Shouter movement

Maids, children, peasants' daughters and young men, in a state of calm or ecstatic excitement, delivered stirring sermons that drew large crowds.

[1] Three factors characterize the movement's preachers, according to Peter Aronsson: 1. physical convulsions, sometimes so strong that they fall into unconsciousness or stupor.

Preaching included judgment and punishment of all kinds of lying, vanity and hypocrisy, as well as dancing, gambling, and the widespread drinking of alcohol.

People walked long distances to hear the shouters, mainly the landless and crofters who had been hardest hit by the famine years of the time.

[6] Bishops enlisted the help of the police and the county governor's office, as the crowds were a violation of the law, the Conventicle Act, which prohibited public religious gatherings led by laity, i.e. people who were not priests in the Swedish state church.

[7] Adam Smedberg [sv], born in 1813 in Skaraborg County, held an important role as a Shouter preacher, with women kneeling in reverence as he passed by.

[9] This proved too much for the governor of Örebro, Erik Johan Bergenschöld [sv], who sent out men to arrest Smedberg, resulting in fierce clashes with the crowds, who stood up for the shouters and armed themselves with clubs and guns.

[2] A preacher named Otto Engström was counted among the shouters in Närke, and continued to preach despite repeated prison stays.

The 2023 film Barfota Rop [sv] ('Barefoot Shout') is based on events during the emergence of the Shouter movement.