Jannson 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. This occurred on a lake shore near the town of Alta in June 1844, near Soderala in October 1844 and in Stenbo and Forsa in December 1844. Authorities arrested him, but Jansson was released several times after his followers appealed to Sweden's King, who felt imprisonment inappropriate for religious beliefs. However, in 1845 Jansson's followers and opponents engaged in several violent confrontations in Vastmanland and Halsingland provinces. When Jansson voluntarily appeared at a court session at Delsbo in Gavleborg province to answer charges, he was returned to Gavle prison while investigations continued. A guard warned Jansson that a fellow prisoner was told he would be rewarded for killing Janssson, so he escaped disguised as a woman, and ultimately skied across the mountains to Christiana, Norway, where Jansson hid until January 1846.