Eric Jansson was a frail child, and became interested in reforming the state Lutheran Church of Sweden as an adolescent.
17 Facts About Eric Jansson
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Particularly, after another mystical experience while visiting the market at Uppsala ten years later, Eric Jansson developed beliefs that conflicted with the state catechism.
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Eric Jansson claimed to be able to exorcise demons and, when contradicted, often managed to out-shout his opponents, although he still maintained good relations with the clergy, especially Rev JJ Risberg, an assistant minister in Ostersund who sometimes preached alongside him.
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Eric Jansson's movement grew out of the lasare movement, as he and many of his followers were initially Readers.
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However, Eric Jansson came to break with the teachings of Luther and Arndt.
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Eric Jansson wanted to create a "New Jerusalem" to await Christ's coming and the Millennium.
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Eric Jansson alienated Rev Risberg and many others in the state church, who came to question his sanity.
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Eric Jansson believed in the supremacy of the Bible and his own revelations and, beginning in 1844, publicly burned the works of Luther and others and urged his followers to do likewise.
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Authorities arrested him, but Eric Jansson was released several times after his followers appealed to Sweden's King, who felt imprisonment inappropriate for religious beliefs.
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When Eric Jansson voluntarily appeared at a court session at Delsbo in Gavleborg province to answer charges, he was returned to Gavle prison while investigations continued.
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Eric Jansson arrived in New York in June 1846 and, with the help of 400 of his followers who had survived the journey, founded the Bishop Hill Colony in Henry County, Illinois.
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Residents began their daily worship after Eric Jansson rang a bell around 5:00 am and diligently studied English to proselytize their neighbors, as well as ground bushels of corn to boil for basic survival.
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In 1850, Eric Jansson sent nine of his followers to California, hoping that they would prospect successfully during the California Gold Rush and that this additional wealth would help support their community.
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Root tried another kidnapping on March 26,1850, this time recruiting some brother Masons from Cambridge as assistants, but they left Bishop Hill empty-handed because Eric Jansson hid Lotta and the baby, and ultimately fled with them across the Mississippi River to St Louis, where he took a job as a flour salesman.
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On May 12,1850, followers listened to Eric Jansson preach a sermon about a scriptural phrase in which Jesus prophesied about soon drinking in his Father's kingdom.
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The next day, May 13,1850, while Eric Jansson chatted with the Henry County Clerk at the Cambridge courthouse, Root ran up the stairs and into the courtroom, then shot and killed Eric Jansson.
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Direct descendants of Erik Eric Jansson still lived in the colony of Bishop Hill until December 20,2005 when Eric Jansson's great-great grandson and Bishop Hill volunteer fireman Theodore Arthur Myhre Sr.