HAUGE, HANS NIELSEN Norwegian preacher, was born in the parish of Thuno, Norway, on April 3, 1771, the son of a peasant. In his twenty-sixth year, believing himself to be divinely commissioned, he began to preach, calling people to repentance and attacking rationalism. In 1804 he was arrested, and only released from prison in 1814. He died at Breddwill, near Christiania, on March 29, 1824. His pietistic ad herents, who did not formally break with the church, but placed great stress on the evangelical doctrines of faith and grace, were called Haugianer or Leser (i.e., Readers).
See C. Bang, Hans Nielsen Hauge og hans Samtid (Christiania; end ed., 1875) ; O. Rost, Nogle Bemaerkninger om Hans Nielsen Hauge og hans Retning (1883).