation among the people. He roused a popular religious movement in Norway, many of his friends likewise traveling about as lay preachers; and the general result was profitable to the State Church, although here and there instances of spiritual extravagance and fanati cism occurred. Hauge's was a highly practical nature; he took great interest in trade and industry, and promoted progress in these fields also. His religious activity encountered strong opposition from the clergy, who in a rationalistic age looked coldly on the feelings which inspired the peasant lay preacher. To meet the charge of vagrancy brought against himself and his friends, he stationed his friends at many different places in the country, finding for them good properties at low rates, or instructing them to carry on various industrial pursuits, that they might entertain the traveling lay preachers, and that the process of edification might be carried on under a "house father's" supervision. The result was a sort of chain of small brotherhoods, closely interlinked.

In 1804 Hauge was arrested in Christiania, and remained in prison till 1811, with the exception of seven months in 1809, when he was released to promote, with his practical insight, the manufacture of salt. In Dec., 1814, he was condemned to two years of hard labor on the charge of violating the conventicle act. He appealed to the supreme court, which commuted the sentence to a heavy fine and the payment of costs. After his release from prison he lived quietly at Bredtvedt. In his " testament to his friends " he advised them to affiliate with the church pastors and the existing ecclesiastical order. The voluntary activity of laymen which Hauge initiated has wrought much for the church life in Norway. Norwegian immigrants to the United States sympathizing with his views have organ ized "Hauge's Synod" in the Northwest (see Lutherans).

T. G. B. Odland.

Bibliography: The chief work is A. C. Bang, Hans Nielsen

Hauge og hans i3amtid, Christiania, 1875, substantially reproduced in Zeitschrift für Diakonie, 1880. A complete bibliography of Hauge literature is by J. B. Halvorsen, Norsk Porfatterlezikon, ii. 571 sqq., cf. i. 163, iii. 213, iv. 330, 1814-80.