Speaking in tongues Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===1100 to 1900=== * 12th century – [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] explained that speaking tongues be no longer present because there be greater miracles – the transformed lives of believers.<ref>[http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/saints/bernard/tome03/homtemps/paques/paques007.htm "''Premier Serrmon Pour Le Jour de L'Ascension. Sur l'Evangile du jour.''"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207004808/http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/saints/bernard/tome03/homtemps/paques/paques007.htm |date=7 February 2020 }} "''3. Il y des signes plus certains et des miracles plus salutaires que ceux-là, ce sont les mérites. Et je ne crois pas qu'il soit difficile de savoir en quel sens on doit entendre les miracles dont il est parlé en cet endroit, pour qu'ils soient des signes certains de foi, et par conséquent de salut. En effet, la première oeuvre de la foi, opérant par la charité, c'est la componction de l'âme, car elle chasse évidemment les démons, en déracinant les péchés de notre coeur. Quant aux langues nouvelles que doivent parler les hommes, qui croient en Jésus-Christ, cela a lieu, lorsque le langage du vieil homme cesse de se trouver sur nos lèvres, et que nous ne parlons plus la langue antique de nos premiers parents, qui cherchaient dans des paroles pleines de malice à s'excuser de leurs péchés''".</ref> * 12th century – [[Hildegard of Bingen]] is said to have possessed the gift of visions and prophecy and to have been able to speak and write in Latin without having learned the language.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=L. Carlyle |first1=May |title=A Survey of Glossolalia and Related Phenomena in NonChristian Religions |journal=American Anthropologist |date=February 1956 |volume=58 |issue=1 |page=75 |url=https://sciencedocbox.com/Paranormal_Phenomena/84364754-E-words-has-long-been-of-interest-to-students-of-religion-the-books-of-cutten.html |doi=10.1525/aa.1956.58.1.02a00060 |doi-access=free }}</ref> * 1265 – [[Thomas Aquinas]] wrote about the gift of tongues in the New Testament, which he understood to be an ability to speak every language, given for the purposes of missionary work. He explained that Christ did not have this gift because his mission was to the Jews, "nor does each one of the faithful now speak save in one tongue"; for "no one speaks in the tongues of all nations, because the Church herself already speaks the languages of all nations".<ref>[[Thomas Aquinas]], ''[[Summa Theologica]]'', Question 176.</ref> * 15th century – The [[Moravian Church|Moravians]] are referred to by detractors as having spoken in tongues. John Roche, a contemporary critic, claimed that the Moravians "commonly broke into some disconnected Jargon, which they often passed upon the vulgar, 'as the exuberant and resistless Evacuations of the Spirit'".<ref>{{Cite book|first=Stanley M. |last=Burgess |chapter=Medieval and Modern Western Churches |editor1=Gary B. McGee |title=Initial evidence: historical and biblical perspectives on the Pentecostal doctrine of spirit baptism |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers |location=[[Peabody, Massachusetts]] |year=1991 |page=32 |isbn=978-0943575414 |oclc=24380326}}</ref> * 17th century – The French Prophets: The [[Camisards]] also spoke sometimes in languages that were unknown: "Several persons of both Sexes", James Du Bois of Montpellier recalled, "I have heard in their Extasies pronounce certain words, which seem'd to the Standers-by, to be some Foreign Language". These utterances were sometimes accompanied by the gift of interpretation exercised, in Du Bois' experience, by the same person who had spoken in tongues.<ref>{{Cite book|first=John |last=Lacy |year=1707 |title=A Cry from the Desert |oclc=81008302 |page=32}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |first=Michael Pollock |last=Hamilton |title=The charismatic movement |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]] |location=[[Grand Rapids, Michigan]] |year=1975 |page=[https://archive.org/details/charismaticmovem00hami/page/75 75] |isbn=978-0802834539 |oclc=1008209 |url=https://archive.org/details/charismaticmovem00hami/page/75 }}</ref> * 17th century – Early [[Quakers]], such as [[Edward Burrough]], make mention of tongues-speaking in their meetings: "We spoke with new tongues, as the Lord gave us utterance, and His Spirit led us".<ref>[[Edward Burrough|Burrough, Edward]] (1831) [1659]. "Epistle to the Reader" in [[George Fox|Fox, George]]. ''The great mystery of the great whore unfolded; and Antichrist's kingdom revealed unto destruction''. ''The Works of George Fox''. '''3'''. p. [https://archive.org/details/worksgeorgefox09foxgoog/page/n17 13]. {{OCLC|12877488}}.</ref> * 1817 – In Germany, [[Gustav von Below]], an aristocratic officer of the Prussian Guard, and his brothers, founded a religious movement based on their estates in Pomerania, which may have included speaking in tongues.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hogue |first1=Richard |title=Tongues: A Theological History of Christian Glossolalia |date=2010 |publisher=Tate Publishing |page=211}}</ref> * 19th century – [[Edward Irving]] and the [[Catholic Apostolic Church]]. Edward Irving, a minister in the Church of Scotland, writes of a woman who would "speak at great length, and with superhuman strength, in an unknown tongue, to the great astonishment of all who heard, and to her own great edification and enjoyment in God".<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Edward |last=Irving |author-link=Edward Irving |date=January 1832 |title=Facts Connected With Recent Manifestations of Spiritual Gifts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mFPPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA754 |journal=[[Fraser's Magazine]] |volume=4 |issue=24 |pages=754–761 |access-date=9 June 2009}}</ref> Irving further stated that "tongues are a great instrument for personal edification, however mysterious it may seem to us".<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Carlyle|editor1-first=Gavin|title=The Collected Writings of Edward Irving|date=1865|publisher=Alexander Strahan|page=548|edition=Volume 5|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HS8aAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA548|access-date=12 January 2017|chapter=On the Gifts of the Holy Ghost}}</ref> * 19th century – The history of the [[Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)|Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church), contains extensive references to the practice of speaking in tongues by [[Brigham Young]], [[Joseph Smith]] and many others.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.frontiernet.net:80/~bcmmin/tongue1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000817001900/http://www.frontiernet.net/~bcmmin/tongue1.htm |archive-date=17 August 2000 |website=www.frontiernet.net |title=Speaking in Tongues and the Mormon Church |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017181936/http://www.mormonwiki.com/Speaking_in_Tongues |archive-date=17 October 2008 |url=http://www.mormonwiki.com:80/Speaking_in_Tongues |title=Speaking in Tongues |format=[[MediaWiki]] |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Sidney Rigdon]] had disagreements with [[Alexander Campbell (clergyman)|Alexander Campbell]] regarding speaking in tongues, and later joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Speaking in tongues was recorded in contemporary sources, both hostile and sympathetic to Mormonism, by at least 1830.<ref name="Copeland">{{cite journal |last1 = Copeland |first1 = Lee |title = Speaking in Tongues in the Restoration Churches |journal = Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought |volume = 24 |issue = 1 |url = https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V24N01_15.pdf }}</ref> The practice was soon widespread amongst Mormons, with many rank and file church members believing they were speaking the [[Adamic language|language of Adam]]; some of the hostility towards Mormons stemmed from those of other faiths regarding speaking in tongues unfavorably, especially when practiced by children.<ref name="Copeland" /> At the 1836 dedication of the [[Kirtland Temple]] the dedicatory prayer asked that God grant them the gift of tongues and at the end of the service [[Brigham Young]] spoke in tongues, another elder interpreted it and then gave his own exhortation in tongues. Many other worship experiences in the Kirtland Temple prior to and after the dedication included references to people speaking and interpreting tongues. In describing the beliefs of the church in the [[Wentworth letter]] (1842), Joseph Smith identified a belief of the "gift of tongues" and "interpretation of tongues". The practice of glossolalia by the Latter-day Saints was widespread but after an initial burst of enthusiastic growth circa 1830–34, seems to have been somewhat more restrained than in many other contemporary religious movements.<ref name="Copeland" /> Young, Smith, and numerous other early leaders frequently cautioned against the public exercise of glossolalia unless there be someone who could exercise the corresponding spiritual gift of interpretation of tongues, so that listeners could be edified by what had been said. Although the [[Latter-day Saint]]s believe that speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues is alive and well in the Church, modern Mormons are much more likely to point to the way in which LDS missionaries are trained and learn foreign languages quickly, and are able to communicate rapidly on their missions, as evidence of the manifestation of this gift. This interpretation stems from a 1900 General Conference sermon by [[Joseph F. Smith]] which discouraged glossolalia; subsequent leaders echoed this recommendation for about a decade afterwards and subsequently the practice had largely died out amongst Mormons by the 1930s and '40s.<ref name="Copeland" /> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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