Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts in the Second Through Nineteenth Centuries, Part 3: From the 5th to the 13th Centuries
Part 1 of Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts
Part 2 of Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts
Richard M. Riss presents evidence for the operation of the gifts of the Spirit throughout the Church Age.
The North African Revival
We have seen that Augustine had adopted the view that miracles had ceased with the close of the apostolic age. In the last two or three years of his life, however, his opinion changed concerning the relative unimportance of contemporaneous miracles. This was precipitated by a revival in North Africa, where Augustine lived. Suddenly, miracles seemed to proliferate. Augustine quickly decided to publicize the miraculous healings in North Africa, and as bishop in Hippo, he examined and recorded each report that came to his attention. He gave verified reports of healings a maximum of publicity, and he insisted upon receiving a written report from every person who claimed to be healed. This report, or libellus, would then be read publicly in church, in the presence of the writer, and would later be stored in Augustine’s library. He attempted to persuade his colleagues to use the same system, but without great success. In the case of the healing of a noble lady in Carthage, Augustine was disappointed that she failed to use her rank and influence to publicize a miracle of healing that she had experienced. A renowned twentieth-century specialist in Augustine, Peter Brown, stated that Augustine attempted to bring together various incidents of miracles “until they formed a single corpus, as compact and compelling as the miracles that had assisted the growth of the Early Church.”45 Some of the material that Augustine collected appears in the last book (Book 22) of his work, City of God, the eighth chapter of which contains a very lengthy description of miracles which he had either witnessed himself, or about which he had heard from those whom he considered to be reliable witnesses.46
The account in City of God is too lengthy for detailed treatment here, but included in it are reports of healings of blindness, multiple rectal fistula, cancer of the breast, gout, paralysis, hernia of the scrotum, and other diseases. Augustine recounts other miracles in which farm animals were cured, demons were cast out of certain individuals, and the dead were raised. In one case, a poor man who lost his cloak prayed, and later found a huge fish squirming upon the beach. He sold it to a restaurant, where a gold ring was found in the gullet of the fish and given to him. In another case, a cart drawn by oxen ran over a child. After his mother prayed, the child not only returned to consciousness, but he showed no sign of the crushing he had suffered.
Many of the miracles that Augustine recounts are associated with the relics of saints, especially the early martyr Stephen, and the shrines that were built to contain these relics. People believed that if they could but touch a certain relic, or a given altar at a given shrine, then they would be healed. It appears that the faith that these people had for healing under certain prescribed conditions was not disappointed. Because they had faith for it to happen in that way, God rewarded their faith and healed under the exact circumstances for which they had faith for healing.
Leo the Great
Another fifth-century believer in the presence of the miraculous gifts in his day was Leo the Great (A.D. 400-461), who was bishop of Rome from 440 until 461. Leo was able to prevent the destruction of Rome in A.D. 452 when he persuaded Attila the Hun to withdraw from the city. In his seventy-fifth sermon he unequivocally affirms the existence of the gift of tongues in his own day. Quoting Acts 2:4, he writes, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak other tongues, as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance.”47 He continues as follows:
Oh! How swift are the words of wisdom, and where God is the Master, how quickly is what is taught, learnt. No interpretation is required for understanding, no practice for using, not time for studying, but the Spirit of Truth blowing where He wills, the languages peculiar to each nation become common property in the mouth of the Church. And therefore from that day the trumpet of the Gospel-preaching has sounded loud: from that day the showers of gracious gifts, the rivers of blessings, have watered every desert and all the dry land.48
It is clear from the context that Leo is writing about the gift of tongues, for he specifically quotes Acts 2:1-4. That sign of His presence, tongues, according to Leo, is “still perpetuated in His work and gift” at the time that he is writing.50
Genevieve of Paris
Leo the Great must have been aware of the operation of tongues and other gifts of the Spirit in his day. One of his contemporaries, for example, Genevieve (A.D. 422-500), as Attila the Hun was preparing to invade Paris, the inhabitants began to make preparation to abandon the city, but Genevieve told them that the city would be saved if the people would fast and pray. In answer to this, many women of the city prayed with her. She assured the people of God’s protection, and Attila and his invaders suddenly changed the course of their march.51 According to an ancient biography of Genevieve written by a contemporary eighteen years after her death, the people of many cities throughout Gual, including Meaux, Laon, Tours, and Orleans, bore witness to her “miracles and remarkable predictions.”52
Bede’s Ecclesiastical History
One of the greatest early works of church history is the Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written in A.D. 731. This is a valuable source, known for its separation of historical fact from hearsay and tradition.53 Bede was a very careful scholar, and did his utmost to find reliable source material for his work, often sending emissaries to various places like Rome to gather important source materials. Throughout Bede’s work there are accounts of miracles. In fact, the entire work is so saturated with accounts of miracles that if one ere to discount them, one would have to discount the entire work, which would be impossible, since the events it describes are woven so unmistakable into the tapestry of history. A summary of the contents of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History would be far beyond the scope of this article, but a single sample from it would be helpful for purposes of illustration. At one point, Bede quoted extensively from a letter, dated A.D. 601, sent to Augustine of Canterbury by Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome. The content is as follows:
I know, most loving brother, that Almighty God, by means of your affection, shows great miracles in the nation which he has chosen. Wherefore it is whilst your rejoice, on account of the same heavenly gift; viz., that you may rejoice because the souls of the English are by outward miracles drawn to inward grace; but that you fear, lest, amidst the wonders that are wrought, the weak mind may be puffed up in its own presumption, and as it is externally raised to honour, it may thence inwardly fall by vain-glory. For we must call to mind, that when the disciples returned with joy after preaching, and said to their heavenly Master, ‘Lord, in thy name, even the devils are subject to us;’ They were presently told, ‘Do not rejoice on this account, but rather rejoice for that your names are written in heaven.’ For they place their thoughts on private and temporal joys, when they rejoice in miracles; but they are recalled from the private to the public, and from the temporal to the eternal joy, when it is said to them, ‘Rejoice for this, because your names are written in heaven.’ For all elect do not work miracles, and yet the names of all are written in heaven. For those who are disciples of the truth ought not to rejoice, save for that good thing which all men enjoy as well as they, and of which their enjoyment shall be without end.
It remains, therefore, most dear brother, that amidst those things, which, through the working of our Lord, you outwardly perform, you always inwardly strictly judge yourself, and clearly understand both what you are yourself, and how much grace is in that same nation, for the conversion of which you have also received the gift of working miracles. And if you remember that you have at any time offended our Creator, either by word or deed, that you always call it to mind, to the end that the remembrance of your guilt may crush the vanity which rises in your heart. And whatsoever you shall receive, or have received, in relation to working miracles, that you consider the same, not as conferred on you, but on those for whose salvation it has been given you.54
This letter is one of the most precious records in all of the history of Christian literature. In it, Gregory does not marvel at miracles or revel in the them. He accepts them as a fact of life and goes on to warn Augustine of Canterbury of a very real danger. The letter expresses genuine concern for the well-being of a Christian brother. Its marks of authenticity are unmistakable. The letter is manifestly not an attempt to convince others that miracles have been taking place.., for this is not the slightest concern of the author. The facts of history are all in accord with the content of the letter. Nobody can deny that Gregory the Great was bishop of Rome from A.D. 590 until A.D. 604, that Augustine of Canterbury was sent by Gregory to England as a missionary, and that Bede would have had access to such a letter in his assiduous efforts in writing a careful history of Christianity in Britain. Gregory was known to be preoccupied constantly with the problem of pride in himself and in others, but particularly within himself. To deny the authenticity of the letter, one would have to tear it out of the very fabric of history, and one would be left with countless loose ends which could never be fitted back together.
Bernard of Clairvaux
Another figure of Medieval history who is often associated with miracles and visions is Bernard of Clairvaux (A.D. 1090-1153). Bernard was a monastic reformer, mystic and theologian who is known as the dominant figure of the western church in his day. The nineteenth-century biographer of Bernard, W.J. Sparrow-Simpson, retold and ancient account according to which Bernard was at a midnight service. In the dimly lit sanctuary he saw a recording angel standing beside every brother in the church. One angel wrote in letters of gold, while another wrote in silver. Another wrote in ink, and another with water that did not leave any trace upon the scroll. The writing in gold represented the intensity of a pure and strong devotion, whereas the silver letters were indicative of a lower grade of fervor, but with good intentions. The writing in ink represented the man who, though he was not particularly devoted, at least paid attention to the words that he sang. The words written in water represented useless and wasted prayer which did not come from the heart, which had no purpose, and which had no destination. As Bernard saw the vision he exclaimed, “If only the monks understood how the holy angels lament when they watch beside the negligent, and the unreal, and the indevout, how much more fervent they would become!”55
Sparrow-Simpson also relates the account of a miraculous healing of intense head pains that Bernard had experienced at one time, as well as the story of a dream experienced by a dying monk, who had seen the glories of paradise, and had heard the sweet sounds of heavenly minstrels, and the song which greeted every Cistercian monk when he passed away from earth to God. He said he had been commissioned in the dream to relate these things to the community, and, saying this, he died. Full of excitement, one of the brothers immediately went to Bernard and told him about the wonderful dream. Bernard, who did not seem impressed, said, “Do you wonder at that, my brothers? I rather wonder at your incredulity, and the hardness of your hearts. Did you not long ago believe the word which came down from heaven, ‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: yea, from henceforth, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors.’ To me it is clearer than the light. I am as certain of it as I am of my own existence, that every member of this order, who lives in obedience and humility, will hereafter be robed in immortality and glory.”56
Medieval Visionaries
There were many contemporaries of Bernard who were known for their prophecies, visions, and revelations. Most of them were women who were involved in the leadership of various medieval convents. Among them were Elizabeth of Shoenau, Hildegard of Bingen, Mary of Ognies, Liutgard of Tongem and Mechthild of Magdeburg.57
Alexander Mackie, in a work intended to discredit the gift of tongues, observed that “the Middle Ages were characterized by a number of religious movements, all of which had motor characterized by speaking in tongues.”58 While many of the visionaries of the Middle Ages may have spoken in tongues, it is certain that they would not have publicized the fact, since it had become the official position of the Roman Catholic Church that the ability to speak in tongues was a sign of demon possession. The Rituale Romanum, the official Catholic book of public services which, for the most part, came to its present form around A.D. 1000, states, “Signs of possession are the following: ability to speak with some facility in a strange tongue or to understand it when spoken by another; the faculty of divulging future and hidden events; display of powers which are beyond the subject’s age and natural condition; and various other indications which, when taken as a whole, pile up the evidence.”59
Despite the Roman Catholic exclusion of tongues, there are scattered reports of the gift of tongues in the Roman Catholic Church throughout the Middle Ages. Historian Stanley M. Burgess has observed that although the Roman Catholic Church condemned the ability to speak in an unknown language and to interpret it as evidence of demon possession, it also honored a few of its more renowned saints for speaking in tongues. In many cases tongues were among the miracles listed on behalf of such people in the canonization process. According to Burgess, the test for determining whether the gift of tongues was a sign of demonic possession depended upon the orthodoxy of the individual in question.60 It is likely that an equally important factor in this determination would have been the depth of the devotion to God of the person under consideration.
Hildegard of Bingen
Among the medieval mystic women that we have mentioned, it is certain that Hildegard of Bingen (A.D. 1098-1179) had the gift of tongues. It was reported by her early biographers that at times she miraculously became able to speak and write Latin without ever having had instruction in that language.61 She also spoke in an unknown tongue, some of the words of which had been written down and have come down to us. Nine hundred words of this unknown language were recorded in an alphabet of unfamiliar character.62 She also sang in unknown tongues, and her biographer referred to these occasions as concerts.63
Of course, Hildegard had many other prophetic gifts. People of all kinds came from everywhere to consult her, and her letters are full of prophecies and warnings. At Cologne, Trier and elsewhere, she addressed select representatives of the clergy, disclosing to them the divine warnings that she had received in various situations. Her correspondence was voluminous, and she did not hesitate to write to heads of state and high ecclesiastical authorities. Among the people with whom she corresponded were Bernard of Clairvaux, Elizabeth of Shoenau, and Frederick Barbarossa, to whom she wrote:
O king, it is very needful that thou be foreseeing in thy affairs. For, in mystic vision, I see thee living, small and insensate, beneath the Living Eyes (of God). Thou hast still some time to reign over earthly matters. Therefore beware lest the Supreme King cast thee down for the blindness of thine eyes, which do not rightly see how thou holdest the rod of right government in thy hand. See also to it that thou art such that the grace of God may not be lacking in thee.64
Many miracles of healing are associated with Hildegard, including that of Arnold, who had been an opponent of hers until he was miraculously healed at her church.65
The Mendicant Orders
The Mendicant Orders of the early thirteenth century were also known for miraculous gifts. Dominic (A.D. 1170-1221), founder of the Dominican Order, spoke once in German to an amazed audience after he had spent some time in prayer.66 Franis of Assisi (A.D. 1182-1226), founder of the Franciscan Order, well known as a man of piety and poverty, was familiar with the operation of various gifts of the spirit. In his well known and often quoted dialogue with Brother Leo, Francis had said:
When the friars Minor, Little Sheep of God, shall have performed miracles, given sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, life to the dead; when they shall speak all the tongues of men and angels, foretell the future…not even all this would be Perfect Joy.67
Although it is true that Francis “cast out devils, made the distorted straight, healed the paralytic, gave sight to the blind,”68 and manifested many other miraculous gifts of the Spirit, “he was very careful to ascribe no essential importance either to the miraculous power with which he was believed to be endowed, or to his perpetual and painful service of God in mortification and fasting.”69
Anthony of Padua
One of the most gifted members of the Franciscan Order was Anthony of Padua (A.D. 1195-1231), who, a year before his death, devoted himself to preaching. Two of his favorite topics in preaching were repentance and contempt for the things of this world. According to Mary E. Rogers, professor of history at the University of Guelph, Ontario, “his gifts as a preacher were extraordinary including, in addition to a clear voice and a compelling manner, prophetic powers and miracles….”70 At his Lenten series in Padua in 1231, there were 30,000 in attendance at one time, and “the response was massive reconciliations and restitutions, such that the clergy were insufficient for the needs of the people.”71 The earliest sources on Anthony of Padua indicate that among his miracles and spiritual gifts was the gift of tongues. It was said that “his tongue became the pen of the Holy Ghost.”72 At one point, those who heard him were reminded of the day of Pentecost, for everybody heard him preaching in his native tongue.73
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Part 4 (Summer 1999): From the 13th to the 18th Centuries
Part 4 of Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts
Notes
45 Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), p. 415.
46 Augustine, City of God, book 22, chapter 8, in Roy J. Deferrari, ed., The Fathers of the Church (Washington, D. C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1954), vol. 24, pp. 431-450.
47 Leo the Great, Sermons 75:2, in Phillip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series (New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1895), vol. 12, p. 190.
48 Ibid.
49 Leo the Great, Sermons 75:5, ibid., p. 191.
50 Harold Hunter, in his article, “Tongues-Speech: A Patristic Analysis,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 23:2 (June 1980), p. 135, disagrees with this interpretation of Leo’s Sermon 75:2, in favor of that of George Williams and Edith Waldvogel, according to which Leo believed in an “Augustinian” understanding of the relationship of the events of Pentecost to the institutional church. There is little basis for the belief that Leo I believed in a cessation of the gift as it existed in the first century, for the present author is not aware of any primary sources indicating this to be the case. Faced with the threat of Attila the Hun preparing to invade Rome the year after Paris was spared through the prophetic ministry of Genevieve, Leo may well have relied either upon Genevieve herself or upon prophetic gifts of his own in venturing our into Atilla’s camp with only two companions and a pastoral staff in his hands, trusting that, by God’s grace, disaster would somehow be averted, which indeed is what happened.
52 Ibid.
53 F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, second edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 150.
54 The Venerable Bede, Ecclesiastical History of England, Chapter 31, trans. J. A. Giles (London: George Bell & Sons, 1900), p. 57.
55 W. J. Sparrow-Simpson, Lectures on St. Bernard of Clairvaux (London: J. Masters and Co., 1895), p. 40.
56 Ibid., p. 43.
57 Henry Osborne Taylor, The Medieval Mind (London: Macmillan & Co., 1911), vol. 1, pp. 442-470.
58 Alexander Mackie, The Gift of Tongues (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1921), p. 41.
59 Philip T. Weller, ed., The Roman Ritual (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1952), vol. 2, p. 169, as quoted by Morton T. Kelsey, Tongue Speaking (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1964), p. 46.
60 Stanley M. Burgess, “Medieval Examples of Charismatic Piety in the Roman Catholic Church,” in Russell P. Spittler, Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976), p. 25.
61 Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era (New York: Columbia University Press, 1923), vol. 2, p. 129.
62 Butler, op. cit., September 17, vol. 3, p. 582.
63 Burgess, op. cit., p. 21, citing Acta sanctorum quotquot tot orbe coluntur, vel a Catholicis scriptoribus celebrantar. . .notis illustravit Joannes Bollandus (Antwerp: apud Ioannem Mersium, 1643), September V, 683.
64 Henry Osborn Taylor, The Medieval Mind (London: Macmillan & Co., 1911), vol. 1, p. 448, quoting Pitra, Analecta Sanctae Hildegardis opera Spiclilegio Solesmensi parata (1882), vol. 8, p. 523.
65 Butler, op. cit., September 17, vol. 3, p. 582.
66 Francis C. Lehner, ed., St. Dominic: Biographical Documents (Washington, D.C.: 1964), pp. 52-53, as cited by George H. Williams and Edith Waldvogel, “A History of Speaking in Tongues and Related Gifts,” in Michael P. Hamilton, ed., The Charismatic Movement (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1975), p. 70.
67 Francis of Assisi, The Fioretti, Chapter 8, as quoted in Omer Englebert, St. Francis of Assisi, trans. Edward Hutton (London: Burns Oates, 1950), pp. 203-204.
68 Margaret W. Oliphant, Francis of Assisi (London: Macmillan & Co., 1889), p. 130.
69 Ibid., p. 134.
70 J. D. Douglas, ed., The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), p. 51.
71 Ibid.
72 George H. Williams and Edith Waldvogel, “A History of Speaking in Tongues and Related Gifts,” in Michael P. Hamilton, ed., The Charismatic Movement (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1975), pp. 70-71.
73 Ibid., citing Raphael Huber, St. Anthony of Padua (Milwaukee, 1948), p. 54.
Part 4 (Summer 1999): From the 13th to the 18th Centuries
Part 4 of Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts
